Surrendering Your Bird

If you have made the difficult decision to surrender your bird, we urge you to please read the following information before you take the next step:

If you are feeling frustrated and regret that you brought a parrot into your life, you are not alone. Each year millions of bird guardians are led to believe that birds make wonderful pets, only to later discover that birds don’t make good pets for most people.

You may believe that your only option is to surrender your bird, for both you and your bird’s best interests. However, it’s estimated that most people who surrender their birds are unaware of the potential and perhaps even simple solutions to correct their bird’s behavior or change a problematic situation. And unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for some people to surrender one “problematic” bird and replace him with another bird, thinking that the next bird will be better behaved and less noisy, only to find themselves back in the same situation.

Birds are highly intelligent, sensitive creatures. In many instances, a bird’s problematic behavior isn’t his problem but rather the result of his environment and how he’s being handled. By consulting with an avian behaviorist and by reading books and magazines, you can potentially learn better management skills and change your bird’s “bad” behaviors. Attending bird clubs and having a “bird support group,” where you can listen to and share stories, may be all that’s needed to reignite the love you have for your feathered companion. Let’s face it, even the best human relationships may become stale and require nurturing and counseling at some point. You and your feathered friend are no exception.

Here are just a few behavioral problems, dynamics, or environmental issues that can be potentially corrected:

• Screaming
  
• Chewing
  
• Biting
  
• Plucking
  
• Difficult cage cleaning
  
• Aggression
  
• Lack of available time
  
• And many more…

It’s important to emphasize that each time a bird is surrendered, bought, or sold, an existing homeless bird will potentially lose his opportunity for a loving, permanent home. Even if you find a home for your unwanted bird, you’ve taken away another bird’s chance for a home and his future security. Due to the escalating rise in homeless, unwanted “pet” birds, we strongly encourage caring and responsible bird guardians to try the alternative direction listed above before surrendering their birds.

However, we realize that some bird guardians may be experiencing circumstances that are out of their control and that they don’t have the ability to consider these other options. Or that, for some, keeping their bird may not be in the bird’s best interest: it could even be detrimental or dangerous for a bird to stay in his present environment. In such a case, we support and encourage a surrender decision.

If this is your situation, the following websites offer How-To information so you can create your own application form and screen your bird’s potential new guardian thoroughly and more easily. Some websites provide downloadable application forms.

If you would like to adopt a bird, these sites also offer information on bird adoption.

http://www.avianwelfare.org/needhelp/placing.htm

http://www.mickaboo.org/adopt.html

http://www.fosterparrots.com/applic.html

http://www.petfinder.com