• rockerface 🇺🇦@lemm.ee
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    22 hours ago

    If you want the same thing but for the remainder of your life, get a bird. Parrots are basically flying mischievous toddlers with beam cutters on their faces that never grow out of the toddler mentality.

    Serious addendum

    If you actually want to get a bird as a pet, please do your research. They’re smart, loud, social and high maintenance, and you need to be there for them basically all the time. Also, adopt, don’t buy!

    • SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de
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      12 hours ago

      When I was a kid, our neighbors had parrots.

      One late afternoon my mom hears my baby sister crying in her room. Gets up. Checks on her. Sleeping soundly in her bed.

      Half an hour later. Crying again. Same thing, my sister is sleeping

      This happened a couple times

      Took a couple days for my mom to figure out that one of the parrots learned to imitate my crying sister perfectly, and she could hear it when my neighbor had his windows open

      • rockerface 🇺🇦@lemm.ee
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        11 hours ago

        My grandma once told me about a budgie they had back before I was born. It apparently was actively trolling them by mimicking sounds of their doorbell and landline phone.

        Don’t make a mistake, they know perfectly fine which sounds grab our attention and they will abuse this knowledge.

    • toynbee@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      When I was a child, my best friend’s mom had a parrot named Ricky. It either hated or loved me, I was never sure; either way, I was terrified of it and preferred not to go near it.

      As an adult, I once walked out to my car to find a parrot perched on my windshield wiper. I only had that parrot one night (in no way was I prepared to house a bird, I took it to an exotic bird shelter the next day), but it was much kinder than Ricky. Strangely, it did not like our cats

      • rockerface 🇺🇦@lemm.ee
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        15 hours ago

        Every parrot has a personality, that’s for sure! You’re a kind person for having helped that bird, I hope that good deed came back (or will come back) to you

        • toynbee@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          Well, thanks for saying so! That was a long long time ago and plenty, good and bad (though mostly good, I’m very fortunate), has happened since then.

          Below are some answers to things you didn’t ask, but they’re among my memories of the evening, so here I shall share. You won’t miss much if you don’t read them.

          That story happened later in the evening, I think on a weekend, so we walked around our neighborhood asking anyone we saw if they knew someone with a bird nearby. No one did, though one person suggested someone who might. We knocked on that door but never got an answer, so decided to go to the bird shelter when it opened the next day.

          I remember that we originally tried to put the bird in the cat carrier so it wouldn’t destroy the house or get in a fight with the cats, but it didn’t want to go in. My then girlfriend (now wife) suggested that maybe it didn’t want to go in a box that smelled of predator. I have anosmia, so the idea that smell would matter that much seemed alien to me; I figured it just didn’t want to be contained. However, we ended up going to a pet store the next day to get a bird cage for transport. It went in with no issue, so I guess she was right.

          For overnight we ended up just putting it in the bathroom with the door closed and a bowl of whatever Google said was appropriate parrot food.

          • rockerface 🇺🇦@lemm.ee
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            15 hours ago

            Thanks for sharing the story! Birds do have a decently sharp sense of smell, despite a widespread factoid of the opposite - plus, the shape of a cat carrier might have been too unfamiliar to it. Parrots are usually very suspicious about anything unfamiliar (new food, toy, etc), but I’m guessing it was also exhausted from being lost outdoors (if it was a pet) so a new bird cage was close enough for it.

            • toynbee@lemmy.world
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              15 hours ago

              Wow, you’re quick. Also up pretty late (or early) in my timezone.

              Most of my close-up experience with birds has been from the aforementioned friend’s mom (she had several, not just Ricky) and most of that experience was being terrorized, puked on, or both. Despite that, they do seem like clever and interesting animals. Still, even if I didn’t have cats (I still have the same two from that story, though they’re getting old now), I don’t think I could have them as pets.

              • rockerface 🇺🇦@lemm.ee
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                14 hours ago

                Hah, It’s 10 AM here and I have nothing better to do anyway.

                But yeah, that was the point of my original comment - birds definitely aren’t a pet for everyone, and it’s okay to acknowledge that!

                I do like cats too, though, give yours some pats (or whatever their preferred gesture of affection is) from me.

                • toynbee@lemmy.world
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                  8 hours ago

                  At the time, it was 4am for me.

                  Absolutely, I’ll make sure my cats know of your affection!