How to fit as many children as possible into a bedroom

[yewchapel]

Not speaking for chaotic life, just giving my experience as a multiple keet owner in my wicked youth. Parakeets actually need quite a bit of human affection. It's not just change the water, take care of the seed, keep the cage clean. They love hoping on your fingers or landing on you knee, mine particularly loved the finger-thumb belly move-they would hop on my finger and expect me to stroke their "bellies". And I am talking about this was a routine, and if that routine was not met within 15 minutes of my getting up and coming home from school, much outraged sqwaking would ensue. The need a bit of one on one time with their humans to learn to vocalize some simple words. They will tweet a "song" every morning. They also enjoy putting on little "shows" for you with their toys like strings and bells. If I wasn't so set on getting a new feline headship, I would have several parakeet headships.

Back to the regularly scheduled programming.

Aw that sounds adorable!

Guinea pigs are low maintenance but they are social animals and should be handled. Best friend has 6 and they love to be cuddled, and even purr (and wheek when salad time is happening, or even just when someone is opening the fridge).

[Hane]

Guinea pigs are low maintenance but they are social animals and should be handled. Best friend has 6 and they love to be cuddled, and even purr (and wheek when salad time is happening, or even just when someone is opening the fridge).

My parakeet-loving sister also had guinea pigs. They would wheek whenever somebody opened the fridge--or the dryer, which was next to the fridge.

[chaotic life]

Parakeets need to be handled and socialized or they go crazy and when they go crazy, they go mind numbingky loud. They do not handle the rough handling that children provide well and get quite stressed out by it. So they cannot be well socialized by young children. They also shed poop and food mess far behind the confines of their cage, through no fault of their own, that makes it hard to keep their area fully clean.

Guinea pigs must also be socialized but can be acclimated to young children and their handling. Their sweeks and squeals are far quieter than parakeets and their popcorning behaviors reinforce a human's desire to socialize with them. Their mess is easier to contain as they set up one spot in their cage for pottying purposes and except for their lack of an anal muscle that requires clean up when they are out, make little mess outside their preferred corner.

As long as you are careful to not accidentally breed them or put two males who have been acclimated to females together, they are relatively easy to manage but more importantly they tolerate young children better. My ultimate problem with parakeets and kids was that kids could not do the caring or the socializing the the poor birds could never handle the noise and interaction with small children. Erica has small children. She cannot beat their smallness out if them, nor does she intend to be without small children in the foreseeable future. Parakeets are not a good pet with small children. I suspect she wants a decorative pet and that is not what she is going to get with any bird but especially not a parakeet.

I have a full zoo in my house. Having been denied pets ourselves as children, DH and I have always been very liberal with letting our kids have pets and understanding that really the bulk of pet care falls on the parents and not the children. I stopped having parakeets when I realized it was the normal young child stress that was causing harm to the birds and their behaviors and I won't have birds again until all of the kids are older. I love birds and parakeets are one of my favorites but it's not fair to the birds or the young children to demand they co-habitate with a large number of those children stresses the birds by their inherent nature.

[Maggie Mae]

I have exactly one parrot and one part-time cat (I suspect he is one of the neighbor's cats but he prefers our house. We don't feed him, but he shows up every weekend, and occasionally is waiting on the step when we arrive home from work.) The cat is zero work. My previous cat who lived in the house and was taken care of properly, was less work than a bird. The parrot, as I describe it to non-bird people, is much like having a 2-3 year old with special needs. He's as smart as a toddler, but has poor communication skills, no arms, can and will scream at 135 decibels, freaks out when his person (who is not me) leaves the house, requires an expensive specific diet, and is very, very destructive. He doesn't like to play with the toys that people give him, instead being happy with a cardboard box, or taking the paint off of the walls, unless that's boring today, in which case he would prefer to pull up my plants or attack the sofa. If you ask him specifically to do a task that he knows how to do, he will do it, unless he doesn't want to. If he's in a particularly bad mood, he fly at my face and attempt to bite any part of me that is exposed, because in bird logic, I'm the worst. If he's in a good mood, he will let me hand feed him. These moods vary by the moment. He needs interaction daily. His space needs and noise levels mean that we have limited options of where we can live. No apartments, no carpet, needs a place that can fit his stand. He does best with a routine. He can open doors, cupboards, anything. He can sort things and dance to music that he likes. He laughs when it's appropriate, which kind of freaks me out. (As in, he poops in my purse that I didn't put away, and laughs.) Or he laughs when people laugh. I love my bird, even though he's kind of a jerk sometimes.

He knows exactly what he is not supposed to do and exactly which behaviors drive humans nuts and does them so he gets attention. He's been passed down and we have another 60 years (at least) with him. When you think about what you would do in an evacuation situation, with a dog you just shove him in the car/truck and leave with your stuff. With this particular bird, I don't think that's an option, because most cages are too small and he would bite his way out anyway. Large cages don't fit in cars.

Birds are not for everyone. That being said, I would love to have some budgies. They are sweet and quiet (relatively speaking) and much less mess. It's been my experience that they learn "better" and the shorter lifespan and smaller cage is appealing. I wouldn't have birds if I had a parcel of kids though. I mean, one or two could grow up with the bird and be supervised and whatnot, but if you have kids running amuck, birds are not for you. Nor are hamsters, Guiana pigs, kittens, or puppies. I personally think that dogs are the "best" pet for the majority of homes with lots of kids. Of course, I'm biased and love dogs because they are so friendly and useful - you can take them places! They can come on hikes! They can pull you around on skis! They can be hosed off in the yard! They poop outside! They can wear reindeer ears for photos and people will laugh! They like to do what you say, and they like to make their people happy, not the opposite! They get excited when we get excited!

[Salamander]

Well, they got their birds. From their Facebook page:

Our new little loves - (green) Smoothie & (blue) Ruffles. *beam* We're SO EXCITED to have them.

One of Erika's comments on the status:

[Tag 1], Oh thanks, I'm glad I'm not the only one who isn't taking time to train them and plans to have them live in the cage (the reason we bought a nice big one). :)

Just...seriously? After reading all the detailed, interesting comments about raising these kinds of birds (thanks to everyone who posted about it, by the way), I'm convinced that parakeets are not right for her and her family. She refuses to change her lifestyle in the slightest to accommodate an animal. The fuck is the point of getting birds if you're going to treat them like goldfish? Hell, my family's goldfish are going on ten years old, which sad to say is probably longer than those birds are going to last at Erika's house. :(

[ILoveJellybeans]

She refuses to change her lifestyle in the slightest to accommodate an animal.

Thats pretty much Erica for you...she refuses to change her lifestyle to accommodate her kids either, everyone and everything in her house has to fit around her strict schedule.

Im surpised she isnt teaching the birds to clean their own cage.

[ThatSnark]

I just looked through this blog briefly and this woman consistently spells the word "straight" as "strait." Multiple times in multiple blog posts. It's so scary to me how many of these home-schooling moms seem unable to pass third grade.

No kidding. She's even been called out on it in the comments several times by readers who are obviously bothered by the fact that it's not a typo, and she does not bother to change it. For her, it's strait. :roll:

[yewchapel]

Is she KJV-only? That might be why she insists on spelling it as 'strait'.

Re the birds, that's so sad that she cares so little for other living things, whether that's her pets or her kids.

[Conuly]

The fuck is the point of getting birds if you're going to treat them like goldfish?

Not that the ideas most people have about goldfish care are all that great either, mind.

[Hane]

Maggie Mae, I know a family with an African gray parrot. He's very smart, but for some reason hates one of their TV remote controls, and loves the other one.

[Arete]

Maggie Mae, I think your parrot has jealousy issues with you because you are sharing a human. You guys given any thought to family therapy? ;)

[Magdelope]

... I don't even want to think about those poor birds :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[TMS]

I love birds....the ones in the trees in my backyard.

I know this won't earn me any popularity points on this board but I will admit that I am a neatfreak, though not nearly as tight-assed as Erika, but the entire reason I have never and will never have a pet bird is because they are messy and dirty and need to be cleaned up after constantly!!! My inlaws have had birds for years and I know the work and mess they cause! I am shocked that Erika of all people would want birds as pets.

Neat freak that I am, I do have a golden retriever. But I take him to the groomer on a regular basis, brush him every morning, and vacuum daily. He is not allowed on the furniture and since we have never let him do that from the day we adopted him, he knows no difference. Furniture is for people. He is an indoor dog because I can't stand the smell of an outdoor dog (I understand her sensitivity to the smell of dust - sounds crazy but yes, that is possible). My dog is a wonderful pet - patient with everyone, polite, extremely smart, perfectly potty trained (he's had maybe 4 or 5 accidents - all those when he was a puppy being trained). I don't think I could have a better dog.

I had beautiful fish in the past and I find them worse to take care of than a dog. I hated cleaning out the fish tank - gross!!! It took all I had not to throw up. We had the fish for about a year before we were able to pass them off to friends who wanted fish - we gave away all our fish and the tank for free because I wanted to get rid of them.

I could never handle a bird.

[Magdelope]

I love birds....the ones in the trees in my backyard.

I know this won't earn me any popularity points on this board but I will admit that I am a neatfreak, though not nearly as tight-assed as Erika, but the entire reason I have never and will never have a pet bird is because they are messy and dirty and need to be cleaned up after constantly!!! My inlaws have had birds for years and I know the work and mess they cause! I am shocked that Erika of all people would want birds as pets.

Neat freak that I am, I do have a golden retriever. But I take him to the groomer on a regular basis, brush him every morning, and vacuum daily. He is not allowed on the furniture and since we have never let him do that from the day we adopted him, he knows no difference. Furniture is for people. He is an indoor dog because I can't stand the smell of an outdoor dog (I understand her sensitivity to the smell of dust - sounds crazy but yes, that is possible). My dog is a wonderful pet - patient with everyone, polite, extremely smart, perfectly potty trained (he's had maybe 4 or 5 accidents - all those when he was a puppy being trained). I don't think I could have a better dog.

I had beautiful fish in the past and I find them worse to take care of than a dog. I hated cleaning out the fish tank - gross!!! It took all I had not to throw up. We had the fish for about a year before we were able to pass them off to friends who wanted fish - we gave away all our fish and the tank for free because I wanted to get rid of them.

I could never handle a bird.

Being a neatfreak is fine... at least you have the sense to know that you shouldn't have a bird!