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Hey all :) (somewhat) new here

Syb

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Sybil
Hello everybody :)

It’s been a while since I’ve scrolled through this forum. I believe the last time I was here was 10 years ago when I was 9 and had some budgies. I believe I never made an account but just read through posts and etc. I do love all birds but I always had a particular fondness to cockatiels, cockatoos and conures ever since I was old enough to look at the pictures of animal encyclopaedias (clearly I love the letter C).

Anyway, a little bit about me, I’m 19, I’m an aspiring vet (hoping to get into vet school next year), I don’t have any birds atm and I don’t intend to get any till far in the future when I’m stable and have my own place. I own a cat who likes to use my arm as a chew toy but I love him all the same. I love all animals and I hope to become an exotic vet in the future where I can work with rescuing and rehabilitation and wild animals as well as more “exotic” pets including our feathery friends. I have such a huge wishlist of pets I’d like but my cat atm is more than enough and if I were to get any more pets, I’d want to make sure they have the best quality of life.

Growing up my family had many impulse pets. I call them impulse pets because for most, they were very impulsive purchases mainly as gifts. My old budgies were also an impulse purchase from my dad and I hate to admit that they had far from a quality of life but there’s only so much 9 year old me understood and could do.

I’m also particularly interested in animal nutrition and replicating pet diets to those that they would eat in the wild. Thus I’m not very enthusiastic about commercial foods and the pet food industry (conflicting for an aspiring vet I know). And so for my own cat, I feed him a raw diet that mimics what he would eat in the wild and that has made me more interested in how commercial diets for other animals differ to how their diets would be in the wild as well.

Anyway, that’s a long introduction from me. I know I don’t even have a bird yet but I hope to make sure to spend my time researching and learning more about birds before even considering bringing one home. So who knows, give it maybe 5 years or more and maybe I’ll be able to make a “welcome to the family” post. I have already been daydreaming about the perfect bird room and incorporating my hypothetical pets in my imagined routines haha. That’s all from me, hope to get to know y’all well :)
 

VanSwss

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:welcomegroup:
 
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Pixiebeak

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Sounds like you have a bright future ahead of you!
Very wise to wait till after vet school to add parrot's.
 

Syb

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Sybil
Np! Cool! They/She for me. Vet school seems like a good idea!
honestly, I’ve never felt more attracted to a course / profession before. I did some work experience in a vet clinic and it was the best week of my life, the team genuinely felt like family in the short time that I worked with them. I can’t wait to be able to work in this profession for life :)
 

FiatLux

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Welcome! What a gift to have so much clarity so early in life. I love to read about parrots but many of the books are quite expensive. I have found though that you can find very reasonably priced used copies of many titles (I recently found 4 Rosemary Low and one Tony Silva book) on Thriftbooks.com and AbeBooks.com.
i also find the subject of pet nutrition fascinating and am intrigued by how one would approximate both a particular species’ natural diet and also their natural nesting environments. I was just on Etsy last night looking at carved out logs that can be used for nests. It’s a fascinating and seemingly underdeveloped research area (from my limited perspective)
when you write that you are starting vet school next year does that mean starting undergraduate courses that lead to vet school? have you already identified which vet schools you’d most like to attend? As you can probably guess, I often wonder if I should have gone to vet school lol! (Instead of law school).
 

Xoetix

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Hello and welcome!! I loved the intro! :hello1:
 
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Syb

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Sybil
Welcome! What a gift to have so much clarity so early in life. I love to read about parrots but many of the books are quite expensive. I have found though that you can find very reasonably priced used copies of many titles (I recently found 4 Rosemary Low and one Tony Silva book) on Thriftbooks.com and AbeBooks.com.
i also find the subject of pet nutrition fascinating and am intrigued by how one would approximate both a particular species’ natural diet and also their natural nesting environments. I was just on Etsy last night looking at carved out logs that can be used for nests. It’s a fascinating and seemingly underdeveloped research area (from my limited perspective)
when you write that you are starting vet school next year does that mean starting undergraduate courses that lead to vet school? have you already identified which vet schools you’d most like to attend? As you can probably guess, I often wonder if I should have gone to vet school lol! (Instead of law school).
Thank you for the warm welcome !! I will totally check those sites out as I’d love to do some further reading this year. As for uni, I hope to start the veterinary course in itself next academic year so I believe September 2023. I do have some offers already from different universities and I have a backup uni that has given me an offer for a gateway year which leads to vet school :) Also if talking to vet uni professors and vets have taught me anything, it’s that its never too late to join the veterinary field ;)
 

tka

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Welcome! It's truly heart-warming to read such a thoughtful post from a young person. Waiting until you are more settled before you get any birds is a great idea. Veterinary medicine - and especially exotic medicine - can take you to some truly amazing places and it's not uncommon to seek additional placements or training around the world to further your education. My previous vet worked in a big cat sanctuary and completed placements in the US before moving back to the UK. It's so important that you are able to take advantage of these opportunities without having to worry about who will care for your birds.

when you write that you are starting vet school next year does that mean starting undergraduate courses that lead to vet school?
Depending on the country, a veterinary medicine degree is an undergraduate degree leading to a bachelors degree (BVetMed). In the UK, 18 year olds apply for and enter the degree programme. It takes about 5-6 years after which graduates can start practicing, start postgraduate research degrees or enter specialist training.

 

Syb

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Sybil
Welcome! It's truly heart-warming to read such a thoughtful post from a young person. Waiting until you are more settled before you get any birds is a great idea. Veterinary medicine - and especially exotic medicine - can take you to some truly amazing places and it's not uncommon to seek additional placements or training around the world to further your education. My previous vet worked in a big cat sanctuary and completed placements in the US before moving back to the UK. It's so important that you are able to take advantage of these opportunities without having to worry about who will care for your birds.
Thank you for the warm welcome! That’s actually precisely one of the reasons amongst many on why I’m choosing to wait for ages till a get a birb. I hope to travel around during uni and it would be amazing to be able to see exotic vets in action when it comes to wild animals. I’ve had an exotic vet supervise me who went to Kenya and worked with an animal sanctuary in her uni years and that is very much something I wish to do. I’ve already got my hands full with my cat but I’m lucky that my mum is willing to take care of him whilst I’m in student accommodation in my first year till I find a pet friendly apartment. And for any travels, I have loads of friends who have already taken him in before and are willing to again (cuz the little brat likes them more than me). And worst case scenario, my cat is pretty chill and adjusts rlly easily to new places so he’s fine w cat hotels too. I know it will be much harder for birds and I’d rather be more stable and adjusted before bringing in a huge responsibility. I also hope to move in w my partner in the future and that will also impact when we can get a bird (he’s also absolutely bird crazy). I can’t wait for that chapter of my life to come but till then, I’ll be working hard to get to that point.
 

FiatLux

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I have lived in Ghana, visited Senegal and Sierra Leone and travelled for work to Botswana and Lesotho. All absolutely amazing places with incredible people. Botswana was particularly interesting in terms of wildlife. I highly recommend living and learning/working abroad.
 

WillowQ

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Wow. You are very lucky to be outside of US and able to go directly into vet schooling. Here in US vet school is post BS or BA and very very competitive for admissions.

I am happy for your excitement and I hope you have the best experience. Will you be the first in your family to get a degree or is this common in your family? I ask because it is easy to get taken advantage of or sidelined if you have no family to advise you. If that is the case you might find a mentor to ensure you are well treated.
 
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tka

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Thank you for the warm welcome! That’s actually precisely one of the reasons amongst many on why I’m choosing to wait for ages till a get a birb. I hope to travel around during uni and it would be amazing to be able to see exotic vets in action when it comes to wild animals. I’ve had an exotic vet supervise me who went to Kenya and worked with an animal sanctuary in her uni years and that is very much something I wish to do. I’ve already got my hands full with my cat but I’m lucky that my mum is willing to take care of him whilst I’m in student accommodation in my first year till I find a pet friendly apartment. And for any travels, I have loads of friends who have already taken him in before and are willing to again (cuz the little brat likes them more than me). And worst case scenario, my cat is pretty chill and adjusts rlly easily to new places so he’s fine w cat hotels too. I know it will be much harder for birds and I’d rather be more stable and adjusted before bringing in a huge responsibility. I also hope to move in w my partner in the future and that will also impact when we can get a bird (he’s also absolutely bird crazy). I can’t wait for that chapter of my life to come but till then, I’ll be working hard to get to that point.
It sounds like you're thinking about this very carefully - like I said, it's really great to see and I wish more teenagers had your approach!

You're absolutely right that bird boarding can be difficult - depending on what country you're in, there may be very few options or none at all. It can also be expensive: our two birds' boarding has cost more than a holiday for my wife and me! It's nearly impossible to find someone who is willing to birdsit who has the combination of time, experiemce or willingness to learn, and is liked by your bird(s).

It's a really good idea to wait until you've got those huge life changes under your belt: study and graduation; placements and internships; moving in with your partner; finding a job and perhaps buying your own home. Unfortunately landlords can be very funny about birds because they seem to think that they're all wall-destroying monsters, and if your bird should turn out to be a wall-destroying monster, it's likely to get expensive and unpleasant. The advantage of owning your own home is that it matters less if your bird decides to chomp on the doors :)
 
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AussieBird

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Syb

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Wow. You are very lucky to be outside of US and able to go directly into vet schooling. Here in US vet school is post BS or BA and very very competitive for admissions.

I am happy for your excitement and I hope you have the best experience. Will you be the first in your family to get a degree or is this common in your family? I ask because it is easy to get taken advantage of or sidelined if you have no family to advise you. If that is the case you might find a mentor to ensure you are well treated.
It is common in my family to get a degree however I won’t have much support from them due to my being part of the LGBT community and not all of my family are supportive of me going into veterinary as they find animals to be “a waste of a degree” and human medicine would be “so much better” and etc. I do however have many friends who have went off to uni a year before me (I am doing a gap year) and I’m they would be able to help me out / support me when I ask. A lot of their parents are more supportive of my identity than my own so I can perhaps rely on them more tbh
 

WillowQ

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Unfortunately landlords can be very funny about birds because they seem to think that they're all wall-destroying monsters, and if your bird should turn out to be a wall-destroying monster, it's likely to get expensive and unpleasant. The advantage of owning your own home is that it matters less if your bird decides to chomp on the doors :)
One GOOD thing about pet birds is that some
landlords think stay in cages all the time. I’ve allowed them to keep this idea because at least with my small parrots, they’re not able to damage an apartment like a dog could.

The management in my building has gotten used to seeing me accompanied by my birds within the building. But since my birds stay on me and are trained to potty in their basket or a trash can, there has not been a problem.

I do prefer to keep my birds on their cages, playgyms, or other “islands” of bird safety.
 

WillowQ

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Heather Gerbyshak
It is common in my family to get a degree however I won’t have much support from them due to my being part of the LGBT community and not all of my family are supportive of me going into veterinary as they find animals to be “a waste of a degree” and human medicine would be “so much better” and etc. I do however have many friends who have went off to uni a year before me (I am doing a gap year) and I’m they would be able to help me out / support me when I ask. A lot of their parents are more supportive of my identity than my own so I can perhaps rely on them more tbh
I am very sorry to hear that. I’ve been told similar; that the money I’ve spent on studying or caring for birds could be better spent helping children or poor people.

im glad you’ve got support of your friends’ parents even if not your own parents. I hope that with every generation more people are LGBT friendly. I have had trouble moving for a job to places that were NOT friendly.

I had trouble in grad school with my advisor and because my family and I did not know what to expect, I got taken advantage of. I might suggest you find an older lgbt faculty to mentor you. You do need someone who knows the system and cares about you. Luckily professional school is motivated to get everyone through successfully and you’re not controlled by a single faculty member.
 
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tka

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I might suggest you find an older lgbt faculty to mentor you.
And if you don't find anyone in your department, I'm that older LGBTQ faculty member who's willing to help out where they can :) obviously I won't know the peculiarities of your own department or university, but I'm pretty good at navigating university systems. It would be better if you could find someone in your department or university because sometimes it's just nice knowing that you can go to someone's office for a cup or tea and a biscuit, but if you can't find anyone then I'll be that person.
 
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