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How do you manage SO MANY birds?

Ocha_Tuna

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Aww! One day. :heart2:

2 of my lovebirds will yell at me if I’m a) not doing anything they deem worthy (like holding them), or b) holding another bird for longer than they find acceptable (regardless of whether or not it’s his normal length of time). :D It’s usually Twinkie or Termite yelling when I am holding the other one, lol.
BAHAHA such cute names!! Termite!! makes sense because they love chewing on wood.
 

dollfish

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Me and my boyfriend are planning to get married in Australia and stay for 2 weeks. We take Astro with us whenever possible, we disassemble the cage and put it in the car and set it back up in my cousin's house for example and stay for a week but this time I'm building an aviary for Astro and I'm planning on making several videos plus putting my mum through 1 week of training so hopefully she can manage 2 weeks and give out of cage/aviary time. We will see how it goes. :p

I only have one parrot though. Multiple birds must be very difficult.
 

fluffypoptarts

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BAHAHA such cute names!! Termite!! makes sense because they love chewing on wood.
Thank you! :) People tend to laugh when I tell them Twinkie’s name, but they’re sometimes puzzled about Termite! Termite used to pinch a lot when he was a young birdy, so his name was almost Fire Ant. :D
 

fluffypoptarts

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@dollfish Congratulations!! :starshower1:

Yeah, leaving multiple birds is definitely difficult. Even if I trusted anyone with my birds at this point (especially with the mixed animal household I have now), I don’t know anyone who would want to take care of all of them. My mom complained about the one night several years ago when there were only 6 lovebirds!
 

dollfish

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@dollfish Congratulations!! :starshower1:

Yeah, leaving multiple birds is definitely difficult. Even if I trusted anyone with my birds at this point (especially with the mixed animal household I have now), I don’t know anyone who would want to take care of all of them. My mom complained about the one night several years ago when there were only 6 lovebirds!
Thank you! Only six lovebirds is a good flock I must say! A mixed animal situation is definitely challenging as you probably need to manage to keep them seperate too.
 

webchirp

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I have a set schedule...very set. We rarely go anywhere although when I need to, I put Giggie with the vet since she has to have syringed meds given to her. My daughter will come and feed everyone and I can make medicated nutriberries in advance. But they only get food and water. She will get out Julip and maybe Zia but those two like her.
 

Miss Annamarie

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I'm a teenager who threw away her social life for birds practically. If i tried to have a sleep over, Mel would pluck out her feathers again like last time. I go over my friend's dorm for maybe like 2 hours every 2 weeks at most. I'm never going to get the real college experience as I'm just going to do online and only go on campus for labs etc. If we go to my grandma's for a night or something, we always bring the bigger ones. Isla, Bee, and Mint don't usually care too much, they have eachother.

We are all a stickler for routines now, I used to go to bed at like 5am every day and wake up at 3pm. Now I wake up at 7 and go to sleep at 8-10. My entire day is spent with them, if I'm not with them, I'm doing something for them like making toys or making breakfast. If I don't stick to the daily routine, anything makes Mel start plucking again, literally even putting her to bed an hour later or before her normal bedtime. So i stick to it.

I work two times a week in the evening and I feel bad for even that but they're only alone for 2ish hours and lately they're never alone since my dad has been working at home since March due to you know what.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade this for anything. I love all my animals more than anything and I'm honestly very happy everything ended up like this. I never thought I'd progress from a lovebird to a macaw. But everything is different and everything has to be changed when you own birds especially multiples. (I just woke up a little bit ago so I'm sorry if this is hard to understand)
 

sunnysmom

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It's a challenge at times. I for the longest time only had one bird and really didn't think I would have more than one- possibly two. I now have three. I think that's the max I can really handle unless I got a short-term foster. Time management for me is key. I get up early to spend time with the birds. And then my entire evening revolves around the birds after I get home from work. I'm lucky that I have two "easy" birds. My tiels. They are both very go with the flow, unless I am late with bedtime. My 'too- well, that's another story. LOL. With work, i couldn't have 3 birds like him as I just don't have enough free time. But keeping them all on a schedule seems to work with them. As for going away, I am lucky that I have people willing to watch my birds for me- they go and stay at their houses. Or if possible, I take Elvis with me. I can't unfortunately, take all three birds when I go away. I do feel bad about that because my first tiel used to love to go on trips with me but he was the only bird I had then. But the people who watch them take good care of them. I am still looking for a person who could come to the house just for like an overnight trip, as transporting 3 birds, cages, etc to houses is not easy. I had a wonderful bird sitter before but she moved away. They're hard to find. (Hint for anyone looking to make extra money! Be a bird sitter!)
 

scrape

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Me too lol. I love my budgies and I spend all day with them.. and I really love that they are so happy and comfortable enough in my house that they will step up for literally anyone I introduce them to.

But they are kinda like bossy roommates who would only notice I died because the dishes weren't getting washed anymore.
Exactly! That describes them perfectly! (Although only one of mine will step up for everyone):lol:
Aww! One day. :heart2:

2 of my lovebirds will yell at me if I’m a) not doing anything they deem worthy (like holding them), or b) holding another bird for longer than they find acceptable (regardless of whether or not it’s his normal length of time). :D It’s usually Twinkie or Termite yelling when I am holding the other one, lol.
I think three is my limit for now. But maybe one day I will get my dream bird.:xflove:
 

webchirp

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Many of mine are older or have health problems. Happy the gold cap is 20 and if he passes, I will have to carry Chya in my shirt everywhere...she's 17. But most of mine are paired so that helps a lot attention wise.
 

Ali

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I'm a teenager who threw away her social life for birds practically.
@Miss Annamarie I'm a teenager who had no social life anyway, so not much has changed with having the birds in the house (except my money keeps falling out of my wallet :D )
 

fluffypoptarts

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Thank you! Only six lovebirds is a good flock I must say! A mixed animal situation is definitely challenging as you probably need to manage to keep them seperate too.
Well we have 8 lovebirds now. Oh yes. They’re in separate rooms and on the other side of the house from the dogs. Girls have their own room and boys have their own room. We have a strict closed door policy, and always check where the birds are when you enter and leave the room. The bathroom is used as our “birdy lock”, lol, because you pass through it to get into the bird room (for the boys).
 

webchirp

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I consider laying down in the middle of the floor and letting them take over daily. I just can't find a spot on my floor I'd like to lay on when they are awake.
I lay down occassionally and they either look at me like "WTH are you doing?!" or Maks does his excited call and jumps me.
 

Zara

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fluffypoptarts

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Oh? No M/F pairs?
Nope, they all came to me separately and I’m afraid 2 of the girls would kill my boys, lol. Neutrino seems to dislike the boys, but I don’t trust Glitch or Snerky with her because she’s way too sweet and gentle and they’re definitely not. I also don’t want to encourage hormones and laying. We’re doing pretty well right now with hardly ever any eggs!
 

finchly

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Very carefully....
Strict routine....
Build an extra hour or two of free time into the day, which will surely be taken over with bird duties...
Divide and conquer, let each group out separately, they can sit on my head or shoulder as they choose while I do chores...
No guilt, if somebody doesn’t get enough out time today there’s always tomorrow.

Example. Today I overslept so 2 didn’t get out time. Fixed the fresh chop and handed it out. Worked 2 hours while parrotlets played out of cage. Washed all birdie drinkers including the ones on their cages, refilled, replaced. Put p’lets back.
Walked away, came back. Found a caique out so took that opportunity to wash her food/water/ cage. Which led to the other caiques and their stuff. Put caique back after she attacked Ernie pionus through his cage bars. She bit me. Got out Pionus’ and moved to another room to pet.
Worked a little more.
Only two hours later it was time for the afternoon routine of food, fresh water, and scritches. Dry food into dishes, checked everything again to be sure no one was missed. Cockatiels out during this time. Gave them treats and played with them a little. Left loose while I cooked dinner. Usually there’s another round of out-of-cage time in there but I’m not sure what happened, the cooking started and then was over without the usual play time.

Right after dinner served up nutriberries which is the evening / bed time snack.
 

Ocha_Tuna

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@dollfish Congratulations!! :starshower1:

Yeah, leaving multiple birds is definitely difficult. Even if I trusted anyone with my birds at this point (especially with the mixed animal household I have now), I don’t know anyone who would want to take care of all of them. My mom complained about the one night several years ago when there were only 6 lovebirds!
SIX?!? six little drama biters XD I really can't imagine that hahahaha
 

Ocha_Tuna

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Very carefully....
Strict routine....
Build an extra hour or two of free time into the day, which will surely be taken over with bird duties...
Divide and conquer, let each group out separately, they can sit on my head or shoulder as they choose while I do chores...
No guilt, if somebody doesn’t get enough out time today there’s always tomorrow.

Example. Today I overslept so 2 didn’t get out time. Fixed the fresh chop and handed it out. Worked 2 hours while parrotlets played out of cage. Washed all birdie drinkers including the ones on their cages, refilled, replaced. Put p’lets back.
Walked away, came back. Found a caique out so took that opportunity to wash her food/water/ cage. Which led to the other caiques and their stuff. Put caique back after she attacked Ernie pionus through his cage bars. She bit me. Got out Pionus’ and moved to another room to pet.
Worked a little more.
Only two hours later it was time for the afternoon routine of food, fresh water, and scritches. Dry food into dishes, checked everything again to be sure no one was missed. Cockatiels out during this time. Gave them treats and played with them a little. Left loose while I cooked dinner. Usually there’s another round of out-of-cage time in there but I’m not sure what happened, the cooking started and then was over without the usual play time.

Right after dinner served up nutriberries which is the evening / bed time snack.
That is such a good read I almost got myself a bowl of popcorn! Oh and suh a good lesson: to be strict and no guilt! I love that! As I myself have been trying to learn that.
You must have a lot of birds! Haha
 
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