I didnt know people actually kept real birds in those decorative bird cages!

[Aries]

Originally Posted by KimM

Is she in Clermont, Fl ? If so, that's 20 mins from me.

Are you having thoughts about going to get the bird? LOL plsease do

[Ashling]

Kim go get her if yu're close- even if just to make sure she's rehomed to a good place!!

[asurademon]

I think it's a terrible idea for a parrot, chances are it's going to be chewed on, just a bad idea to house a parrot in a cage made of something it could eat its way through, and so much for the pretty cage.
Plus maybe it's larger than it looks, but I'd be concerned about the narrow part at the top with that size of bird, could she end up stuck?

For some birds, assuming bird safe material, and appropriate bar spacing, it would be fine, for example some song birds/finches could do well in it.

Originally Posted by loyallyroyal

I thought they were just that... for decoration

I wonder how safe a practice that is:
Bird-eclectus parrot-Female



Has anyone kept their bird in a decoration cage before, I would think something in the metal or paint would be bad for them, little alone the lack of room.

Maybe Im just wierd thinking thats strange and not the nicest idea, poor bird.

[magdalena]

That cage looks like teak or some other kind of wood. I know they make decorative cages out of wood that are stupidly expensive and fancy but they are reinforced inside with non toxic metal. It's hard to tell from the picture it could be wicker which would last about 3 seconds in my house.

[SDavid]

"Larger parrots have been with man for many years. There some indication that the domestication of parrots took many years ago. In Egypt queen Meroe presented 200 parrots (and caged birds) to Alexander for instance.'

Your example doesn't indicate "domestication" it only shows an exchange of a gift by two members of societal elite. More importantly it doesn't indicate to what extent common people kept a particular bird species as a pet. The govt. of Brazil gave former Yugoslavian president Josip Tito (died 1980) four Spix's macaws as a gift. Travellers and explorers discovering new continents throughout history brought back all kinds of exotic plants and animals.

I can't see how it can be argued that keeping birds is a "new" or even "decades old" thing... People have kept birds for many generations.

I was speaking mainly of their growth in popularity in the US after the 1930? ban was lifted in 1973. In which case first members of the elite and upper class began owning them and eventually the general public took an interest. With the technology of the day trapping, importing/exporting in large numbers became easy. This contributed largely to the problems we know of today. And, in a short time alot of damage was done.

[asurademon]

keeping birds is an old thing...depending on species, I know chickens in particular have been kept for several thousand years, and I think that society finches may go way back as well, and so do captive pigeons. And both society finches and turkeys are very much domesticated, but I don't think the vast majority, if any of the parrots are considered to truly have undergone domestication (short of maybe the budgie, and perhaps even the cockatiel), I'd say the captive bred color mutations are certainly a step in the direction of domestication.

EDIT:
After looking into it some, it seems that cockatiels and budgies certainly could be considered domesticated, but I'm not finding any other parrots that are considered to be. I would certainly say birds such as chickens, and turkeys are more highly domesticated than those two however.

[NotEnoughTime]

Personally I feel a lot of people confuse "domestication" with "domination" and that an animal cannot be "domesticated" unless it is "dominated."

Prey birds are not really "dominatable" IMO. But I find the attitude that parrots are not domesticated very interesting. I tend to go with domestication as "adapted to the home" where others go with "bred for captivity" (as discussed before).

There is a decent amount of evidence that "birds that could talk" were kept by people throughout most of recorded human history. For example:
Discover The History Of Parrot-Keeping

To be "bred for captivity" (or making the bird "subject to domination") would remove the essence of what I feel makes a parrot a parrot.

[loyallyroyal]

NotEnoughTime, domestication does change a species, take a look at wolves and dogs, they are not the same.

"subject to domination"

hehe, you need to check out domestic house cats, ive never seen one ever be dominated

[NotEnoughTime]

Hmmm - but I have friends (as I said) with wolf and wolf crosses... I would call them "domesticated" as well. The house cat just proves my point - doesn't it?

[asurademon]

A domesticated animal is one that has been selectively bred within captivity so much that it's actually undergone genetic changes which better adapt it to man's uses/interests and captive life. One debate is how much of this selection is natural, and how much is controlled by humans.