I have a Cockatiel who is VERY social and spoiled rotten! I love her so much. I have always wanted a dog, but am afraid to get one for fear of it going after my bird. Can I get some suggestions on how to go about this safely?
2007-09-28 04:24:23 · 9 answers · asked by chicklione 2 in Pets ➔ Birds
I love all of your responses so far!
My cockatiel loves people, but I am thinking a dog will scare her. Maybe she will get used to it though.
2007-09-28 05:04:10 · update #1
I have 3 budgies, a halfmoon conure, a new baby Senegal Parrot / African red belly hybrid parrot, and 2 dogs. My dogs are a chihuahua/corgie mix and a maltipoo.
All my birds are social and my dogs too. Actually for the first time today, I heard my senegal/red belly imitate the "whining" sounds from one of my dogs. When I am in the room with my parrots, my dogs are there with me and If I pay more attention to my birds, they'll start to whine so maybe thats where he picked it up from =)
Well, at first they did try to chase after my birds but I thought them. And this is how I did it. I'll let my birds on the ground and have my dogs around with me. But I am close to my birds so as soon as they take a step towards my birds, I'll gently tap them on their noses and say "NO" and they'll just sit there. I did that everyday for about a week or less and now they don't even bother with my birds. They'll sniff them but the birds will be defensive adn try to bite their noses! LoL..
Well, that was how I did it so if you get a dog, maybe you can try it too and hopefully it'll work for you. But, would be easier to start off with a puppy. Good luck to ya!
2007-09-28 04:37:55 · answer #1 · answered by L70 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We have an outdoor dog (blue heeler), a baby calf that was abandoned by its mother (outside of course), a herd or cattle. In the house we have a male toy pomeranian (he has no teeth, they were rotting and he bit my baby sister in the face, so his teeth were pulled), 2 degus (mini chinchillas) in a tank but we get them out and hold them or let them run in their runabout ball, 1 male ferret in a cage but he loves to get out and run, he also loves playing in our poms bed just to aggravate him, 1 fantail goldfish, and recently we started babysitting an African Grey and an Amazon, we are going to keep the Amazon. We have had cockatiels in the past along with a house cat and they got along fine, the bird kept the cat in his place. These parrots love our dog except when he barks then they try to make him be quite by whistling and saying, "Come here." Or making a kissing noise. The dog runs over to them but can't figure where the voices are coming from. The African Grey also does not like the noises the degus make while playing or rearranging their tank, she'll start screeching at them or knocking on her cage and watching them. Like the others said, it may take training and definitely your supervision. We have to supervise our little dog and big dog and also our ferret and little dog. He get picked on because of his size and no teeth. Usually the animal or animals that was there first are the dominate ones unless they are like a fish or even our degus which are similar to rats so they don't really care. I think you'll be fine as long you don't allow your pup to torment the bird. Wednesday is when we got the bird and our dog was fascinated, he kept standing up on his hind legs, smelling the birds, just worried them to death. So, we put him in the room he sleeps in until he calmed down, then we put the birds up on something that he couldn't reach. He's learning to share his family. Still terribly jealous, of course one bird is jealous of the other to so I guess they all want our attention at the same time, which is something you'll probably deal with to. Hope this helps.
2007-09-28 12:33:00 · answer #2 · answered by user u 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
my parrot and dog love each other. just keep the 'tiel's cage up high enough so that the dog can't look into the cage and scare the bird. also, in my parrot's case, the parrot is more of a threat to the dog! he has chased my dog and bitten her nose when she gets close enough!
just don't let the 'tiel out when the dog is in the house or take the bird in another room. even the sweetest of dogs can be too curious. as long as your 'tiel is up higher than the dog where she can see him, she will get used to him and might even start imitating his barks!
2007-09-28 16:38:09 · answer #3 · answered by dropping bombs on your mom 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have had 3 dogs, 1 cat in doors, 3 out door cats, 1 cocktiel, 1 rat, 1 guinea pig and 2 lizards all at the same time.(kids and their pets got to love them)
When added new members to the house younger does work the best. You can train them to get along,( even with animals that normally don't get along.)
The older ones seem to understand that babies are not to be harmed. This however does not mean that they will not put them in their places once in awhile.
Take your time with all of your pets so no one feels left out and you should be good to go,
Good luck
2007-09-28 12:13:09 · answer #4 · answered by Vickie 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have 2 "anti-social" Macaws that I rescued from an abusive home in March, I also have dogs. The birds tell the dogs - "comere, jump up" and throw food out of their bowl to feed the dogs then tell them to "comere" so they can watch them eat by the cage. The other day one even said, "siiit, siiit, good boy". I swear!!!!...lol. My point is, that the birds are fascinated with the dogs and also mimic the barks and growls trying to entice the dogs to play with them. So in my case it worked out quite well.
2007-09-28 12:01:12 · answer #5 · answered by Nunya 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think that, if you want to get a dog, a puppy would be a good idea.. you can introduce the animals, but not let the pup get too close at first.
i have had many animals in my life, and it seems that those who were brought into my home as babies, respect and accept other types of animals as household members.
i once raised a pigeon from a baby -- then my cat had kittens. we decided to keep one of the kittens, and that pigeon bullied the kitten all of the time.. it was funny! I can remember that, as the cat got older, she and the pigeon would go into my bedroom and sleep together on the bed.
my pigeon lived outdoors most of the time, but she came inside to visit... she "ruled the roost"!
2007-09-28 11:31:42 · answer #6 · answered by letterstoheather 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most animal sheltars do "testing" to see if dogs do well with cats and other pets. If you adopt, you could easily find one that's good w/ small animals. Check out Petfinder.com
2007-09-28 15:36:36 · answer #7 · answered by reptileandee 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i have a ringneck and a alexandrine parakeet and a cat,
at first the cat kept trying to climb on the cage but now he just sits there, next to the birds when they are out the cage
2007-09-28 12:35:12 · answer #8 · answered by madmad 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can keep the bird in a cage unless supervised....
I have 2 lhasa apsos.... they dont go after anything.. very good dogs... not sure if all lhasa are like that..
I have birds, a raccoon, a skunk... and a coatimundi.
2007-09-28 14:21:16 · answer #9 · answered by Racquel 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋