To the people in the comments saying the guy is doing this “just for show”
He’s not
With this kind of bird, they are VERY attached to their cages, so if you need to replace the cage, you need to the show the bird you’ve destroyed it so it will accept the new one. It’s upset bc the cage it liked is gone, but the cage was too small for it so it needs to be replaced. The bird is fine.
Thank you for explaining that! I’ve been wondering about this video.
That bird was livid!
@arciifer is so incredibly wrong about the behavior here I can barely form coherent thoughts to explain how and why, it’s just 100% wrong.
It is absolutely a myth that “you need to show the bird you’ve destroyed it so it will accept the new one” or that the bird is angry at all; their whole comment shows a 100% lack of understanding about parrot behavior. I don’t know what facts-I-just-made-up blog that came from, but it’s laughably untrue.
You don’t need to destroy a parrot’s previous cage to ‘show’ it that it’s gone, you could just do what pretty much every other parrot owner does if they need to replace a cage: Either sell it or give it away if it’s a safe cage and still in good condition, or throw it away. You don’t have to ‘show the bird’, that’s completely and utterly absurd to think that.
That cockatoo isn’t “livid” either, it’s having fun and joining in the noise party; that particular bird just happens to have been taught to swear by previous owners and is just yelling along with the noise and having a great time.
Our parrot’s last owners taught him to swear and, though he mostly doesn’t anymore, if he gets SUPER excited, he’ll start dropping f-bombs in his excitement; it doesn’t mean he’s “livid”, it means he’s excited.
See, the thing about parrots, and especially cockatoos: They LOVE a good noisy, banging, bell ringing, clanging, screaming, lots of movement and LOUDNESS party and everything about that ‘too’s body language says, “THIS IS AN AMAZING LOUD PARTY I WILL JOIN!”
So….is the guy in the vid just trashing a crappy cage to have a good time with his parrot (because who wouldn’t to have a healthy screaming match and noise party with their beloved parrot) and posting it on line because it’s a thing that bird owners do or was he promoting the myth that the bird has to see the cage destroyed and get angry to move on?
I can’t really tell what’s going on- I don’t speak bird or bird owner.
I mean, if it’s a guy and his bird having a good noisy fun screaming match time and that’s just what some bird owners do to have fun with their birds- great. I promote this level of pet bonding. Fantastic happy, healthy bird moment.
This is also why I will never own a bird.
The guy is destroying the shitty round cage because round cages are bad for all birds (lack of corners makes them feel constantly exposed and stressed), he’s doing it on camera and with the cockatoo likely just for the fun factor and because birds like to be included in safe flock activities, which smashing this piece of shit cage is.
It’s noisy, it’s not dangerous, it’s full of movement, it’s fun for the cockatoo.
Some random dingus on Tumblr made up the nonsense about “needing to show the bird” and the rest of you non-Google using people went along with it.
Local birb dad here, wanna add onto @why-animals-do-the-thing because birbs are the love of my life, that particular cage was awful for more than just being round.
Okay, so there’s A LOT people don’t consider when it comes to bird cages, which is super sad considering those are their homes, and a good cage set up can make the difference between a happy, healthy bird and a horribly depressed and anxious one.
For one, that cage is PITIFULLY small for the Eclectus parrot it housed. It may not be so apparent in this clip, so here’s a screenshot of the entire cage standing upright in the original video
I actually cried the first time I saw this because I felt so, so, SO bad for Jojo (name of the bird) – whoever the hell thought they could put a such a large bird in such a tiny cage, one they could barely move in, is, I’m sorry, fucking heartless. I’d put maybe, what, a budgie in a cage that size? Maybe? And though I can’t really see, it looks like the bars would be too wide for one anyhow.
Speaking of which, the bars. Dear god those bars.
For those who don’t know, parrots are climbing birds. They climb about A LOT. They’ll be doing a lot of climbing in their cages. And vertical bars suck for this. It’s incredibly uncomfortable to climb with vertical barring.
Last off, an addition to why the actual shape of the cage is bad – parrots are prey creatures, and they aren’t too far from their wild ancestors. They, even in households, still are on the lookout, and round cages make them anxious for this reason like @calleo mentioned. Not only that, but round cages are harder to climb in AND have less volume/space.
Overall this cage was a 2/10 for, what, a budgie, and a -10/10 for this bird, and he had every fucking right to destroy it, and I’m happy Pebble (the moluccan cockatoo in this video) had fun watching it be destroyed.
The man in this video works for a parrot rescue center in Saskatoon, Saskachewan, Canada, and he is doing god’s work. They work so hard for their birds and educating others about them and they’re all around great folks. Literally fuck anyone who said he was endangering the bird.
Please for the love of fuck do your research guys. Birds and fish are probably the creatures that suffer most in captivity, and I’m biased to birds half because of my extensive upbringing around them, but they’re such, such intelligent and emotionally complex creatures, that it pains me so much to see them mistreated.
The big five things to look for in a parrot’s cage:
-Corners!!! Corners corners corners!!! Parrots love corners because it makes them feel safer and are easier to climb. It also helps A BUNCH to put a cage against a corner, so that they don’t have to worry about something sneaking behind. if that won’t work, you should REALLY have them against a wall.
-Material – If I ever see another fucking parrot in a wooden cage I’m going to sCREAM. Parrots CHEW through wood dang it, wood should be a toy to destroy, NOT their home walls. Galvanized wire? Do you WANT to give your parrot zinc poisoning? Because, spoiler alert, your bird will climb a lot if I haven’t made it clear yet, and they use their mouth like a third hand along with their feet to do so. And some birds develop a habit of mouthing at the cage, which increases this risk.
-Big!!! Bigger is almost always better. If you can splurge for a few extra dollars for a bigger cage, please do so.
-Watch your bars! Horizontal bars are the best for parrots. The diameter of bars varies from species to species, so read up! You don’t wanna splurge too much on a bigger cage to end with bars that your bird could slip through – or tries to and god forbid gets stuck.
-Look for an easy to clean cage! This helps you not be de-motivated to clean, which is optimal for your pet’s health, as well as allows quicker time cleaning and more time to spend with your buddy. Stuff like wheeled cages, a pull-out tray, a seed skirt, a large door, etc. Oh, and on the topic of doors, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE avoid the ones that slide up and down. There’s been more than one case of these ending up injuring a bird – think of it as a non-bladed guillotine. Y eah. You don’t want that. Usually it’s just toes that go missing, but there’s been sadder tales.
I’m sorry for this long ass rant/ramble, but the welbeing of parrots is so dear to my heart.
TL;DR – Do you’re fucking research, this man is doing god’s work, and fuck round cages.
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