Parrots And Snakes As Pets?
There seems to be some debate on keeping these animals as pets, so I want to know what everyone thinks. Should parrots and snakes be kept as pets?
Here’s my two cents:
Parrots: Unless the person is an extremely good owner and has an aviary (aviary! not a cage, no matter how large) that is large enough for the bird to actually fly in, and is prepared to spend thirty+ years living with, training, and entertaining the parrot, then they shouldn’t be keeping it.
Also, the problem of wild-caught parrots comes into play. Unless we as a society can reliable make sure that parrots are (humanely, safely, and responsibly) captive-born and not wild-caught, we shouldn’t be keeping them as pets. They are extremely intelligent, and shouldn’t be kept by just anyone, and wild-caught birds should stay wild.
And that sounds like an oxymoron, how can we have captive-born parrots if we don’t capture wild ones? but I believe there are enough captive birds to form a breeding population for pets, and if there aren’t, they shouldn’t be kept as pets anyways and the only ones breeding them should be conservation centers.
IN THE END since it’s a big deal when dealing with parrots, and most people would not be up to the challenge of keeping parrots as pets, they probably should not be pets.
Snakes: …I don’t understand why there’s a debate on snakes? Snakes by nature don’t need area to roam - if they have a reliable food source and water source they aren’t going to be traipsing about the country getting into wild hijinks. I certainly wouldn’t want people keeping poisonous or highly exotic snakes but snakes like corn snakes, garter snakes, rat snakes, and even the red-tail boas aren’t problematic. The problem comes from people who get a small snake and don’t think their purchase through (and that problem occurs in all pet animal areas).While snakes need special care, they aren’t that difficult to take care of (as long as you don’t try to make them vegetarians or feed them only chicken nuggets). Most pet snakes are also captive-bred, meaning they have dispositions more suited to being pets, their genetics are known, and they aren’t being captured in the wild.
I can agree with having to get a license to own snakes (not all states/cities do) but otherwise I don’t see what the problem would be with owning them if the owner is responsible and does what they’re supposed to do. (and doesn’t keep more than one snake housed together seriously people snakes eat other snakes)
YUS. On the parrot thing. I used to house sit for a family that had a beautiful parrot. But, they hardly ever let her out of her cage. They would leave for work, leave her in her cage, for 8 hours a day. I couldn’t even imagine.
So, when I was house sitting for them for a week, I would just go over there during the day, and open her cage and let her loose until she chose to go back to her cage. (On the days that I could. Sometimes, I couldn’t so I would just go in and let her out for a little while when I was changing out her food and water).
Point being. I let her out as often as I could, because I couldn’t stand seeing her stuck in there. She was a sweetheart, too. She would cuddle up on my boobies and try to eat my earrings/necklace while I gave her neck scratches. <3
We watched HBO specials together. lol
