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My sister-in-laws mother has several birds in you her house. I have been over to her house and must admit the birds can be quite noisy! Sometimes, she lets them out of their cage, while I am over.

This kind of gives me a fright! It reminds me of when I was young and had a pet parakeet. When I would let her out of the cage, she would dart toward the windows. I was always afraid, was going to hurt herself!

If you have a bird, or know a friend that has one for a pet, do you or your friend let them fly loose?

I do.

Studies show birds can live a lot longer and healthier if you let them get some "workout" every day. The same goes for almost all pets species.

I let my budgies out of their cage almost every day for an hour or two, but it is usually limited to a single room. Keep in mind that there can be a lot of hazards for the pet birds even inside a common house or an apartment.
A few examples:
The toilet, the electric outlet and wires, common household chemicals including soap, shampoo, and cleaning products, etc.

Aside potential hazards for your precious pet birds, they can also cause a lot of trouble by pooping everywhere or chew through the things you might not want to have an extra hole in them.

I let mine out nearly every day. We have sheer curtain in front of the windows, so they don't think to fly into them since there is not a clear view of the outside. At a previous apartment they did fly into the windows all the time, so I kept their wings trimmed so they could just barely fly, but could not fly fast enough to cause injury. I think it took them a couple months to realize they should aim for the window sill, not the window. It was rather amusing to watch after I addressed the flight speed issue and felt sure they were not going to hurt themselves.

My boy parakeet does indeed like to make super close passes when he is flying around and you are sitting still in the room. I think he does this to show off for the girl. I've gotten used to this behavior he has so it doesn't bother me. I just remain still when I sense him coming so I don't bump into him. My poor girl bird can hardly fly at all because her wing feathers don't fold correctly on one side. When I got her I thought they had just been clipped too short, but once she grew new ones I realized she seems to have a defect of some kind and they just don't grow right. She hates to come out of the cage because of that and I have to coax her to even try to fly. I think she is embarrassed that she can't fly like he does.

We used to let our bird out. i think that is normal. I don't think I used to be afraid of the bird when I was younger. I think it was just what we had to do when I came home from school. It's interesting to me that you pointed out the dangers of pets being let loose. It's funny because we used to joke that all of the pets at my uncle's house would commit suicide. The only ones that survived were the chickens in his backyard and even they didn't all survive only the ones that gave up hope of leaving. It's not so funny right this minute, but that's what your post reminded me of.

When I had birds, I would let them out of their cages periodically throughout the week. I never had any issues with them flying away because they were so used to having the freedom to roam the house. It wasn't a big deal at all. They normally enjoyed being perched on my shoulder as I walked around the house. I'm sure if I had open windows or brought them outside of the home, they would have flew away or given me some sort of problem. Luckily, they enjoyed their time outside of the cage and were fairly intelligent.

I've always dreamed of owning a canary or a parrot. The first reason why I don't have one (yet) is that I'm afraid that my dogs would be way too interested in it. Imagine how much the presence of two dogs would scare the tiny bird! The second one ist this thread... I couldn't bare to keep my bird locked in the cage constantly. I would have to let him fly around, but I'm scared that sooner than later, I would forget to close the window, or something

I had two cockatiels that would fly around the apartment when I let them out of the cage. Kelly and Kasey were their names. Kelly was the female. Never had a problem. The guy I was dating at the time was a smoker, and I didn't permit him to smoke inside. So... he would meander out the front door and go down the hall past several other apartments and open a window that led out to the outside world. Enjoy his cigarette. Blowing smoke happily out the open window.

I was on the third floor, so through that window in the hallway you could look down at all the trees and other buildings in the immediate area. Nice view, on a nice sunny day. Well, when he left my apartment that one day, he neglected to tightly close the front door, and my birds were happily flying about.

Another neighbor came inside my apartment, and Kelly took this opportunity to escape out the front door and into the hallway, and... yes, you know where this is going... out the window in the hallway.

I was devastated. We looked everywhere for her when we got downstairs, but she was nowhere to be found. Her mate was depressed by the absence of his friend and I will never forget the incident.

Here is a picture of Kelly I drew on the computer.

It breaks my heart to read stories like this. Losing an animal and not knowing what happened to them is devastating. I am sorry that you lost your bird. I can only imagine how hard it was to deal with. I had a similar situation when I lost my parrot. His wings were not clipped and someone left the door open. He was never seen again, sadly. I empathize with you so much.

I'm so sorry for your experiences, tlspiegel and lexionomous. I can't even imagine how painful it must be to lose your beloved pet...
I know that my heart would broke in two.
The computer drawing made me feel your pain.
I really want a bird, but I'm forgetful so I think that it's better that I wait till my mind gets better.

It is good to let pets out of their cages to relax and to make them invigorated. We should note that at the baseline, pets were wild animals before they were domesticated and were never meant for captivity. But make sure there are barriers in the compounds for their safety. It is also good to make sure that they have acclimatised to the environment before releasing them. Otherwise, some may fly away and never come back. For example, ducks have been known to 'defect' to water bodies nearby.

If they are like parrots and cockatoos that can behave themselves, they won't need cages. I've seen the tricks these certain birds can do and I've read somewhere that they have the intelligence of a five-year old, which is not really hard to believe. However, birds in captivity are in a way, losing their identity. They ought to be in the wild populating the world with more of them. I would hate for these birds to be on the brink of extinction

I've made my own hanging bird feeder just outside my window. The birds we get are the Maya and they like rice grains and cornmeal as well. A feathered pet would also be a good addition to a home, especially parrots and parakeets that have been taught some words and are used to people. Even if you let them out of the cage, they won't fly away. I like that they can also get along with other house pets.

This is the story of my husband. When he was young, his father brought home a parrot. At first the parrot was in a cage but later on, a foot was tied with a rope so it wouldn't fly away. The situation was like that for many months. The parrot was fully oriented in the house and the kids were just waiting for it to talk. In one occasion, their father took off the rope from the foot of the parrot so the bird can be free inside the house. And it did roam around. But it didn't last long before the parrot took flight.

That is a neat lesson not to judge a bird by its demeanor. As what my grandfather used to say, birds have wings for flying so do not forget that it can fly. This reminds me of our pigeon that also left us by flying away just like that.