Parakeets, Dogs and Cats

User Question
Hi. I really enjoy your parakeet pages - you have a lot of information on owning parakeets, and it is very enjoyable reading.

I had parakeets as a child, and loved having them. (Always with cats, as you do.) Unfortunately, I don't remember if we did anything specific to keep the cats from harming the parakeets.

We currently have a cat and a dog, and would like to get several parakeets. But I of course want it to be a safe environment for the birds - do you have any advice on introducing the animals, and ensuring the cat doesn't harm the birds?

And another, much less important question - I'd like our birds to be able to fly around a lot, but one thing you didn't mention, and I don't remember, is the bird poop. Do they tend to poop mostly in their cages? If they poop outside of their cage, does it come off of things easily. (Most likely candidates in our house would be furniture, of course, books, and clothing. How hard is it to clean off of these surfaces?)

Lisa's Answer
The big thing with cats is to make sure the cage is safe since you can't watch it 24 hours a day. Put it somewhere high, far from any cat perches. A cat should never be able to sit next to the cage or within launching distance of it. Not only could they eat the bird (cats have been known to drag birds through the cage bars) but just the fact of the cat sitting there staring at the birds can really stress the birds.

When you let the birds out, you want to do it in a sealed room with no cats or dogs in it, just in case. I have friends who had a wonderfully quiet and friendly dog, who would never hurt a fly. They went with their dog one day to visit a friend who had a gorgeous Amazon parrot. The parrot was up on a bookshelf and the friends were all sitting on the couch, with the dog at their feet. The bird decided to fly down to the shoulder of its owner. As the bird went over the dog, the dog reached up with his mouth, grabbed the parrot by the neck, broke its neck, and then settled back down again. It all took maybe 2 seconds to happen, and the dog had no idea he'd done anything wrong. As far as he knew he was just playing with a toy someone had tossed to him.

So anyway, cats and dogs will always consider parakeets as toys and swat at them or grab at them. Even if they don't do it the first 20 times, that 21st time may be when they decide to play, and now your parakeet is dead. It's much safer just to keep them apart.

Poop is really just mushed up seed and vegetable, the things the parakeet eats. So it washes off of things very easily. They dry up quickly and can be flicked off of surfaces. Birds poop whereever they are and poop rather regularly. They especially love to poop just before moving or when they're startled. In any case, it does clean easily. You can put a paper towel under areas that they tend to hang out (curtain rods are very popular with parakeets) so that way you just throw out the paper towel and put down a new one.

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