Evil Torturing Nephew Harmed my Bird

User Question
I got a new parakeet from the store about 4 months ago sometime in august from a bird show. He was trained to get on your finger and didnt protest when you took him out of the cage and talked and played with him. Then everyday after I came home from school, it seemed like my bird was meaner and bit more.

One day I was sick and had to stay home from school and I came out of my room because I heard squaking from my bird. One of my visiting nephews was toruring and hurting the bird by putting it in a plastic box, or throwing it in the air. He even harrased it by playing a game which could hurt the bird. I forced my nephew to not touch my bird again.

How do i get my bird back to his normal self? Thank You, and I love this website.

Lisa's Answer
Good god, whoever the parent is of this child, they should get that child in to talk to a trained professional!! Children do not naturally take delight in harming other living creatures, and a parent who says "Oh he was just being a kid" would sound like he/she was contributing to the problem with that attitude. That is really, really scary. Children who start out abusing pets often turn into abusers in adulthood.

I'm really sorry that this happened to your pet. Parakeets are very intelligent, can learn to talk, can live for 15-20 years. Torturing a parakeet is just as bad (if not worse) than torturing a cat or dog. But luckily for you, the owner, parakeets are very smart and can identify people. Yes, your parakeet will be timid and afraid for a while. But your parakeet can also understand that some people are bad while you the owner are good. Parakeets can even learn the names of the people in their 'family' and keep track of them. Keep working with your keet daily, be gentle, talk softly, and work on building up the trust. I'm sure that your keet will soon come to realize that you are much different than this troubled child.

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