Classroom Animals and Pets - Birds - Pet Birds

     
   

 

Comments re pet birds

A pet bird is not an “easy” addition to the classroom. A very sociable bird would need to be brought home most nights, and definitely every weekend. Birds are also messy and require quite a bit of cleanup. What is a more practical idea is having your own pet bird which occasionally visits the classroom. Smaller birds such as canaries, budgies, lovebirds have smaller cages which can be carried relatively easily. If you have a larger bird, such as a cockatiel or small parrot, then it is definitely easier to buy a second cage which stays at school and to transport your bird in a small container. If you are not familiar with keeping birds, I would not suggest trying out this pet unless you really want a pet bird for yourself at home!

My husband and I are “hobby breeders” and so I generally have at least once in the school year when I have to bring my baby birds to school because of the handfeeding schedule. The ones I have brought in the past are cockatiels, lovebirds, and Pacific parrotlets. This year I am starting to bring my Timneh African Grey into the classroom about once a week or so. She (he?) is a paranoid fraidy cat, but she does talk! At this point the children have only heard “Okay” and “Good Morning”, but I am hopeful that she will gradually overcome her fears and enjoy the stimulation of a busy Grade 3 class. Fortunately she stops her shrill “fweeet” when I put her cover on the cage, and we are gradually letting her “peek out” at all the children more and more often. The big thrill was one lunch hour when someone had cheese in their lunch... Cleo’s all-time favorite treat! She was willing to come right to the front of the cage for THAT child!!! Transporting birds, adults or babies, is a bit of a nuisance, so I have a large cockatiel cage that stays at school for Cleo and a playpen set-up for the babies when they come. .... see what I mean about pet birds “not being easy”!?!
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Maintenance / Requirements

At this point I am going to “cheat” and just tell you what birds I have (or have had) at home. If you are interested in a certain bird (whether I have it or not) I would be happy to tell you about its requirements.

Here's the list: African Timneh grey (one pet), canaries, cockatiels, kakarikis (red-front and yellow-front), lovebirds, mousebirds, Pacific parrotlets, rock pebblers, rosy bourkes, splendids.

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This page revised August 1999.