Cat and caged birds...

[OrchidFlakes]

Good idea or recipe for disaster?

The cat is 9 yrs old, only caught and killed 2 things in her life, timid and shy little thing.

DS would like a pet bird, probably canary or budgie - is this a totally daft idea?

Are birds always caged or should they be let out in the house? The cat can easily be locked out if needed.

Any suggestions/advice?

I hate to see birds in cages, and I believe that they should be allowed out to fly about - which is not compatible with having a cat.

recipe for disaster.

Even if the cat is not a hunter the bird will be stressed by it's presence. Nervy birds are noisy!

Canaries aren't much good for taming, budgies are great, but, very noisy if they are stressed.

Sorry. Bad idea.

Birds have to be let out! Would you like to spend your entire life in a cage, never being able to fly freely?!

Terrible idea. The bird will be living with a predator and feeling constantly terrified. Really not fair on the bird.

Depends what kind of birds. Canaries and other small birds would be a constant temptation. Parrots and bigger birds can be equally as dangerous to the cat if left unsupervised - one of my macaws gave a cat a good bite on the tail whilst the cat was innocently walking past.

If a cat claws or bites a bird it can be deadly because of the bacteria they carry. So would need vet attention immediately should something happen.

However a lot of people make it work well. Cats generally ignore (larger) household birds when accustomed to them. All our cats were afraid of our parrots before they got used to them.

It would be hugely irresponsible to leave any birds caged in the same room as a cat unsupervised while you go out incase the cat tries to get the bird in the cage, but this is easily remedied by locking the cat out of XYZ room.

My birds are usually outside in flights during the day so they are not really near the cat until the evening when we are in the house (and therefore supervising ) anyway.

When I was little our cat managed to kill our budgie even though the cage was hanging from the centre of a large room. However some friends have cats a budgies and they’re fine. Our budgies have at least a couple of hours free flight every day which I think is a minimum personally, we have to supervise our dog all their time though with them, although she largely ignores them you never know. If you get a budgie please get at least two and let them out to fly every day (and evict the cat at this time)