Who has young children at home with your birds?

[KatieG17]

I have a 9 month old son, along with my B&G and new to be CAG starting tomorrow.. How did you teach your children to stay away from the cages and not stick your fingers in there? Not too worried about it but any advice helps the only time I let my son go by my B&G kokos cage is when hes in his walker, where his arms arent long enough to reach the cage, Koko just normally stares at him like wth is that, and pays no attention.. Shes a pretty fiesty bird so I tend to worry more about her then I would with my CAG whos grew up in a household with kids.. Luckily Koko doesnt know how to fly so I dont have to worry about her dive bombing him lol... My CAG on the other hand can sooo:rolleyes: yeaa Well have to see how this goes

[KimKim]

I have an 18 month old daughter. I use to have one of those plastic play yards around my greys cage, but Sophie started to reach over and hit his cage with things in her hand. So I moved his cage to another room that is connected to the loving room and put up baby gates. We had taken down the folding partition doors that where there before. Babalu loves his new room

[katana600]

Well done KimKim, great ideas. I am guessing the greys will naturally want to keep their distance from small children and to give them a place of their own with gates to keep the little ones separate and safe from an accidental bite is a wonderful compromise.

[danmcq]

No young kids of our own. Only grandchildren from 20 down to 3. When the youngest was just crawling, my grey dayo was totally infatuated with her. He learned her name (Dakota) in one day and would call her, watch her like a hawk and want to be by her or in a view of her at all times. He never tried any type of beaking or hostility to her. He was just infatuated at this tiny floor crawling baby human. We of course watched this interaction like hawks as well.

 

But all the young children and teens were told never to stick a finger in the cage, to offer food or hit the cage with some toy when he was in it. They were under supervision and allowed to have dayo or jake on their shoulders for brief periods and how to get a step up. A few developed a very good relationship with both our birds, but others were just too afraid of the beak and a possible bite. So those just never really interacted with him other than talking to him and laughing at dayo's answers.

 

Each home and child, parrot, adult is different and you'll soon learn how each dynamically interacts with the other. Vigilance and overseeing is however a constant must maintain. Oh, and watch those doors if you have flighted birds like I do. Children forget about the birds and rules, as all will do.

Edited September 5, 2013 by danmcq

[Luvparrots]

My greys have been around with my young grandson and Ana Grey would sit on the back of my chair while I give JJ his bottle when he was a baby. All my parrots like to watch my grandkids and my youngest feeds them pistachios and my parrots accept them... no bites. Parrots, I believe know that young kids are "different". My parrots have "favorites" around the grandkids... ones they will go to and ones they reject.

[BaileysPapa]

My grandparents had a wild caught Grey since before I was born. When we visited them, I was always fascinated with Jessye. He spent most of the time on a ring stand in the living room and/or patio, and a T stand in the dining room. So, he was not in a cage except at night. With baby gates, we were kept away from him. He generally ignored us when we were toddlers. He never tried to bite either myself or my brother. He was often on the floor, and later, we'd follow him around the house. When we were older, we learned to "Respect the Beak", by watching him destroy wood & nuts, etc. Supervision is the answer. Whether it be children or other pets, including other birds.

[aerial.2000]

I dont have young children either and no grandkids *yet* but I also worry about this. My stragedy was going to be exactly that ... WATCH, teach and hope when they are old enough Marco accepts and loves them. I tend to notice if there are kids running round like when I took her into the parrot store the last time the owners grandkids were there just bouncing off the walls it made Marco VERY nervous !!!!!!! I know when I was babysitting my son's friends baby, when that baby cried (it was an infant) Marcos eyes got huge and her head would cock to the side like :eek: WTF is that noise? lol So I will be nervous and watching closely once I have youngsters in my home .. heck I do that when adults want to go over and "touch" her cuz I dont want anyone being bit!!!

I loved the gate idea!!!!

[JeffNOK]

I have no offspring. I realized quite young that I was an odd duck and didn't want to risk passing on my quirky DNA! I do have a nephew and niece who are under 10. Gracie keeps her distance. She flies off if they get too close--even when they are being quiet and gentle. To be honest, she does that with adults who are not part of her "flock" as well.

[Cinnyminis]

I have 7 kids ages 16, 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, and 4. My 7 year old is autistic and very high energy. I also have an 11 mo CAG who is a biter and a 12 week old orange wing Amazon. Both cages are in the family room. When we first brought Radar home, the kids were naturally curious and wanted to handle him all the time. I caught some of the middle ones teasing him and stuff too. After he was about 6 months old, he started biting when they put their fingers out. They learned quickly and only a few of them got tagged, although it was more of a nip than an actual bite. I had to be very proactive also in telling them to stay away from him. Now, they pretty much ignore the birds except to talk to them, or sing to them, or play peekaboo. If you asked any of the kids they would tell you Radar is the best pet ever, but they would also be a little sad that he "doesn't like me". Since there was way too many people constantly sticking fingers out to Radar, I am not surprised that he is a bit nippy now. He is actually getting better with it too.

Our new baby (Echo) doesn't really know how to bite yet and the kids have been great with him, mostly because they want a better relationship with him. It's always a work in progress.

 

I would say with a little one (under2) once the bird has been there a few weeks, they will ignore it because it will be part of the room if that makes sense. I would make sure to follow through EVERY time the child goes near the cage. Putting a gate around it would also work as a visual barrier and make a kid think twice about messing with the bird.

Beth

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

Ryan and Sean were 6 and 9 when Sophie came home. PERFECT ages! They were involved from the beginning in her care, and continue to be important to Sophie. Now age 19 and 22. Both at college. Ryan talks with her several times a week, and Sean sets up skyping when he is home. He is closer, so Sophie will see him twice a month.Sophie misses Ryan the most as she thinks he is the " greatest" thing since peanutbutter! ( one of her favorites!) Nancy