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What To Do If You Lose a Bird or Find a Bird

3K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  MeanneyFids 
#1 ·
What To Do If You:
Find a Lost Bird
Lose Your Bird


The warmer weather brings about more risks to bird owners. Windows are left open, doors are opened as people come in and go out of their home. Accidents happen where a bird flies out an open window or open door. Or, worst case scenario, they bring their bird outside without a harness or cage and the bird flies off. A clipped bird can still fly away!

Should you lose your bird, there are several things you can do.

If the bird remains in the area you can try to coax them down with a favourite treat or toy or even a friend of theirs. If possible some people have had success with spraying the bird down with a hose, but keep in mind sometimes this scares off the bird, so do not use this unless last resort.

If the bird leaves the yard and you can no longer see them, play calls from your bird species from Youtube or other sound playing device. Sometimes the bird will hear this and come back.

Leave their cage outside with the door open and food and water inside. If you have other birds, do not do this with them inside it, place them in another cage to prevent them from escaping. If you have other birds, place them in a closed cage outside as well, they may attract your lost bird back.

Post lost ads anywhere you can. Online and vets are great places to post, and so are petstores. Many times if someone finds a bird they will bring it to the vets or petstore. So those are good places to post an ad. Search lost ads in case someone found your bird. There are some online sites that are specifically used for reporting lost and found birds. Check into these and post on them and check them daily.

NEVER give up. People have found their lost birds in a matter of hours, days, months and in some cases even years after their bird was lost. Never give up, always keep looking because you may never know, someone may have found your bird.




If You Find a Lost Bird...

If you find a lost bird and catch it, place it in a cage with no other birds (quarantine) with fresh food and water and allow the bird to rest. They will likely be scared and will need some quiet time and rest.

Address any problems, such as injury as soon as you can, most of these will require vet check ups.

Post a found ad at stores, vets, and online. Make sure you have the right owner for the bird, don't make the ad super detailed, leave major identifications out of the ad and ask the person to describe their bird, and ask them if their bird had this feature (for example, band numbers, old injury, deformity, certain colour pattern, etc). This way you can guarantee the bird is going to the right owner. Some birds look the same, so it isn't always possible to do so. Some injuries do happen after the bird escapes as well so this may not be the most fool proof identification.

Keep looking for the owners as they may be looking for the bird still. Report the bird to your local humane society and your local vets, report it online, just get the word out there that you found a lost bird.

People often are very upset about losing their bird and would want nothing more than to find their beloved pet. It is the right thing to do for the bird to try to search for the birds owner(s). The bird will be missing its old owner and the owner will be missing their bird. So please always, always get the word out there. Of course, if no one comes forward for a few months, you can consider keeping them, but it is still a good idea to keep an eye out.


Ways To Prevent Escape

Check windows and doors prior to letting your bird out of the cage.
Make sure the birds cage is securely shut should you have windows open or doors open. Always be sure the cage is secure if you bring the cage outside. If the bottom is not secure on some cages the bottom can fall off and the bird can escape that way.
If your bird is a known escape artist, make sure locks are on the cage and are secure before the bird has any chance of escape outside.
If you bring your bird out on a harness, be sure the harness fits securely and make sure the harness is in good condition so the bird cannot get out of it.
Never bring your bird outside without a cage or harness, even if its wings are clipped--clipped birds still do escape and with the right conditions can go very far.


Places to check for lost birds and to post ads for lost and found:

http://www.parrotalert.com/

www.craigslist.org

www.kijiji.ca

http://www.911parrotalert.com/
 
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