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This is an open letter to all of you out there who seem to think that ANY
house can be made to be "bird safe."  The house that I am living in with
my Grandmother is at least 100 yrs old.  The interior walls are made out
of plaster and lathe construction.  When the house was made it was a
COMMON practice to put arsenic into the plaster.  The theory is/was that
rats and mice coming into the home would chew on the wall, ingesting the
plaster and arsenic.  They would then crawl away and die somewhere.

Now then given that parrots ARE chewers, IF a parrot is allowed "free"
range in such a house they would end up chewing the plaster on the wall,
ingesting some of it, and along with the plaster end up ingesting the
arsenic.  Which would result in the birds either getting sick (depending
upon how much was ingested) or dieing.

So please tell me given that type of construction short of tearing out
EVERY wall and ceiling, and basically "rebuilding" the entire interior of
the house how is a person suppose to make such a house "bird safe?"

For a multi-floored home with a total of 8 rooms, that is/would be a long
and expensive proposition, would it not?  As well as still presenting a
health hazard to any birds that might be in the house at the time.  Cause
one would have to find some place to put the birds during the
reconstruction.  Which could be something as simple as just placing the
birds outside while the work is being done or "boarding" them somewhere.

I would have to say that given a house that is so constructed that until
such a time as one could "correct" the "defect(s)" in
the home that the
BEST course of action to take WOULD be to clip their birds wings.  So that
while the bird(s) are out of their cage they cannot fly up onto the window
or door molding and chew on either the wall(s) or the ceiling(s).

Now let the "flames" and "attacks" that I am just being
"lazy" or "cheap"
commence, as I fully expect that you "anti-wing clippers" will lunch some
form of "attack" on me.  As well as continuing to call me a bird
"mutilator" because I choose to (oh no) clip my birds wings.

Wing clipping does NOT equal mutilation, as it is JUST like a hair cut in
that the clipped wings can and DO grow back.  IF they didn't then it would
not be necessary to re-clip after each molt, now would it?

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--
Digital_Cowboy
Live Long and Prosper
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