Dogs + Birds

[emilymarston]

Hello!! I was just wondering if there are any people who have dogs and birds that live together peacefully. I've heard a few nasty stories about dogs and birds together, but is anyone successfully living together with both?

I've got two dogs and they're petrified of my quaker parrot, as he always bites them.

[coogie]

Not sure of what you are aiming for when you say peacefully, but I definitely wouldn't put my dogs in the position where the parrot (or anything else for that matter) can repeatedly bite them. Having been bitten a number of times by various parrots/birds I can safely say it's very painful. How have you prevented them from defending themselves so far?It's not really fair or even reasonable to expect they will just cop being bitten numerous times. Even if the dogs are scared one of them may retaliate and that will not be a good outcome for the parrot. Is there no way you can just make sure they don't have access to each other? Put the dogs in another room if the parrot is out? It might be that they will never co-exist peacefully, it seems highly unlikely that they will if the parrot continues to bite the dogs. Hope you can work it out and others have some solutions apart from separation but I can't think of one.

[Chequeredblackdog]

I have a female Eclectus parrot, 4 dogs and 4 cats ( and a few others :p ) the cats and dogs all have respect for Kira. They know she bites! She won't actively go after the dogs/ cats and they keep out of her way, so I guess you could say they live in 'harmony'.

I would never leave them together unsupervised but am confident to have them all out if I'm around.

[halfthewords]

I have a 1.5 year old Caique parrot who has grown up around our 4 dogs and cat (who was acquired after the bird). All the dogs are very respectful of him. Carl even plays with him, very gently, mostly just rolling him onto his back. I purposely chose the Caiques for their naturally bold (somewhat aggressive) nature. I did not want a parrot that was going to be easily frightened by larger animals. Our old cat always gave him a wide berth (wisely). The bird pretty much rules the roost here. He sometimes does get a bit over the top with annoying the dogs (beaking at their legs/feet) but they are all tolerant of him and know to just walk away. Of course, they are always supervised.

One nasty incident when current cat was a kitten has made him very wary of the bird. :laugh: Pippin latched onto the kitten's ear when he got too close and the kitten was so surprised/hurt that he very rarely even goes into the same room as the parrot these days!

[Dogsfevr]

Our first dog shared the ground with our budgie & guinea pigs BUT we where also never gullible to believe they would live peacefully together.The are all animals that can do unplanned things

They enjoyed there freedom within safe boundries & always watched or if unable to watch then the dog would be placed away so the other animals could have there time out .

I do believe or first dog was very special & we haven't had dogs since that i would happily allow the above to happen & it doesn't worry me

[WreckitWhippet]

I had a bird, that bird is no longer thanks to my Whippet bitch the supreme huntress who killed him

[dotdashdot]

I don't let my birds out with my dog, not even supervised. Cleo can move so quickly that she could kill them (cockatiels) in an instant and they won't take her on like a bigger bird might.

Their inside cage is accessible to her, but most of the time she forgets that they are in there at night and won't even look at them unless they flap around.

[mixeduppup]

I had an indian ringneck that lived on the back porch with the dogs, he'd chat to them and they'd go over and say hi. He got out of his cage and flew away whilst someone was looking after him for me and I haven't had one since. We had a pigeon turn up in our yard a few months back and the dogs killed it but they won't touch birds i bring in.

Edited June 15, 2013 by mixeduppup

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

My Italian appeared to live peaceably with my Budgie for 6 months and then one day he took his chance.

I've never recommended having dogs with birds since. It was totally my fault for wearing rose tinted glasses.

[corvus]

There are some things I just don't really want to find out. Like whether my dogs would kill a bird. Or the circumstances in which my dogs will kill a bird. If I'm ever tempted I think about how bad I'd feel if I took a chance and it resulted in the death of my bird.

[KJJ]

I have two dogs and an eclectus (also a cat, budgies and several rats), while the dogs quite happily hoover up dropped fruit etc from under the parrot's cage without bothering him, I don't mix them as the consequences if something went wrong are not something I'm willing to risk. If the parrot is free ranging, the dogs are shut away, same thing for the rats.

[Dame Aussie]

Be very careful, I'm sure it's possible but I wouldnt risk it. I don't keep birds but I keep rats and even though the dogs have never tried to hurt them there's no way I'd trust them together.

You just don't know until it happens and then it's too late.

[dancinbcs]

Border Collies are often great with birds and I know of many cases where the dog and bird are good friends (even with wild birds) but I wouldn't be risking any hunting type breed with a bird and I sure as hell would not allow any birds that bite anywhere near dogs.

[Rosetta]

This is timely - I just saw an ad on Gumtree where someone was giving away a lovely five year old female cocker. The dog was an inside dog but has been banished outside since they got a bird because of her "hunting" instincts so they are giving her away. Some people...

[The Spotted Devil]

Certainly not something I've contemplated with a working gundog in the house...... It's enough to keep her mind off the (very well fenced) chooks.

[Bow Wow]

I have a 13 yr old cockatiel who has free reign of the house. He thinks he is a dog! He is in love with our 15 yr chi and will follow her around everywhere. In his lifetime he has lived with five dogs. Never had a problem. But trained all dogs as puppies to accept him. Except for the 15 yr old chi, and her partner ( now deceased. Woof woof another chi ) they were mature dogs at the time when we got DJ. They just accepted him. So it can be done, but would use caution and sense. :-)

[bamboo]

I have a quaker parrot, bc and a cat. The quaker is boss. Bamboo, the bc, has concluded that it is best to leave the room when the bird is out, even though he has never been bitten. The cat, who has been bitten once, has reached an understanding with the bird, they can both sit on me at the same time, the bird will hiss and squawk at him but he will not relinquish his position as he used to. The bird is an obnoxious little bully, and seems to have concluded that nipping the cat doesn't work, so while he makes a lot of noise he no longer actually bites him. The cat has shown remarkable restraint in the face of provocation and never tried to injure the bird. They are closely supervised when the bird is loose, and nor would I allow the bird to continue biting any other pets! I didn't really train the dog not to hurt the bird, I think he simply finds the bird a peculiar being to have around and recognises that it is under my protection and not to be touched.

[corie]

One of the breeders I've met before had a conure that would try to fight her border collie. It would bob up and down and side to side when the border collie got her stare on, as if egging her on :laugh:

[hankdog]

We have 2 cockatiels and 4 chickens. The younger cockatiel periodically takes on the bulldog. The dog was not used to birds when we got him 18 months ago but has now got to the point where he will stare at or walk away from all 60 grams of fighting fury.

All three chickens will ignore or avoid the dog but the fluffy teacosy rooster standing at a mighty 1300 grams will charge and attack the dog, I admire the dogs restraint but would never leave them alone, I think he restrains himself from having a go rather than is totally at ease with them.

[Steve]

A couple of Maremmas I bred live with birds -Parrots etc and its nothing for them to live with poultry - I mean really live with them as in with them 24 hours a day - looking after them as they are doing with the penguins.