hey my 6 year old is wanting a bird, I'm not sure if this would be a good pet for her or not. I had parakeets when I was her age and did fine with them, later we had love birds then my Mom got some kind of lung disease where her lungs turned to scar tissue. she almost died. the DR.said she is allergic to some birds. is this something that all birds have or just some?

Yes,(about the allergy) if they have feathers! I think, with kids wanting AN ANIMAL /BIRD ETC, WE HAVE TO DECIDE IF IT IS GOOD for the animal! Kids want a lot of things, that aren't appropriate for them. WE have to say NO sometimes. As adults, we too take on more than we can handle. We have to start thinking what is good for the PET. Did you ever find out what was wrong with the dogs? Birds cost money as do the supplies to keep them healthy, and if we spread ourselves too thin, the other pets' care suffer too. Sometimes, the Idea of a new pet is very strong, but not the correct answer for a bored child, who may become bored after they get them. I believe 6 is too young to have a pet of their own. At this age they can & should be HELPING to take care of the other pets that are already in the home.

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Hi Mommpbop, I had a parakeet when I was about 8, I think that is the right age to start letting childern assume the responsibities for a pet, I have 2 birds now, and it is a lot to clean up after.

I don't think 6 is a bad age, it just all depends on if you want to take care of the bird and make sure she takes care of him. My sister had a bird when she was about that age. I think it taught her a lot of responsibility. It was kind of a family bird though. We all put in our share of taking care of him!

We Aren't going to let her have a bird right now. I'm going to wait for more reasons than just her age. she takes care of feeding a watering the Guinea pigs we have and does fine. I take care of bath time and cage clean outs. so we'd do the same with a bird. the small animals we don't have too much trouble getting care of it's a lot cheaper as far as office visits and all at our vet. it's the bigger animals like dogs that gets really expesive.
My friend has a farm and my husband and I were remembering that she treats her animals herself for the mange. I'm going to the feed store where she got the last meds for us, she treated a dog we had before for mange and it took care of it. This looks just like what happened to our other dog one time and it came on in the summer. We'll give it a shot and if that doesn't work take her in. I'm going in just a few minutes to buy the stuff. they charge something like 80.00 a week for several treatments the my friend says this is what they do the same thing I could and just charge a bunch for doing it. I'll be keeping a close eye on it because this can be a very serious condition if it does not get better.

I think right now , you have enough do deal with hun, and I wish you the best of luck with your flea problem.

I have a cockateil...Tewwt Tweet....I love him.... ..I have had him for 4 1/2 years....he sings he dances....and he talks....His favorite word is Jiffy Pop....He wil say come here jiffy pop come on boy and then he whistles....It is so cute......

oh that is so funny Kathy. It is hard for me to say no to the kids but it's also hard for me to say no to pets. now I had no intention of having 3 dogs but ended up with three then I ended up with one Guinea pig but got one more cuz she was in need of care then ended up with many. for the time being I do have a lot to keep up with. I still don't have any health insurance for my self or kids the company my hubby is with does not have a plan we can afford or even worth having. I'm taking pills to make me function right now just to get through day to day. I know this is temporary and won't stay this way for long. once we're either with a bigger company again or get better insurance and maybe we don't have quite so many pigs I'll see about a bird. I'll have all of us go through allergy test first to make sure there is no danger. for this time I'm going to find lots of info on birds and have her study about them. this will help her know when the time is right if a bird is the pet for us. also it will help us know what kind.

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cute kid she looks kinda lil 2 be picking up after a bird unless she really wants it bad. when i was lil i had 2 parakeets but mom did the cleaning thank god! they made a mess.

no I have to do the clean up of the animals cages. she's much too small for that. she does great with taking the vacuum hose and getting the junk off the floor that they toss our of their cage. and she feeds and waters. we do it with the dogs just because they are bigger and get a little crazy when your trying to fill their bowls. besides she's more of a small pet person we're the ones that are into the dogs.