How many birds can one person comfortably take care of? I’ve asked that of myself many times over the years. I’ve seen many cases of hoarding and neglect and it is simply heartbreaking. Many of my friends's whose vocation is adoption and rescue. They have seen the result of hoarding first hand and it’s enough to turn your stomach. It breaks their heart and it’s depressing for them because so many of these animals didn’t deserve to have to live that way.


 

The issue is pretty complicated because I don’t think there’s one person out there who ends up in this situation ever intended for it to happen. 

People who become animal hoarders have good intentions. They adopt an animal. Then another. One ends up on their doorstep and rather than taking it to a no-kill adoption agency, they simply keep it. 

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gotten calls from people who want me to take their parrot. I have three. I have on occasion fostered and placed birds with families. I know what my limit is over the long-term and that is my three African Greys.

I realize there are other people who can take care of more and that’s just fine. If you have the space, the time and the resources to take care of them and you do it well by providing for their care, cleanliness and attention requirements then please carry on. I applaud you. 

And it’s easy to make judgements of others. We see a hoarding situation on the news and we get hypercritical. That would never happen in MY home.

Do you think the person sitting in the middle of that mess they made had any intention of ending up that way? I don’t think so.

Hoarding usually happens slowly. It happens over time in tiny increments. It’s during this time when things begin to slip. The care of the animals begins to deteriorate due to the fact that when you have a lot of anything, it’s more difficult to keep everything up. More birds means more cleaning, more feeding, more bowls and dishes to wash and more sweeping and general housekeeping. It also means more supplies you must buy; food, toys, cages etc. It can get overwhelming. 

The people working at the rescues and adoption agencies grow weary of seeing this time after time and it gets to them. Their job is placing birds and I’m sure they get fatigued from it. It probably makes them a little gun shy about placing those birds. And yet if they don’t, they are defeating the entire purpose of what they are attempting to do in the first place. It’s a twisted dichotomy. But you have to bite the bullet and continue to do the work of finding homes for the birds that need them. 

And if they don’t do this, why do they call themselves an adoption agency? I have a friend who applied to an agency to adopt a macaw. She was denied the adoption because she had a job. Really? She had a full time job and they wouldn’t let her adopt this bird? How in the world did they expect her to care for the bird if she didn't have an income? Well, I can tell you that the agency who denied her is no longer in the business of placing birds. And my friend? She found another macaw at another adoption organization and her macaw is happily free-flying in a large bird room with a small flock of friends and is being beautifully cared for. 

Most of the people I know in adoption are well-balanced regarding this issue. They carefully screen applicants and try and ensure that the right bird goes into the right home. They are pros at this and successfully place hundreds of birds into deserving homes each year.

Best Friends Animal Society’s Parrot Garden is a perfect example of balance in motion. They keep around 100 birds in their care at one time. They have a full time staff of six, four of whom work at the Garden each day giving the other two their days off. And of course, Parrot Garden Manager Jacqueline Johnson is there to oversee this balance. They base their care schedule on the ability of these staff members to get the job done during the day seven days a week. Naturally they have volunteers who come in to help, but if there are no volunteers that day, they still must keep their numbers consistent with their staff being able to care for those birds. They base their formula on about 25 birds for each person to care for in an eight hour day. This is also based on the fact that they have flights with many smaller birds that are easier to maintain than if they were all  in individual habitats. This formula works within their labor budget and the amount of space they have. As birds are adopted, the birds on the waiting list are admitted. And so it goes. But their formula remains the same as that is what they know they can comfortably handle. 

While hoarding does happen to individuals, it can also happen to non-profits who find they simply cannot say “No” to birds that need to be placed. This blows their budget, the place isn’t well cared for and it all goes downhill. There is a term for this. It’s called “Institutional Hoarding.”

This is what Jacqueline carefully avoids every day with her formula and budget. The Parrot Garden never gets in over its head and the staff maintains an absolutely gorgeous facility. The flights and cages are kept clean and the birds are given the time and attention they need. The place chugs along seamlessly. This is due to good management, the ability to properly schedule their labor and their ability to efficiently place birds in good homes, bring in birds that need homes and utilize a waiting list in order to make sure that the birds they have are well taken care of. 

This is hard to balance and it’s a fine line but they pull it off every day and they do it beautifully. 

National Center for Prosecution of Animal Abuse (NCPAA) has a definition for hoarding: “Someone who accumulates a large number of animals: Fails to provide minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation and veterinary care and fails to act on the deteriorating condition of the animals (including disease, starvation and even death) or the environment, (severe overcrowding, extremely unsanitary conditions) or the negative effect of the collection on their own heath and well-being and on that of other household members.”

How can you avoid getting into this? I don’t have the answer for you, but I know what it is for me. I have room for four birds but not on a consistent basis. I care for three birds and because I have a job other than writing and I have help with my birds when I am not at home. That fourth position is for when I am in an extraordinary position to foster a bird for placement now and again. But it is not ever a permanent thing. 

I know my limits and I know what I am capable of. Setting your boundaries and sticking to them will afford you the luxury of being able to properly care for the birds you have. It also prevents having to have someone else come in and straighten out a problem you have created. 

Knowing what you can cope with and maintaining that limit will ensure that the birds you have will remain with you and be well taken care of. This in turn will keep the strain off of the adoption agencies. This is a winning combination for all of us. Take good care of them. And take good care of yourself.