yorkies and birds?

[chele]

hi
I am new to the forum. I am looking into getting a yorkie. I wanted to know how yorkies do with birds. I have 2 parrots now an african grey and a baby greenwing macaw. I am afraid to bring another dog into the house without knowing how most of them do with birds. My grey opens her cage and climbs out and the greenwing is tiny she's still handfeeding and very fragile and will be for several more months. We have other dogs and they love parrots. We have a jack russel that I was told should be fine as long as he was raised from a puppy with birds... he wasnt'. Last fall he got our quaker out of it's cage and ate him while we were gone. We were all heartbroken.
I wanted more info before we got another dog. I know there is always a chance of something happening with dogs and birds but I at least want it to be less of a chance.


anything you can tell me would be helpful.
thanks

[elegntorchid]

I think it depends on the dog itself. We have a cockatoo and Tonee has never done more than sniff him (that beak can be intimidating).We have had her since she left her mom. We just got another yorkie and he is about 1 1/2, he has not even really noticed the bird, but he is still a little scared of the new place and new people so we will see how he does. We have to get special locks for Najee's cage to keep him in. He will eat the whole house other wise.

Sorry about your other bird, we had one get out and a local cat got it.

[Dawn125]

I have an eclectus which is about the size of an african gray. The bird holds his own with all my pets (2 yorkies, 1 larger dog and a cat). The cat is the only one that I have had longer then the bird. I just introduced each pet to the parrot and let the parrot snap at them when they got too close. They pretty much only tried it once and now steer clear of the bird. I didn't let the bird hurt the dogs, of course, just let them make a point. I don't take any chances though and never let the bird out around the dogs unsupervised.

[JeanieK]

I don't have any birds, but wanted to Welcome you to YT. there are a lot of nice people here and there is always someone that can answer your questions.

[yorky4ME]

Hi! Welcome to YT! I have a greenwing as well....... and 6 dogs! 5 yorkies and a maltese! But I had my dogs first and Maeson (my FID) came to us a few months! They were all very curious about his the first few days but lost interest very quickly! Maeson is always supervised when he is on his playstand.... which just soooo happpens to be the family room where my furbabies are! I think we all get along soooooo well. Maeson is starting to learn how to make spitballs and shoot it at my yorkies... the brat! But my yorkies just really want the nuts he throws at them. Otherwise.... life in our house is quite normal!

[GeorgiesMomma]

First off welcome to YT this is an awesome place for information. I will tell you and I could be wrong but Yorkies seem to be thefriendlier with other animals than most dogs. Georgie is so sweet to everyone and every animal. I guess it depends on the dog as well and how you introduce them to each other. I am suprised someone said a Jack Russell would be good with birds, my brother has 2 Jacks and they are extremely wild. Good luck with your search. I am bias but I love Yorkies

[SnowWa]

When I got my Yorkie pup - I had the most darling, tame, affectionate, playful little Sun Conure in the world (a small parrot). My other two dogs totally ignored this little bird and we never had any problems.

The little Conure needed to be out of the cage often, and he loved to socialize and play with everyone. But everytime he fluttered to the floor (which he was doing more and more often - his clipped wings were growing out and he was learning to fly).... the little Yorkie would come out of nowhere and be right on top of him. The little pup wasn't mean or aggressive at all, but thought the little bird was the most wonderful toy in the world. He would pounce on him....which could just as easily hurt or kill him.

After I save my little bird's life three or four times - I had to find a new home for him (which I did - and I was fortunate to find a wonderful home for him).

Anyway you can't imagine how much I miss that little guy. He was very bonded to me and rode around on my shoulder and played with me for hours every day.

Sad - sad. I am going to get another bird - but a canary or some other species that will be happy and safe staying in its cage 100% of the time.

As far as birds and dogs go - it depends a lot on the particular bird or dogs you have. My bird went to a new home that has three other birds and two rotties (who could care less about the birds). However, just because it's cute, I want to share with you that one of their birds - a large cockatoo - sleeps with one of the dogs every night. It roosts on top of the dog - settles in and puts its head under its wing and that's the way they sleep.

Good luck! --


Carol Jean

[SnowWa]

Me again - just posted about my Yorkie and my little bird.

Please go to the Member Galleries (under SnowWa) - and see a picture of Murphy and Tequila (my Yorkie and bird) the first day they met. It really is a cute picture - and just makes me miss Tequila even more.

Carol Jean

[diva pup]

I have an African grey and 2 yorkies. If you remember they are still terriers at heart and exercise caution they should all be able to live together. I do not let my grey on the floor with the yorkies EVER. I know my little boy would think that is great sport.

[chele]

hello again,
thanks for all the replies. I'm definantly consideringa yorkie. we have other dogs too we have a neapolitan mastiff ( a giant but the sweetest gentlest dog ever) and a basset hound and of course the jack russel ( we're trying to find him a home without as many temptations for him. I was a bit worried about the basset hound my husband got him for me for christmas a couple years ago but he is the best of all of them. The only thing he chases is flies and moths, he loves all animails other dogs rabbits horses and birds everytime the birds make a new noise he has to check on them. lol and tank my neo is too lazy to do much.
they are still supervised with my parrots especially the african grey. She decided the most fun game would be to mimic my voice and call the basset into her cage and lock him in with her ( that's how we found out she could open the cage) We watch them very closely with her but the jack russel you can barlely blink before he's into something. my grey can be nippy so she tries to show she's boss in a hurry but after she decides she likes someone she can be really sweet lol her favorive one is this house is the basset I think he even outranks me somedays.
It sounds like with a yorkie a baby gate would work when she's out.I'll keep watching the post and do some more checking but sounds like we may have found what we are looking for.
oh and about them telling me a jack russel would be ok .... they leave out a lot about them otherwise I think there would be many many homeless JRs. We were expecting hyper and playful and soooo full of energy.... just werent't expecting evil. He may eb a special case tho because the others of his breed I have been around weren't at all like him.

[SnowWa]

One thing I did the last few weeks I had the little bird with my Yorkie --- was hook the little Yorkie up to a generous (about 15 feet) on the other side of the room when the bird was out. This way, he had a lot of room to move around in - and I didn't have to worry about him being able to reach the bird.

And the Yorkie didn't mind being hooked up for a while. More often than not, he would just jump on his favorite chair and take a nap.

But because an occasional accident still happened, I rehomed my bird to a wonderful home (this is the key)...... and I'll get another bird that will be happy staying in its cage 100% of the time - and no one will ever get hurt.

Carol Jean

[deb4air]

I think yorkies love Birds ..See Miss mini does ..

[megan_kat22]

Well, my experience with bird vs. yorkie is quite interesting. We used to have a quaker also. When Tucker didn't have complete access to Kiwi he was fine, and quite scared, just a little curious. But one day while we were gone Kiwi got out of his cage and Tucker was out too. I came home and started calling for Kiwi and there was no sound. He wasn't in his cage, I was horrified. If Tucker had eaten him Tucker was in deep trouble because animal protein makes him deathly sick. So I was in a panic searching for the bird. Finally I found small drops of blood in my brother's old room, and found Kiwi hiding under the dresser, completely petrified and... Tailess. Yes, tailess. Tucker had pulled out his long tail-feathers. After we found he was okay, the whole thing was quite comical... our formally beautiful Quaker parrot now resembled a turkey.. lol. But anyways, we figure Tucker had chased him around and I think unless Kiwi had found that place that Tucker couldn't get him he would be dead. So, I too think it just depends on the dog. But just be very careful I guess. Good luck, sorry I rambled

[BamaFan121s]

I think it depends on the dog. I have a Cockatiel that Trixie would snatch up in a heartbeat if she got the chance. On the other hand, I had a pit/rot/beagle mix that used to let our parakeet eat from it bowl and bite his nose daily.

[dskeeter1983]

Hey my mom has 7 birds all dove's , China seems to be doing good around them when I go over there . She barks at them but after the first couple try's of that she stops barking and finds somthing to play with .