I was browsing at my local "big chain" petstore the other day, as I'm wont to do; I don't demonize these establishments, though I'm increasingly uneasy with the idea of buying animals from them. Still, I do enjoy going and looking in on the animals there, checking to be sure they're being cared for properly, and chatting with the other shoppers and staffers. On this occasion, I wandered over to the parakeets, and stood for some time, watching their antics and enjoying their chattering. And that's when I had a small epiphany.
Parakeets are designed by nature to be flock birds, as most birds are. But with parakeets, those flocks can be hundreds or thousands strong. I'd love to see one in person someday; it must be a real sight for the soul. My point is, which I realized with a bit of a start, parakeets are not meant to be solitary birds with only humans as companions. Nature simply didn't make them that way.
In most pet stores, parakeets are now kept in large-ish enclosures that give them ample room to flutter their feather-clipped wings and socialize with other members of a flock in relative harmony. This is the only life they have ever known since leaving their nest - life as part of a flock. If you stand and watch parakeets in a pet store, they are constantly interacting with one another - grooming, playing, courting. This is their entire life, and their definition of happiness.
Enter the human. Most people who buy parakeets buy one, and only one. In fact, some people believe that in order to bond with your parakeet, you MUST have only one, or they will bond with each other and not with you. I don't know the truth or falsehood behind that statement, but what I do know is that it must be a jarring and traumatizing experience for the bird - to be suddenly removed from their flock, the only family they have ever known, popped into a cardboard box, and emerge into solitary confinement in a much smaller habitat than they have ever known in their short lives.
Birds are not meant to be solitary creatures... note the aforementioned flock environment... but neither were they designed by nature to befriend humans. Parakeets are not domesticated animals. They are TAME animals, exotic pets that are, at their core, still identical to their wild counterparts. Trapped in a small cage all by themselves, deprived of their flock, they will eventually seek out interaction and companionship with the next best thing - their human caretakers - but the damage to their small minds and hearts must be devastating. There's a reason why torturers use solitary confinement as the ultimate punishment for human prisoners, and a reason why Stockholm Syndrome (a condition where a captive will begin to empathize with, even care for, his or her captor) exists - social creatures cannot tolerate being on their own. Birds forcibly removed from a flock will ultimately turn to humans for companionship, yes... but it's because they have to, not because they want to.
Watching the parakeets play and socialize together in the pet store that day, I decided then and there that I'd never buy a bird from a pet store again.
If I ever do decide to get a bird, I'll find myself a rescue or a breeder who has socialized their birds to humans in a caring and nurturing way, so that a friendship between bird and human can happen in a proper way - not as a result of emotional starvation. And if I get a bird, I won't get just one. I'll get two... not a substitute for a flock, maybe, but better than nothing. If I befriend a bird, I want my friendship to take place on level ground... not because I'm manipulating an animal's hardwired need for companionship to suit my own desires.