Is it safe to dress up birds like people do their dogs/cats? Little sweaters, ectect or would it hurt their feathers?
Depends on a few factors, I do not recommend dressing up birds for a few reasons:
1) If people start seeing birds in dresses and shirts it increases the odds of people buying a bird as a toy for their child, resulting in the bird being horribly mistreated or sent off to shelters and increasing in more bad breeders
2) People may start wanting their bird to wear clothing when the bird does not like it, resulting in a bird being forced in to clothes, biting, becoming aggressive and either abused or sent off to shelters
3) Companies would start producing clothing that isn’t safe for birds, clothing that doesn’t stretch enough which would restrict their chest movements and suffocate them
4) Not all birds like things touching their feathers, the constant ruffling and handling may stress them out and cause them to become ill or rip their feathers out.
5) People may leave the clothes on overnight, the bird could get stuck hanging off of something because it was unsupervised which may cause it to become dehydrated, starve, or suffocate
6) People touching their feathers every day with grimy hands may cause them to rip out their feathers due to our sweat amongst other things
7) Wearing it too frequently can bend and break feathers, too much friction may also cause feather to moult out and continuous friction may make them not come back
The clothing that is for sale for birds, the small hoodies and things, are designed initially for one purpose, if a bird is plucking. The hoodies can help stop the bird from pulling out it’s feathers, it is less stressful than a cone for some birds and once they all grow in the bird is not as stressed and may stop plucking all together. If a bird has plucked so often that the feathers stopped growing back the hoodies are then used for insulation. Some people also use them for flying birds outdoors when it’s too cold, I don’t think we should be doing that since a hoodie could easily restrict movement and make them crash, catch on a branch, and if the bird were to somehow get away there’s a higher risk of them getting stuck somewhere and caught by a predator. If it’s too cold to fly outside just don’t go outside.
