Parakeet cages filled a room in a modest house in South Anchorage. The birds’ chattering and chirping mixed with country music coming from a boombox below the cages.
As the music swelled at the refrain “Somebody pour me a drank” the birds’ chirping increased, followed by loud squawks.
The sound keeps them company, Karen Rappe said. She hasn’t tried out other kinds of music.
“They get country, and that's it,” she said, laughing.
Rappe is retired, and has fostered parakeets for years, but right now she has more than usual.
That’s because one man decided to let his birds mate, uncontrolled, she said.
“You start out with two or four,” she said, “and pretty soon you're pushing 50.”
It’s part of a larger problem. It’s getting increasingly hard to find homes for cage birds like parakeets, parrots and macaws. The situation’s not entirely new though. People get the birds without realizing quite how loud they are, or how high maintenance they can be. But now, the problem is getting worse because in Anchorage, and around the state, the senior population has more than doubled in the last 15 years.
When older people go into assisted living, die, or move down South, their birds often need a new home. The original owner of those 48 parakeets moved South, Rappe said. She found homes for the first batch of 20 earlier this year. They were babies, she said. They were cute and easy to adopt out. She’s working through the rest now, but it’s slow going. The parakeet market is flooded, she said.
Amber Morris is with the Alaska Bird Club, which helps rescue and rehome cage birds like macaws and cockatiels. The man called the club, she said, asking for help rehoming the parakeets when he realized he couldn’t keep them. It’s something she’s seeing more and more.
“Birds owners are leaving them, not necessarily by choice,” she said.
In the past, she said, it was more common for the club to rehome birds when young people went away to school. Sometimes owners developed allergies, or gave the birds up when they got married. But over the last decade more and more elders are needing to rehome their birds.
It’s an issue everywhere, she said.
“It's not just our populace in Alaska that's getting older,” she said. “So there are a lot of people who are relinquishing birds. There are a lot of homeless birds.”
The bigger birds can live a long time, she said, 80 to 90 years. That’s a lot of life left when elderly people can’t take care of their parrots or cockatiels anymore.
When a bird needs a new home, the club writes up what Morris calls a “singles ad.” Sometimes that’s easy, if the bird is beautiful, cuddly and has a sparkling personality. Sometimes, it’s not.
The thing about birds, Morris said, is they’re a very…specific type of pet.
Some parrots can scream really loudly. In your house, she said, that’s not always fun.
And they’re messy.
“Birds don't have lips, and so whenever they eat, food goes everywhere,” she said.
But they can be wonderful for the right person, Morris said.
“It makes you look a little less crazy when you talk to a pet that actually can talk back to you,” she said.
They’re beautiful, they can be very snuggly and they’re interesting to watch, she said. And they’re great imitators: they might cry like a baby or offer to take the dog for a walk.
But it is important to find the right fit, Morris said. They can have strong personalities, like the African grey parrot a few years ago that really hated women. A real misogynist, Morris said. But it worked out, she said, because soon afterward, a gay couple applied to adopt the parrot.
Generally, Morris said, she worries less about the parakeets. They’re easier to rehome because they’re less loud, less messy and less of a commitment in terms of lifespan. They’re great for people who don’t have experience with birds.
Bigger birds, like cockatoos, macaws and African grey parrots, are the hardest to adopt out, Morris said. They are not starter birds. That's especially true when they've been living with someone for a long time, like when older people have to give up their birds, or die.
But sometimes the bird can’t be rehomed, Morris said. That’s what keeps her up at night, worrying.
She’s thinking about the birds she’s seen living in dark garages, or in closets with the door shut.
But Karen Rappe, standing in her bird room, said she doesn’t think it’ll come to that for the parakeets.
“Eventually homes will come,” she said. “I'm hoping.”
