InsaneJournal

...


Oh, my mother. My mother.

My littlest brother has been given a bird for his birthday. He's been talking about wanting a bird for months so I thought that the responsibility of having a bird had been covered. That it'd been discussed, that books had been borrowed, information sought on the internet etc.

I found out that no one tested the cage my brother had been given by someone (thus putting the idea of a bird in his head in the first place) with a lead testing kit. Because they didn't consider that a bird would be as susceptible to lead as a child, more so since it is so. much. smaller.

They haven't investigated what temperature the house should be. They hadn't looked up what they can feed the bird (outside of birdseed/feed). They didn't know they need to change the water every day to avoid all possibility of bacterial infection.

The bird's already bitten my brother because someone held it too tight and they moved it around today. The cage they originally had it in, my brother hadn't thought to clean it. They also were not prepared with non toxic ink newspaper, etc to line the bottom of the cage. He also hadn't thought to wash the toys that came with one cage, or to investigate other toys - though toys can be specific to the breed of bird so that's not too bad.

They don't have anything big enough to cover the bigger cage with so it can sleep. And they did have the cage ahead of time to know how big it was.

And while I was on the phone with my mom to find out what was going on - I heard her complaining about how my littlest brother forgets to feed his dog. And she's getting fed up with reminding him and feeding the dog herself. *face palm* Then I out the dog doesn't have regular feed bowls because he has not been trained not to destroy his bowls. Though if his bowls are halved water bottles then they're likely so light a hungry dog would consider them things to bat around.

And he's just told me the bird's water and food bowls don't clip to the side of the cage to avoid waste.

And...

I just. I don't understand what's going on in my mother's house and how things are so damn confused. I don't understand my mother and stepfather's living arrangements. I don't understand how they could be so ill prepared for a pet they -knew- they were going to get him. I do not understand them not borrowing books or looking up information online (the whole family) to know about taking care of the bird.

My mother didn't even know what kind of bird she wanted for him specifically. And she ended up surprised when I said 'That's a real big commitment because they live so long' And she was all 'How long' do they live.' And I was all 'Well African Greys, I think are the ones who live for 100 years'. And she was all 'Oh, that explains why people leave money to them, for their care then.'

*so much face palm*

I can't talk about this anymore. I don't understand how I grew up to do research and ask questions and take certain kind of responsibilities. I had a talk last night with my mother about the older of my brothers and she let some things drop that just - yes, they have to deal with the constant parental fighting so I'm not really thinking of them as spoiled so much as their parents trying to balance out an obvious disadvantage. But I just...

*shakes head*

ETA: I forgot about his turtles - which aren't eating.