upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

... my account was disabled because I posted featherpicking & feedingfeather yahoo group links....

Someone was in desperate need of help with their plucking B&W macaw and they posted the situation on the New York Bird Club / Manhattan Bird Club's forum seeking advice.

A person who named themself "OMG" posted this right after:

What do you want us to say -- this is a wild bird that belongs in the rainforests. He needs to fly and be with his own flock, not a bunch of humans. OMG!! really?? I didn't know that. I just plopped down $3,000 that I paid for it. OMG? I thought I was getting a stuffed animal. Is this really alive????? You mean it poops....you mean it screams...you means it is unhappy living inside a cage??? OMG. It is alive!!!! Eeeks!!! Help!!!

I then posted TRUE words of advise and directed them to both the featherpicking yahoo group and the feeding feather yahoo group for help and recipes on mash.

Within minutes, I could no longer log in and my membership was disabled.

I then received the following:
Please do not send the folks to other websites. It is bad manners, and you are violating the rules of the board.

Cheers,
Anna

However, they consistantly have abusive "people" under names of "OMG" or "Idiot" to bash those who own birds and are in help and in need....

I'm just truly saddened and can only hope for the best for the B&G macaw.
Susan (Puppy & Einstein)

If the bird's parront is smart enough to be able to help her plucking bird, she'll need to be smart enough to find her way to a more helpful forum. And you're better off too, I feel, leaving a board that has such a rule. Forums go through developmental stages, and need admins who adapt the rules to the changing stages. The fear of letting members know about other resources usually comes as membership is shrinking. There's usually good reason for the slump. I have no sympathy about any bird forum that would consider it bad manners to suggest a member read also at other forums and especially the specialized two you suggested. JMHO

I just truly hope that those people seeking help will go elsewhere and not think that all bird communities and forums are like that. Heck, I could have even sent them HERE for advice, but I would have gotten the same response. but ... I'm not allowed to post links.

Sad because I could recommend the proper seeds (I didn't like the brand the poster was using), but that would have meant posting a link to order the better seeds (not always found in stores) ... and that's just not allowed.

Oh well, I'll hang out here a while. LoL!

... and since they disabled me, I won't be getting their e-mails from distraught owners so I won't be inclined to act. ... some of the e-mails, from the group, seemed a little fanatic to begin with. There were warning signs.

Ok. We move on.

I gotta go clean two bird cages. Yay! I've been using peroxide and vinegar lately.... Stopped using Dentagene cause all the warnings on the lable....

BTW, there are so many cruel posts under different and various names on that forum like "OMG" and "Idiot" ... in order to call someone an idiot (!) that I'm beginning to think that the cruel and "yelling" posts are done by ... staff (???)! How could the names change according to the post? How could it be allowed? (OMG posted something that said "OMG" in the message. "Idiot" called someone an "idiot" in their posting....). I hope that I'm wrong. I know the admin is very passionate about her views ....

Better to put the passion in being kind and making sure bird owners are well informed.... Because in the end ... the BIRDS suffer....

I went and looked briefly at the site and it seems to be geared much more towards animal activists in the "I know more and I am smarter than you" mode than a place to talk and chat and brag or even ask for help about your feathered friends.

Freddy

Can you imagine parrot parents going on the forums asking serious questions and then being yelled at? It's terrible. Actually, they removed me from the forum just because I posted 2 yahoo group links (without a warning). The groups/links I recommended are not selling anything, but just giving real good advice. But she left me on the mailing list so I would receive desperate messages (one about an african grey who broke his/her breast bone). I tried to log on to help, but I'm denied. I over and over ask them to unsubscribe me so I don't have to read these desperate families who I can't even give advice to. Finally, I think I'm removed from the e-mails too.

So sad. We have a good community here and elsewhere. They are just angry....

Susan, Puppy, Einstein