Have you ever surrendered or sold one of your pets?

I’m trying to, I have a parrot, he is yours if you want him.

“Free parrot?” I hear you ask, “surely there must be a catch” I hear you say. Well… yes, one small catch, the parrot is the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, I’m sure of it. If you let it out of the cage, it will fly at your face claws first. He likes to say “give me your hand” and then bite you when you do. He is eeeevil.

He is fine with me, buy as soon as he even sees anyone else, he will size them up, and then take on a more dominant position in his cage.

Animal lovers: his cage is always open if its just me and him, and even when it’s closed, it’s a massive cage, I could fit in it easy.

My husband had a terrible mismatch with a dog.

He desperately wanted a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever. We searched for a litter, interviewed breeders, and found a litter sired by the same dog who sired his favorite Toller.

95% of the time, Rio was a wonderful dog- intense, smart, incredibly trainable, responsive. But, as he matured, he developed a severe case of possession and place aggression, which was amplified by my husband not giving him enough exercise, consistency, or discipline. He repeatedly attacked our other dogs, sometimes sending them to the vet. On more than one occasion, he bit my husband when he tried to take something from Rio; once requiring a hospital visit. He would snap if he was suddenly woken from sleep, once biting my husband’s face.

My husband took him to a behaviorist, but he simply couldn’t- or wouldn’t- follow through with his recommendations and training schedule.

In the right hands, with someone who would give him the structure and consistency he needed, Rio was a great dog- he never bit me, and as an only dog he would make an incredible working animal.

So, we sent him back to his breeder (with full knowledge of what Rio was capable of), who eventually rehomed him. As far as we know, it went well. It was horribly, horribly diffcult, but in the end it was probably the best thing for all involved.

Never. And I never would.

I had to give 2 cats. I did not have enough time to nurture them. I’m really happy I gave them to neighbours close to home and I could see them a lot.

My daughter had an Austrailian Shepard, and she lived alone, and was always gone to work. That breed of dog gets nervous when it doesn’t have work to do, and he needed company.
It broke my daughters heart to give him up, but she made the right choice. She needed to think of his needs, not hers.

We took a dog home from the SPCA thinking we could love her back to happy, but we couldn’t. The vet asked me if I would want to live feeling scared all the time, so he put her to sleep.

When I was a kid, I used to adopt stray cats and dogs and nurse them back to health. I kept them as pets for months until I found someone who would adopt them. Everytime one of my “pets” got adopted, I felt very sad and would feel like that for weeks. Even when I look back today, I still feel a tinge of sadness about that one cat or dog I always had to give to someone else (because my parents refused to let me own too many). I did manage to keep two dogs and two cats when I was growing up, however.

@marinelife

Out of curiosity, what would you do if faced with a situation like my husband’s?

@poisonedantidote .. Had the same problem with a SA conure.. It had been passed down fro one family to another because of it’s insatiable skwaking until it came to us then we left the cage open (sitaution cured).. The ‘lil guy detested guitars and hats (probably how it was transported under cover).. He would dive bomb any one who came near the house but once they made it inside they were his.. Everybody hated him because he was rude, crude and always in a mood but we loved him until he finally bit the dust.. Went out skwaking as well..

Thank you for the replies! Please keep ‘em coming.

No, I would never sell my pet (that would mean someone else owned him/her and I would no longer have a say as to their treatment) however I have given a few away with the understanding that I could take them back if I thought they were mistreated (but never had to).