perch orientation when traveling in a car

[p01137]

I will be taking my galah from LA to the SF Bay Area, about a 6 hr drive. I am planning on putting him in his travel cage. I have read it is good to cover the cage during driving but he is not used to ever having his cage covered. Do you still recommend this? I also know about accelerating and decelerating as gently as possible. I am planning to seatbelt the cage in the seat.
My main question is which direction is it best to orient the perch, so it is parallel or perpendicular to the front of the car? So he is facing forward or sideways as the car is moving? Which way will it be easier for him to balance? Any other tips for keeping him comfortable on the drive?

Thank you.

[Polarn]

I usually do not have em covered if in travelcages when driving, well.. my female brownheaded has a semicovered travelcage because shes a lot calmer in that. other than that I usually have one of them bendable ropeperches and make em int oa U-shape thingie for em to get some extra spring rather than a solid treeperch, I have no idea weather or not this is more comtible or not but I figured their easy to fit into the travelcages and they are solid enough to not constantly "boing" yet flexible enough to easen any bumps caused by potholes or their like. Oh and I have em placed kind of diagonal but since i bend the flexible perch some they can actually choose what direction to be facing, usually their looking whatever the direction they can see out through the windows. and the female brownheaded is the only one who always is in a carrier when driving the others are fine on a harness either placed on the backseat neckrest or on my shoulder.

[janetafloat]

Nice to see you here Polarn, it's been a while! Please don't recommend to anyone that they drive a car with a bird on their shoulder though - it's right up there with people driving with a child or a dog on their lap, people may well do it but it's a terrible idea, dangerous for all parties and other road users.
To the original poster, I would say that if your bird isn't usually covered then don't cover it. I've noticed when travelling with my bird that he stays on the perch closest to me. When we went travelling recently his flat platform was on the side of his travel cage nearest us in the front of the vehicle and he stayed on that the whole journey and looked pretty comfortable. On the return journey I assumed he'd sit on the platform again but mistakenly strapped the travel cage in the other way round so the round perch was nearest us in the front of the car and he stayed on that for the journey. He did okay and didn't fall off or anything but was definitely having to work at it, so I would really recommend a platform for travelling.

[marie83]

I think you need to do a few practice runs round the block first tbh and find out how your birds most comfortable as they are all different. Neither of mine will actually use a perch when traveling. Harlie prefers to sit on the floor and is calmer covered up. Ollie hates not being able to see and his preferred way of travelling is to cling to the bars facing whichever direction the nearest person is.

[Polarn]

I did not recomend it, i simply said I do it occationally. But I also said the female BH does not get todo it, simply because I do not trust her not to throw a fit and start nipping or something or to sit absolutely still. While the others sit still preening or chatting while on the shoulder, I also make sure the harness is tightened enough so that they cant reach further than my shoulder even if they tried unless I lean forward to untighten the harness thats stuck behind my shoulders.

But, I wouldn't go out in a car with a bird on my shoulder if I still was pondering weather or not I should cover the travelcage or not. And I tend to disagree with it being like driving with a child or a dog in the lap or even running loose for that matter, distractionwise perhaps. but safetywise for the bird, I am dubious about that one.. bringing the dogs their either in an as small cage as possible or in a safety belt same when driving with a child in the car their strapped up in a backturned chair.. and this is to reduce the traveldistance before a dead stop, so ultimately you want your dog to basically be leaning against the front bars of the cage if your heading for a headon collision, thats the reason why you turn a childs seat backwards.
However I have my doubts that any of my birds would be anything but terrified if put into a small enough travelcage that they have to be sitting up against the bars at all time, meaning you would still have quite a traveldistance before they hit the bars, and well birds are quite sensitive to knocking the keelbone against something. and given a traveldistance of a 1 or 2 feet travelcage they wouldnt even have the slightest chance to break down the speed before hitting the bars, while if given more room and unless you drive head on no breaking into something i think they would have enough time to create enough lift to break themselves down a bit. as far as safety for my birds I feel the safest place would probably be when they go inside my sweather on the side where the seatbelt isnt, because this would mean they have no traveldistance and no hit. other than that I doubt the birds safety isnt jepordiesed more being out of a cage than in one unless you use something like a 3"x3" and 5" high travelcage for a budgie, but finding something like that would force you to visit a gangstars jewlery store since that would be a (if not on the small side) pendant for your necklace.

Anyways it is nice to be back and catching up on old threads.

But yeah distractionwise it may be a bad idea not having them caged that much I agree on the rest I dont think really affects the end result.

[Pajarita]

Best situation is a travel cage partly covered (front side open), strapped with a seat belt in the back seat. I don't think that perch orientation matters but, come to think about it, I always put it perpendicular to the door so they are facing the front, same as if they were people sitting there.