Travel with a Parrot

[jparrothead]

So my brother is getting married and I need to be away from home for 5 days and nights. Darwin my (at the time of the wedding) 5 month old Green Cheeked Conure is obviously a major priority right now and I want to make good decision

Now, I have some 'options' here, in, to me, ascending order of best options.

1) Leave the bird with a 'bird sitter' who lives a few miles away. She has finches and a few budgies (separate cages). She also has a cat and a large dog. I am worried about leaving my GCC with her though, as I am concerned about my bird acquiring bad habits (e.g. noises) or worse (illness) from the birds. Plus I don't trust her cat or dog--they may be fine, and she might trust them, but I do not know enough. And I am afraid she could reinforce bad habits. And it is a new home (though I would use its relatively large sleep cage as its cage).

2) Have this same bird sitter come to my home and visit and care for my bird. The concerns here are a) having this woman come into my home (not optimal) b) the bird only getting small amounts of attention and being 'bored.' And that it could lose some its handleability and tameness. The advantage is that it would be in its own cage in familiar environment.

3) Take the bird with me. I am traveling by car (about 5 hours each way). There will be four adults and one Pomeranian in the mid-sized SUV. So i would need something compact and secure for the car ride. Then I would need adequate housing (a 'travel cage') that would not distress the bird and give it enough space to be happy enough those 5 nights and days. It would get less time each day with me than it is used to (probably just a couple hours a day while I am there), but at least it knows I am around in this new place, and can continue the basic training and handling and shoulder fun we have.

You can probably tell which way I am leaning. Things are going really well so far and I do not want to mess them up or hurt the bond or risk bad behaviors to arise.

If I take Darwin with me, I think i would have a small travel case (like the really small carriers for birds) with a Happy Hut, some toys etc. And then a travel cage, probably with the 14x18x14 or similar dimensions. I am not thrilled about these dimensions, but i am not sure what other choices I would have, given the space limitations both in the car and at the home. Something like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Avian-Adv ... al_qh_dp_i

But perhaps this trip itself could pose problems for the relationship too? So I am still not certain what I will do.

Any advice or thoughts on this would be very appreciated!

[Wolf]

If you take bird with you, will you have own room with door?
lockable door would be even better.
If so ,then small size cage may not be too big of a problem.

[jparrothead]

Thanks Wolf. Yes, I will have my own room. But I will not be able to leave the cage door open all day for the bird to go around. He is still re-growing his flight feathers and I cannot let it poop all over or harm the home he is staying in without me around.

[Wolf]

True but you would be able to give the bird more time out of cage safely with a locking door as no one could open door at wrong time releasing or injuring bird.

[KimberlyAnn]

We traveled with our green cheek when she was that young. 3.5 hours each way. She LOVED it. But some birds just don't, from what I read. It can be very stressful on them and moat here will tell you to have someone come to your house...that's the least stressful even if they don't have interaction with you.

But we did just what you are saying. I fed Emmi pellets through the bars and water from a dish when we stopped. She played, slept, yelled at the motorcycles and ducked when we went under an overpass. She did very well on my lap or my husbands while driving. While at the cabin we stayed at, she was normal and we brought babywipes to clean up messes, but we also brought sheets to put under her. She played mostly on the bed. Zip ties worked great to lock cage doors just in case! People forget about open car doors!

But just make sure your parrot gets used to all the cages before you go...and the car. Taking short drives might tell you if this is even an option or not I would think.

[JaydeParrot]

I take my two sennies travelling alot, they travel in a small dog carrier with a flexi rope perch that has both screw top ends, I attach them to the see through roof of the cage. They have a bowl of oranges (for liquid intake) and sunflower seeds attached to the door, newspaper on the floor, zip ties to hold the carrier together and the door on top of the carrier closed. There's also a plastic rope tied around the holes in the back of the cage, the other end is tied to the front door of the carrier when the parrots are insides to help make sure the door doesn't accidently open, and also gives the birs something else to perch on. The carrier is very similar to the one Michael has for Truman, he also shows a video on how to make a good parrot carrier.

DO NOT keep the parrot carrier in the foot well or car boot, they really need to be on a seat or on someone's knee as the lack of oxygen could quickly make your bird very ill.

Hope that helped, I personally brought a ferret cage for my birds to live in while on holiday, it comes apart and goes back together quite easily but you may have to make sure the taken apart cage would fit in the car first.

[Shelby]

I am not sure when your trip is, but you could get a small travel cage now and start taking your bird on short trips in the car with you to nice places, like a park or something, to get it accustomed to being in a car. You can also start training it to drink from a cage bottle so you can be sure it will be able to have water accessible all the time while traveling.

If your bird is friendly with other people, you could even use the trip as socialization.

[marie83]

Take the bird with you if you have time to do carrier/travel cage training, a few short trips etc. If not then get a pet sitter to visit yours and spend time with her. You are employing them effectively even though they are self employed so you dictate how long you want them there, how many times a day etc. Interview as many as you can then choose the one you feel most comfortable with who has experience. A pet sitter who does it for living is best but someone doing it for an extra bit of cash may also be ok if they have experience. I must admit I wouldn't want a stranger in my house but at the same time someone who is coming in to tend your pets is unlikely to steal from you -they want future customers not a trashed reputation.

[KimberlyAnn]

How did your trip go?