Parrots and Travel

[marie83]

What I don't understand is:

-putting bird in a cage on the seat. Bird is high enough to see out the windows. Bird gets enrichment from seeing trees and people and whatever else is out there. Bird is a little bit safer in a crash. If seatbelt is around cage then a little bit safer still. Bird is near owner so feels good! Bird is restrained if it displays an unexpected or new behaviour. Carrier may pop and lead to escape anyway.

Bird loose in car- bird is high enough to see out windows. Bird gets enrichment from scenery/people outside car. Bird is near owner so is happy. Bird is at higher risk of injury or escape from a crash. Bird may distract driver- just once is enough. You can never 100% predict animal behaviour. If your driving and concentrating on the road then your not watching your birds body language and are even less able to predict the unexpected.

Both methods have the same benefits but only one reduces the negatives.
There are no benefits to having your bird loose while the car is in motion. Stationary is a different matter and I do have Ollie out when parked up.

[ParrotsForLife]

Nothing can happen if your bird is loose in the car wearing a harness or flightsuit if there are more than one person in the car.

[marie83]

I don't know about birds but with dogs more are injured from harnesses and the injuries worse than crated dogs. I still wouldn't want to risk it personally.
I should imagine it's still better than nothing if the leash is short enough though.

[liz]

For some reason, just at this moment, I thought about the air bag. I have always put a piece of wood on the front seat to level it and put the cage there. Then I strap it in with a seat belt. If I had an accident it probably would have smashed my baby.

When Rachel moved all her critters to my house they were all in cages. When I was getting the cages out one had been damaged and it was empty. Walker, a quaker, was out. He did not know me and did not know where he was. If he had not been really socialized he would be gone. He was sitting on the top of the back seat waiting to be rescued. Even cages can get messed up in a crash but a loose scared bird would get away from the noise and would be hard to find. And that is if the human rescuers even knew to look for a bird. Without a cage how would they know?

[Pajarita]

Nothing can happen if your bird is loose in the car wearing a harness or flightsuit if there are more than one person in the car.

Unless you are in an accident.

[Pajarita]

For some reason, just at this moment, I thought about the air bag. I have always put a piece of wood on the front seat to level it and put the cage there. Then I strap it in with a seat belt. If I had an accident it probably would have smashed my baby.

That's why it's safer to put them in the back seat, Liz.

[Pajarita]

You make some good points. I may not have phrased my thinking properly. I understand the odds of risk are the same and greater exposure just increases the likelihood that the risk would occur at least once in that greater interval.

What I think is important is not only to understand what risks we are taking with our pets but also if these risks are purely for us, purely for them, or mutually beneficial. And no one on this forum or who owns a parrot is completely guilt free. Everyone who has chosen to own a parrot did so for themselves and not the parrot. In the case of rescues, they are improving the situation compared to before but probably still not as good as being in the wild from the start. This isn't a point worth arguing much about but I just want everyone to realize that no one who owns a parrot is completely perfect because from the initial choice to have a parrot as a pet we are making a selfish decision for our own benefit. It is just up to us to make its life with us as fulfilling and safe as possible. However, this has to be within our capabilities and budgets.

Yes, We need to balance safety with fullfillment.... well said.

I don't agree with the premise that everybody who owns a parrot did it out of a selfish decision. This only applies to people who either buy a baby or adopts just to have a pet. There are people who take in animals simply because the animal needs a good home and not for their own benefit. Marc Johnson usually makes a point of this saying that no parrot should be adopted because the human wants it but only because the parrot needs it -and he is not the only one who feels this way. So, if you look at it this way, the 'fulfillment' versus 'safety' takes a completely different aspect...

[Wolf]

I have no pat answers, I disagreed with seagoatdeb recently over the idea of allowing bird to roam freely in the passenger compartment of a moving motor vehicle, but it was not because of her personal choice to allow this, it was only due to encouraging other people of unknown abilities to do the same.
There are times that even if we do not agree with it that we must simply allow the person to evaluate the risks for themselves and hope for the best. There is always a possibility of an accident just as certainly as it is possible to drive safely with an animal free inside of the vehicle. I do not think it is a good idea but that is my choice hers is different. I also am not in favor of free flying a parrot outside due to the risks involved, but there are those that do not agree with me on this either and free fly their birds.
There has to be room for us to share and still allow for this type of disagreement.

[ParrotsForLife]

Nothing can happen if your bird is loose in the car wearing a harness or flightsuit if there are more than one person in the car.

Unless you are in an accident.

Thats completely different of course something would happen then even a human would be badly injured or even killed.But its not likely that your gonna have an accident unless your bird distracts you anyway I'm ok in the car because I don't drive and either way if I was driving my birds wouldn't distract me.

[seagoatdeb]

There is no safety in the car really. I was only in one accident. I had gone through a green light and then I was stopped behind people making a left turn. A truck sped through the intersection and did not see us stopped and hit me from behind hard enough to open my airbag and push me into the vehicle ahead for another crash. The car was totaled. Any caged or crated animal in the rear portion of my vehicle would be dead. They would probably be dead had they been crated in the front too. The airbag saved my life but I still had injuries. I still look behind me when comming to a stop, I never feel secure the other person will stop. I drive when there are no busy conditions, and on low traffic roads. But, I did not take out my fear on Gaugan. I will never take away one of her very favorite things and that is to ride on my shoulder in the car. For 17 years she had never strayed, but has stayed in place. I seriously wonder if you saw her joy, if you could really tell her she had to give it up. I dont have it in me to do that to her.

Gaugan knows how to ride in the car over the course of 17 years so that variable is very constant. But it is up to us to access the risks and make our own decisions. Many parrots and birds have been hurt by dogs and cats so I wont take that risk and own any dogs or cats with my parrots. I wont let my parrots free fly outside either, there are so many hawks and eagle here. My parrots go outside in the summer in outside cages for periods of the day to get fresh air and sunshine and to be safe from the predators in the area.

My parrots would have less time with me if I had to use separate rooms for my dogs and parrots too. I believe parrots need a lot of quality time with their owners, so there again would not make a decision to own dogs and cats with my parrots. So my quality of life decisions take many variables into account with the safety. We all have to access risks and if we were in each others homes we would all see things that we would do differently.