Hey Bird Vet

[captwest]

I'm planning a move and will be transferring my breeder Amazons into small travel cages , i know they won't be happy and i'm sure to stress them to the max.they will be in their travel cages for about 24 hrs with food and water, maybe 12hrs of this will be in the cab of a truck driving down the interstate at night to help reduce stress. My question is , is there any thing (drug)i can give them to make this less traumatic ? Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions, Richard PS most of these birds are in the 325 to 550 gram range

[patdbunny]

Hey Capt,

Not birdvet, but I have maybe some suggestions for you. When I ship birds I condition them several weeks beforehand with extra vitamins and electrolytes. I also get them used to the shipping container during this time. I leave them in the shipping container for hours and then eventually overnight with the same conditions they'll encounter during the shipping process.

The day of, in their shipping container they get whatever their favorite food is. For me it's usually millet since I have the smaller birds. Plus they get apple and oranges in their container for moisture. I've shipped birds from San Diego to Maine with no problems - to the airport 3p.m. PST, picked up in Maine about 7 a.m. EST so that's about 13 hours in transit being banged around. Here's an article that's similar to what I do: http://www.plannedparrothood.com/shipping/shipping.html

I've also RV'd for two weeks at a time with my birds. I suppose the pets are just naturally not going to be so stressed. But for RVing I'll give the birds fruit smoothies to make sure they get extra liquids and energy.

You might want to check to see if anyone's a bit on the thin side and start fattening them up a tad bit. Some will do better covered for most of the trip, and some will prefer being able to see. Some will do better with their mate, some won't. I don't know about amazons, but the eclectus for the most part need to be in separate carriers or they hurt each other. Same with a pair of goffins I used to have - one pair traveled well together, one pair had to be separated or the male would hurt the female.

Apologies if I'm telling you stuff you already know. Good luck on your move!

[captwest]

Hey Roz, yeah i'm pretty up on shipping and traveling with the pets, most of my breeders are on eggs or about too, so i'm thinking of doing this about may. I have hurricane evacuation cages that i plan on moving the breeders in, 12 x 12 x 24 with a divider to separate male from female and yet keep pairs together.I've had problems with the pairs hurting each other when in the same cage and under duress.I've moved them before in this manner but it was a lot shorter move, still a major operation that i'm not looking forward to.I'm sure all this will set breeding back a year or two but it is what it is , i've been putting this off long enough and this summer i'm going to do it ,come hell or high water. If i'm going to continue to breed i have to move to outside year around operation.

[patdbunny]

I've used St. John's wort on feather plucking cockatoos and it's seemed to calm them down. Might alleviate some anxiety.

[captwest]

Is that something i can get at the health food store, is it a powder?

[kaylayuh]

You can get St. John's wart at almost any drug store or pharmacy in the supplement and vitamin section. I've seen it in tablet form, but you could look at the GNC website to see if there is an available powder.

[captwest]

Thanks, any recommended dosage ?

[patdbunny]

I got it at Walmart in the vitamin section. The stuff I got was powder in capsules. For a goffin cockatoo I used half a capsule sprinkled on the wet food. It's been a long time so I can't remember how long it took to notice the bird mellowing out.

Apparently it works for some birds and not others. It might work for you since you're not trying to solve any problems like plucking, but just want something to mellow them out a bit.

[captwest]

Thanks Roz, think i'll try it out on some immature OWAs, they're kind of rowdy, if it works on them it will work on the others.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Are we sure it's safe? I worry about herbs that haven't really been studied in birds. If it is actually effective it is a drug and a largely untested one at that. Personally, I probably wouldn't go that route unless I knew that a lot of birds (dozens if not hundreds) had been on a significant dose for a significant period of time with no negative effects. As Penn Teller said, "The plural of anecdote is not proof" so one or two successful examples wouldn't make me comfortable. YMMV.

By the way, birdvet, we miss you!