Is it safe to place indian ring neck in bird shipping box?

[jaquein]

Hey guys....

I'm looking out for some great suggestions and advises from the experienced ppl out here. So here it goes, I own a parrot which is of indian ring neck breed (I usually caller him Oscar)
Next week I have to fly ab3road and I'm thinking of taking him along with me. My friend suggested me to take him via this bird shipping box. Seems interesting but I've never tried this ever before so I'm a bit concerned for Oscar also this is my very first time. Can someone help me on this? How am I suppose to arrange the cage and box? And what about the feedings? Any replies in this concern will be highly appreciated.

[Polarn]

I'd say bringing your birds across borders is not always easy, sometimes it takes months to prepare all the correct paperwork, some countries requires you to book an avian veterinarian who meets the bird at the airport and goes through the veterinary paperwork from the full control before you left the original country (and sometimes thee papers has to be presented in a local language). And the same goes for the way back home as well, as you are now subject of your own countres importation laws.

You see parrots doesnt get passports like you get for cats and dogs etcetera, where your pet has a home country and with the passport is free to travel back and forth. so essentially what you do when traveling with a bird in most cases are an import to the target country and then an import going back home again.

Getting that out of the way and assuming you have done all the research on that matter I probably would not use a shipping box like that for any bird I've had since non of them particularily would like being covered. And if you are flying comercial airline wich allows pets in cages, I doubt that transportation box is sturdy enough to meet the requirements by the airline. I've only ever flown with 1 bird and I ended up buying a dogs cage made for airtravel, and then screwed a second cage inside that so that no luggagestaff or anything would ever be able to accidentally or on purpouse get their fingers into the bird. I also had two funnels with plastic pipes for refilling pellets/water, and a bag of pellets and a bottle of water mounted onto the cage. This ment that if the water has spilt or anything it would be safe for the crew to refill water not risking them opening the cage and then having a bird to chase around the airport or something.

To me, traveling with a bird is not all down to what the bird is comfortable with, but also that crate/cage will be handled by people who might not have too much experience with birds, people who might be curious/intrigued or people your bird does not really want to stick their fingers in. So part from your bird feeling comfortable (wich would to me be daily training with the bird using the transportation cage for a long time, because being shipped is quite stressful enough). And to be honest for a weeks vaccation I wouldnt bring my bird on an airplane unless it is an airline that allows pets in the cabin if the cage meets the measurement requirements of a hand luggage so that I could be there as a calming precence, and again only if the bird is truely used to and comfortable with the carrier that is used.

[Pajarita]

I would never put a bird in a box - it has to be terribly stressful to the poor animal to be in a dark, strange container, hearing strange noises and been moved around like a package. And Polarn is correct, travelling to another country with a parrot is VERY complicated when it comes to paperwork and some of them even require quarantine upon arrival.

[liz]

I would use a cat carrier and claim him as carry on luggage. I could never put a critter in holding. It is not temperature or pressure controlled.

[Polarn]

Liz, I think nowdays most airlines that does accept pets to travel with them actually have a preassure and temperature controlled holding for them even if not as carryon. At least most of the airlines around here does, However I would always prefere to bring a critter as a carryon, but the sizelimitations here makes it more or less impossible most of the time since a normal size cat carrier is too big to be taken as hand luggage here.

Anyways just wanted to drop my 2c about the preassure and temperature for transportation. I dont know as I said any company that transports animals in an uncontrolled compartment. (still beleive a transportation in an aircraft is a ton of stress on any animal since it is one that is really hard to train for). As most bigger airplanes cargo hold is climatised and pressurized exactly the same as the passengercompratment above.

The difference between an airline suitable to transport pets or not is their routine when it comes to loading unloading. Meaning they minimize and monitor time spent waiting on the tarmac both ways, since this is where it can be hot or cold depending on where your going too and from. But on the airplane itself, temperature is not an issue, and well airpreassure isnt really an issue either on ground or in the air.

So conclusion, I think that the preassure and temperature concernes onboard a passenger airplanes cargo hold, is either a myth or old concerns that has continued circulating onto modern airplanes as well (or quite posibly I am actually wrong, I bet there is someone here who works on airplanes that might be able to shed some light on the situation)

[Pajarita]

You can't use a cat carrier for a bird in a plane because it needs to be transparent so they can check there is nothing bad hidden in it (birds are not put through the XRay machine so they do a manual and, as nobody wants to get bit by a parrot, they insist on a transparent carrier). At least, those were the rules when I traveled with Zoey.

[Polarn]

Oh here it was perfectly fine to have a partially covered cage, as a cat carrier with a grate up front. They did hoever say that there was a possibility that I would have to go into one of the rooms where they normally do strip searches and take the bird out if they didnt feel like they could see the content of the carrier properly. But I guess that might differ from airport to airport. I mean certain airports has a regular vet to check animals and others dont and you will have to book a veterinarian yourself to travel to that airport if you travel somewhere they do require you to have a vet meeting you as you land.

So here at least the biggest problem bringing an animal bird or otherwise as carryon is what they allow you in terms of size. max size of carryon luggage here is normally 55x40x23 cm as a comparison a cockatiel is normally about 30cm.

Anyways the original poster has not responded to the thread, or said where from and where to the travel is planned. So there isnt really any way for us to offer specific help in terms of what needs to be prepared, or what airlines accept animals in the cabin or has specific routines to reduce risks of checking animals in to the luggage compartment etcetera. Because rules and regulations are different in different parts of the world.
For example last flight i took in Vietnam they called my name out to exit the aircraft (and i started sweating and wondered what the hell was wrong). nope nothing wrong... they just noticed i had glass bottles of alcohol checked into my normal luggage and they kindly gave me a plastic bag so I could take it out and bring it as a carryon just in case a bottle would break. I can not think of any other place where concern of spilling alcohol (bottles were placed in thick watertight bags so if they would have leaked it wouldnt get to my clothing) is greater than concerns of bringing large quntities of liquid into the passenger compartment (some bottles were opened btw). So yeah standards and regulations does differ around the world.