Does your pet sitter take out and play with your birds? Cost?

[M&M Ninja]

Hey everybody, I'm looking into hiring a teenager I know well to come to the house twice a day to check on the birds. The conure has never been left alone, as she has always gone with or one of us has stayed home. Now that we have the big bird, however, we want to try leaving them behind.

The conure is 100% reliable about going back in her cage, and the Amazon is pretty darn good if a pistachio is involved.

What has your experience been with having a pet sitter take care of your birds? Out of cage time or not?

What do you generally pay? We're taking the dog with us, so it would just be bird care.

 

[Icey]

How long do you plan on being away?
If this is the first time leaving the birds alone, hopefully it's not too long.
Do your birds know, and like this sitter?. It may be cause for concern if they let them out their cages then can't get them back in.
Without giving us much information it's really hard to answer.

 

[Clueless]

My pet sitter does NOT take Secret out of the cage. No way. No how. My kids don't even do that.

Secret does fine in her big cage for the time I'm gone. If someone had her out of her cage, I'd probably freak out.

The pet sitter comes in twice a day for medicine, food and water and, if course, interacts with the parrot during the time they're here.

 

[M&M Ninja]

We'll be gone for 3 whole days and part of a 4th. The birds have met and interacted with our sitter before, because she is a student of mine, but they haven't been cared for by her.

Our conure likes her and will snuggle into her when she visits. The other bird is like Secret (@Clueless) - no way, no how is that level of physical contact part of her repertoire. But she likes to come out and goes back into her cage willingly.

I might have the girl come over and see if they'll respond to her request to go back into the cage.

 

[Icey]

I would definitely have her interacting with your birds a few times before you go so they get used to her. It's good your conure already like her.

 

[~Drini~]

I birdsat for somebody's quaker for about 2 years. I charged $35 to drop in for 30 minutes. This is in the DC metro area, since area influences price. Sometimes they had me drop-in once a day, sometimes twice. I took the quaker out and handled her for the entire duration. She was not the easiest (mostly hands-off and would bite fingers, but loved chatting and sitting on shoulders) but we developed a relationship over time.

To be honest, I think the owner had more trust/faith in me than I would in someone sitting for my birds. I don't have anybody let my birds out because I don't trust anybody to know how to handle them and am afraid of somebody getting hurt. My birds are also aggressive with strangers (including my family members who live with us). Perhaps it's different if the sitter is a bird person.

 

[Icey]

I birdsat for somebody's quaker for about 2 years. I charged $35 to drop in for 30 minutes. This is in the DC metro area, since area influences price. Sometimes they had me drop-in once a day, sometimes twice. I took the quaker out and handled her for the entire duration. She was not the easiest (mostly hands-off and would bite fingers, but loved chatting and sitting on shoulders) but we developed a relationship over time.

To be honest, I think the owner had more trust/faith in me than I would in someone sitting for my birds. I don't have anybody let my birds out because I don't trust anybody to know how to handle them and am afraid of somebody getting hurt. My birds are also aggressive with strangers (including my family members who live with us). Perhaps it's different if the sitter is a bird person.

I agree with your statement regarding the trust issue. It's a big concern for me as both my birds WILL bite strangers who aren't familiar with them. My macaw still won't be friendly with my hubby and is constantly chasing him out the kitchen. We have had him about 12 years now. He just prefers me and only me and will let others know it. Hubby calls him my guard dog. Lol