How to Move birds safely to new home

[Paoputrees]

My move for my 5 tiels is coming very soon!

I am wondering if you guys have any general tips on making the move smooth and safe?

The temperature outside will be around 5 degrees C, give or take.

Are there any indoor car fumes that are dangerous, or is having them in any car air safe? I will either be using my partners hybrid rav 4 (that has seat heat as an option) or my mom’s gas powered van (also seat heat) and keep them in the back row of seats with me

Also to follow up, in the event that we can’t house them at my home year round and potentially have to keep them at my parents during winter months when we would use our fireplace here, is moving them between two homes every year okay for burds?

thanks!

 

[Mizzely]

Cars are designed to keep their own exhaust out of the car. I've traveled with birds in the middle of winter in a 12 hour car ride several times. Heat up the car first, and use a blanket or towel over the carrier in between the house and car while transferring.

I think it really depends on the birds

 

[Paoputrees]

Awesome! Okay thats reassuring. I will make sure their time outside is as quick as possible and cover them with blankets

Ill see how quick they adjust after the move. They’re a big family so normally when changes happen they adjust relatively fast since they always have each other. If that worst case scenario happens I hope for them it will be ok

 

[Britnicorn]

Some people get those heated bottles to put in the cage when it is cold outside, that might be a good idea too, but I've even taken my freshly hatched budgie out into the car during the winter (pre-heated car of course) and he was just fine

 

[Sparkles!]

Cars are designed to keep their own exhaust out of the car. I've traveled with birds in the middle of winter in a 12 hour car ride several times. Heat up the car first, and use a blanket or towel over the carrier in between the house and car while transferring.

I think it really depends on the birds

@Mizzely how did you handle food breaks or potty breaks? Did you just leave the car running if you stopped at a restaurant?

 

[Mizzely]

@Mizzely how did you handle food breaks or potty breaks? Did you just leave the car running if you stopped at a restaurant?

Got fast food and ate in the car. Took turns going to the bathroom.

 

[ems08]

It wasn't cold for my move, but in 2014 I did a 12 hr move from VA to GA with my lovebird at the time. She did fine in the car as long as she could see me, but refused to eat or drink in her travel carrier. So she got to move on the front seat of the uhaul with her cage buckled in. Not the safest if we were in an accident but the safest for her stress levels. My mom was following the truck with my car so we also tag teamed grabbing food and bathroom breaks.

Funny story though, I was buying an Ikea couch for my new apartment in GA and I wanted the tan slipcover for it. The *only* Ikea between VA, NC, SC and GA that had it in stock happened to be the Charlotte NC store, which you could see from the highway we were driving on anyway. So we planned one of our breaks to be stopping there to pick up the slipcover. I couldn't really leave a uhaul with all my worldly possessions running in the Ikea parking lot, so Maddie went into her travel carrier and in we went! I knew exactly the aisle/bay for the product so I put her carrier in the baby spot of a cart, grabbed what we needed and we were in and out in under 15 minutes. It had to be some kind of Ikea record LOL, but no one said a word thank goodness.

Then I did the reverse move just about in 2018 from Alabama to NC-- no Ikea stop that time but the rest was the same. Maddie was having semi regular seizures by that point so it was especially terrifying, but we made it without incident.

 

[Shezbug]

25 years ago I did a 31 hr (approx 3,000 km) trip across the Nullarbor plains with a cage full of birds, 2 cats and a dog. There really isn’t any difference between a long trip or a one hour trip unless your bird travels poorly such as having car sick issues.
Remember to take items to cover them for darkness or shade if needed and also something to keep heat in if needed (we had severe heat during the day and freezing temps overnight to deal with), extra food and water supply incase anything is lost or ruined along the way, regular breaks along the way for birds to rest feet, eat and drink. I also took decent pegs/ties to keep cage doors secure.
We travelled in a crappy old car and even back then fumes were only a problem while filling up which is a very limited time frame that didn’t negatively affect my birds.

 

[Paoputrees]

Thats all great to know, thanks everyone!! Its a relief to hear that fuelling up wasn’t a death sentence for them either.

our move is going to be maybe 40 minutes if driving slowly and carefully so thankfully we won’t need to be making any stops on the way but this is great in the event that we do take a longer trip somewhere in the future

 

[Shezbug]

If your move is only 40 mins away then you’ll be absolutely fine even if your bird is an unhappy traveler. Fumes won’t even be a problem as you shouldn’t need to fuel up during a trip so short and you definitely shouldn’t need any rest stops.

Hope your move goes smoothly.