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Minimizing Carsickness

jdmiller95

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Hi all! I have a bit of a recurring struggle -- I'm in college with my bird, and it's about an hour and forty five minutes' car ride away from home. In past rides, I've noticed him getting carsick; throughout the ride he's usually chirping along and talking with me or the music and seems fine, but then when I get home I realize he's thrown up (on one car ride, extra concerned about him, I was watching him more closely and know he threw up at least twice). This is a problem because there is no way for me to avoid taking this long drive with him periodically, but I obviously don't want to be making him sick and causing so much stress (for both of us). I already try to drive as gently as possible, but it hasn't really been helping. Does anyone have experience or tips/methods for ways to try and keep him as comfortable as possible on long drives?
 

Clueless

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Karen

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Does anyone have experience or tips/methods for ways to try and keep him as comfortable as possible on long drives?
I travel often with my Macaws.

Ginger: you can make a ginger tea by placing a few slices of fresh ginger in hot water and let it steep like you would regular tea. Remove ginger, cool and serve in place of water.

Removing food a few hours before travel also helps.

I've also found facing them frontward in the vehicle helps. So they are facing the same way the vehicle is traveling.

I've never tried it but some people have said that it helps to cover the cage.
 

Macawnutz

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I have two car vomiting birds!

Can't seem to shake it no matter what I've tried. ;) Maui gets vomit on the windshield from the back back seat of our Yukon Denali. I'm no help. Lol
 

JLcribber

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The only thing I've found that helps a little is to block their vision through the side windows so they don't see stuff whizzing by. I let them look out the front or the back.

Does your bird fly? Because this seems to be a symptom of the larger parrots that were never allowed to fledge/fly.
 

jdmiller95

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I had a friend suggest ginger because it helps for people but we didn't know if it was safe (or helpful) for birds -- so thanks for that suggestion!
Because of the height of his travel cage and my car etc., I don't think he even can see out the side windows...but I'll try and double check/adjust that
His wings are clipped but I was fairly adamant in doing a "conservative clip" so he still does fly fair distances. But also, he's a linnie, not very big at all!
 

JLcribber

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I had a friend suggest ginger because it helps for people but we didn't know if it was safe (or helpful) for birds -- so thanks for that suggestion!
Because of the height of his travel cage and my car etc., I don't think he even can see out the side windows...but I'll try and double check/adjust that
His wings are clipped but I was fairly adamant in doing a "conservative clip" so he still does fly fair distances. But also, he's a linnie, not very big at all!

In that case I would lift the cage somehow so he can see front or back and still block the sides.

Have you ever travelled on the lower deck of a ship with no porthole? You can feel the motion without seeing it. That gets the sea sickness going (trust me). You come up on deck where you can see the motion and it's not nearly as a bad (to me).
 

painesgrey

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In that case I would lift the cage somehow so he can see front or back and still block the sides.

Have you ever travelled on the lower deck of a ship with no porthole? You can feel the motion without seeing it. That gets the sea sickness going (trust me). You come up on deck where you can see the motion and it's not nearly as a bad (to me).



Exactly this. Motion sickness typically happens when your vestibular system senses that you're moving but your eyes don't, and vice versa.

The best remedy is to allow the bird to see outside enough for him to see that he's moving, but not too much that he becomes disoriented. I had problems with Pippin getting motion sick in the car when I'd go out with him on a harness or in an uncovered carrier, but haven't since I started covering 2 or 3 of the sides.
 

jdmiller95

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See, I hadn't even though of what he can/cannot see out the window. I don't have the best spatial awareness so I find myself quite frequently assuming he can see something and then realizing he totally can't from the place's height! I will work something out with this as best I can; my only concern with raising up the cage is that I use the lap of the seatbelt to keep it secure, so it may be a struggle to work something out when taller.

I also have a further question regarding tea (that was @Karen's suggestion) -- I don't have ginger, but I asked around and located a lemon-ginger teabag (definitely decaf). I couldn't figure out googling, though, if lemon is alright for him?

Thanks everyone so much!! Hopefully this ride will get to go better than the last one :)
 

JLcribber

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Lemon is fine. Any citrus fruit is fine.
 

Clueless

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@jdmiller95 can't you find ginger root in the stores? Is usually around the produce section of the store.
 
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