Traveling soon, unsure of what to do with my bird

[marsleey]

Apologies if I posted in the wrong category. I have had my bird for nearly four months now, and we are planning to travel about 3hrs away from our home for four days. We have a few options- either buy a travel carrier (but not travel cage), give the bird to a friend (and not quarantine the bird), or have the friend come over everyday for a couple hours to be with the bird. I would like to bring him with me, but my friend says it’ll be too stressful (it probably will) we also have not decided on a good bird carrier (if you have any recommendations that would be great). We would also keep the bird in the travel carrier the whole four days. Though if we give the bird to a friend, they will not quarantine him because they do not have a travel cage (they say it’ll be “Just fine.”) With a friend coming over everyday, I am afraid my bird will get bored (the bird is not used to my friend and the last time my friend was here, my bird landed on their shoulder they weren’t very calm about it… (my bird does this very often.)) There we’re few other things that happened as well. They also aren’t very experienced (their bird doesn’t come out of its cage and doesn’t play.) What do you think you should do? I know it is pretty early to be traveling, but this is for family related events. Third option would most likely be best, but I don’t know any experienced bird babysitters.

 

[Shezbug]

You need a travel carrier anyway for vet trips or other emergencies so I’d buy one and take the bird on the trip. You can have a few breaks on the trip so you can check your bird is ok.

No quarantine is a massive gamble I’d not be comfortable taking with any of my birds..

 

[FeatheredM]

My cockatiel and conure seem to like car rides, and they will be in best care with you. Just make that where you are staying deos not contain any harmful chemicals.

 

[donutweall]

I've been taking my budgie flock of 4 with me on some of my trips. They seem to appreciate having half the cage covered- so that if they are scared of the scenery, there's a nice area to hide away in.

But, they've grown pretty accustomed to the car- it's actually the new location after getting out of the car that takes getting used to. They start out being afraid to land on anything other than the cage or me, poor dears. IMHO, if you plan on traveling with them, then do so. They will learn that travel isn't so bad.

Some precautions though-

• many 'pet friendly' hotels, are actually just 'dog friendly', and will not allow birds. I've had better luck with AirBnB though. (and of course when staying with family, haha)
• if you're traveling with family members, who may not be as careful about doors and windows, it would be much safer if you have your own room and can control when your feathery friend is out vs when the door can be opened
• Bring a boing or two to create a familiar landing zone (that's not you or the cage).... and something to attach it. I've hung them on light fixtures, coat racks.... anything I can tie it to and is reasonably stable!
• Also bring some newspaper to put down under the cage and the boings. It can be a pain to chase things down while traveling, and the papers keep things much cleaner, so hopefully your host will again welcome birds in the future.