Bring to work or keep at home?

[Behxo]

Everyday I bring my GCC to work with me, but now with winter coming concerns are definitely popping up. I would like to get some opinions on what to do.

I bring her in via her travel cage, I've been warming the car up prior so as soon as we get in, the car is already heated. Would covering her travel cage with a blanket also help for the quick walk and very brief period outside before getting to the car? Will it still affect her and make her vulnerable to illness?

I work from 9am-5pm Mon-Fri. I'm battling myself with just keeping her at home because it's already getting dark out by 4:30pm so she will probably already be sleeping in the darkness by the time I get home... I would prefer not waking her up every time I came home but I'd also rather not run the electric bill while I'm out all day to keep some lights on. (I have a weird thing where I get nervous about anything happening to my apartment while I'm out, like possible fires although unlikely, so I prefer everything to be turned off while not home.) There won't be much time for play either considering during winter I put her to bed a bit earlier at 6pm, so I will only be spending less than 1 hour a day with her. I feel like lack of interaction will definitely cause some problems as well.

Not entirely sure what to do. I love having her with me and obviously she loves it too, but I don't want her to possibly get sick from the quick walk outside to the car and also don't want her to be home all day alone with barely any interaction.

 

[wrench13]

How quick is a quick walk? If you protect her from breeze and wind, and the walk is really short, less then 2 minute, I would think it will be OK. Havig your parrot at work every day - what a fun job! I am able to bring Salty once in a while, and he loves it, and my staff do too.

A Pack-o-Bird might be better if it is going to be a every day thing - it has roll down flaps on 3 sides, so no need for towels or blankets.

 

[Behxo]

A quick walk is about 5-10 seconds from my apartment to my car, at work it's even less than that because I park right in front of my office. I just still worry that even if covered, the sudden temperature drop from a heated building for those few seconds might still have an impact on such a small little bird.

My office loves her, I work with 3 other people - my boss, my manager, and my coworker. My boss is a big fan of birds, and all 3 of them love to play with her and have little conversations with her. She definitely loves all of the attention and I'm very lucky to be able to always have my companion with me.

Edit: I've never heard of the Pack-o-Bird, I will look into that if I can't find a good blanket option. I think wrapping her in a thick sherpa blanket all around the cage might be good enough, just bundle it all up.

 

[dhraiden]

Celltei is the best. The proprietor has her workshop right across from my workplace/old-home. She's very hard-working and nice.

https://www.celltei.com/birds-parrots/pak-o-bird.html

You can wrap a blanket around your current travel-cage/or a Pak if you get one.

I occasionally ferry my birds to work from home but it's like a 20 second walk to the car. If it's ever absolutely FRIGID out (and the car does take a while to warm up properly), I just wouldn't consider it.

 

[lplummer52]

Definitely take the bird if she's in a routine.now. Just cover her up. Breaking that routine and only spending an hour a day could very well do damage to your relationship.

 

[MonicaMc]

Being cold for a short time will not make a healthy bird get sick.


I agree with the others, continue with your routine. I don't see any reason you need to change it if you don't need to.

 

[MooshieBird]

I asked my vet about this same situation. I'm still new with my bird Mushka but I believed and my vet agrees that short trips in the cold are far less of an issue then failing to socialize your bird. I live in the south so very cold days are few and far in between but we do get hard freezes and the vet said that wind is far worse than cold for your bird. It took me about 3 days of desensitizing Mushka but I taught her to ride in the front of my hoodie when out in the cold for any length of time. Now it's one of her favorite places to sit with me and I end up wearing it around the house quite a bit even if not going outside so she can sit in the hoodie. Word of warning if you want to do that, she tries to get to the hoodie even when I am not wearing it so I have to put them in a closet every time, the zippers and such make it not so good for Mushka without supervision. Also even though Mushka is bonding to me the other people she sees on a regular basis are important to her and she gets a bit rattled if she doesn't see them every few days so seeing and interacting with your coworkers may be important to your Bowie as well.

 

[SassiBird]

Can you use one of your winter jackets over the carrier? I have the Caitec Perch N Go and I just wrap a jacket around it and zip it up. I can still access the handle through the neck of the jacket. No wrestling with keeping the carrier covered.