Car sickness

[yorkshiregal]

I need a little advice on car travel with my GCC. I have a cabin about 3 hours from my house. I usually stay 3 days to a week. I obviously need and want to take my bird so I bought a smaller cage to travel, I took everything out and left in her coil perch. I packed the cage securely in the back on towels etc. (I took her once before on this trip and she was bouncing on the perch but she did fine.) So this time my husband was driving and i kept an eye on Lolli. Well she started jerking her head and actually threw up. She was clung to the side of the cage and she just kept doing it. I got her out and sat her on my shoulder and we drove like that for maybe 2 hours. I covered her with my sweater and she threw up a little. I tried to get her bundled up on my knee and cover her eyes, kinda like you do with car sick pups. She would have none of it.
Not sure what to do? she's fine and happy when we get there. I felt so bad for her knowing we driving back.
Has anyone had this problem? Is it normal? Thanks Louise

 

[weco]

A couple of things peeked my interest, that you'd packed towels under the travel cage and that you'd left a boing in the cage.....I don't really know what may have caused your bird to get sick, you mentioned that she jerked her head, if the jerking was up & down, that's usually a sign of regurgitation, while a green cheek throwing up shakes their head from side to side, expelling whatever may be in their crop and since you mentioned you were watching your fid, it could be that she just chose that time to bestow a gift on you, it very well could be that she was excited to be on the trip with you.....

I've taken all of my birds on various trips, but their travel cages are always at a height the birds had full view of their surroundings and were on a relatively stable surface, no extra cushioning and no bouncing perches and never covered.....from my experiences with my traveling birds, covering them while riding down the road usually made mine nervous, the first couple of times I ever did it.....I did change the cage perches to ones 3/4" & 1" in diameter, to give them better purchase while riding, though only a few times did we travel over some rough roads.....actually if it got too rough for them, they'd grab the sides of the cage.....

 

[Dustbunny]

We take PB on car trips all the time and have never experienced car sickness with her. She loves watching everything go by. In her carrier I have a rope perch stretched across. It's not as firm as a wood perch so she doesn't get jostled with every single bump in the road; though it doesn't have nearly as much bounce as a boing. It doesn't really "bounce" at all unless the bump is major. It's a more subtle movement. That said she spends half the time clinging to the edge angling for a better view out a window.

Just because PB is usually quiet and attentive doesn't mean that's constant throughout the trip. Only a few weeks ago we stopped the car near a big flock of black birds. She warning SCREAMED like I hadn't heard in quite some time. As the sound bounced around in the car I thought my eardrums were going to rupture. LOL

Weco could be right and, unfortunately, that means the only way to know is to just put her back in the cage and see how the return trip goes. As for the effectiveness of covering her, I'd start off with the cage uncovered as she might really enjoy the trip. Just watch this time to see if the signals she's throwing off are more excited or scared in case she vomits.

 

[Kalidasa]

Ginger/ginger tea is excellent for motion sickness and nausea. Could also be the rumbling of the car and enclosed space made her feel hormonal. :$

 

[yorkshiregal]

I put towels under her cage to level it off and I put her near the car window so she could see outside, she did cling to the sides and seemed to be looking around. after 30 mins she stared to regurgitate then started moving her head flicking vomit all around the car.
I just felt bad for her. The pet shop where i got her told me to put in the coil perch. I will try the wood perches next time. Maybe she did just get over excited. I just hated to see her bouncing around. I did notice when she was on my shoulder she wasn't at all interested in biting my ears which was nice but strange? and when we stopped for food she acted fine and tried to steal my food. I guess i'll just have to see how it goes next time. I can't do anything if i'm driving anyhow. Is ginger safe for birds to eat? I was juicing (she loves doing this with me, hilarious because she's so greedy she steals the leftovers) in the kitchen and she went crazy over the ginger. I could always give her a bite before we leave Kalidasa lol Thanks for your input guys. I'm still not sure how to do the quote part?