Traveling with our parrots

[Taw5106]

My husband and I travel to see family quite frequently, but now that I have Buddy, I'm worried. I don't want to leave him for one night, I love having him right by me. I saw a text about a oaf-o-play, or something like that. Our travel is about 1.5 hours travel, each way. Our dogs are fine with it, but how does an amazon(red he'd, or red crowned to be specific), are they ok with that? I have his old cage, but it's thin wire and we stay in the country with family.

 

[Birdman666]

Well, I can only speak for my amazons. They LOVE the car.

Mine are car seat trained, and are trained to stay put, so I don't use travel cages. They are either on a hand, a shoulder, or a birdie car seat.

 

[jenphilly]

We have several different birds, no Amazon, but generally speaking everyone loves to travel. The only single oddball who freaks out is my bare eyed cockatoo girl, but she's even better now then at first. She had major separation issues when we first adopted her, but she's not quite so worried about being left anymore. But other then her, most of the birds have traveled many hours and when only one is with us, they travel out of the cage sitting with someone most of the trip.

As long as its safe on the visiting end, no reason to leave him behind! I would consider getting a decent cage for him for traveling, considering it will be like his hotel room for the weekend

 

[Taw5106]

OK, how did you do that? We are suppose to go to my neice's the weekend of 4/12, to DJ. I don't want to leave Buddy alone, I want him with me. I kept his old, flimsy cage for travel, but I want him to come and be comfortable.

 

[jugoya]

I've taken my birds cross country... two too three days in the car at a time.
All are seasoned travelers and pretty much go with us everywhere.
Just get him used to travelling and you should be fine :3

 

[Taw5106]

Well, I can only speak for my amazons. They LOVE the car.

Mine are car seat trained, and are trained to stay put, so I don't use travel cages. They are either on a hand, a shoulder, or a birdie car seat.

What do you do, or what do they love about travelling?

 

[Taw5106]

And how do you handle bird poo. Trust me, I've been pood on but would love all lessons learned.

 

[lquan]

Mine loves to travel. I can tell because she eats, drinks, chirps normally on a moving car. At night, she sleeps and grinds her beaks while in a moving car. My kids take her out while in the car some times and she doesn't panic and flies into the windows. She is playfull with the kids like she is in the livingroom. When we take her camping, she sleeps with us inside the tent. She comes out to play inside the tent without panicking. That's how you know if your bird loves to travel.

 

[cnyguy]

My old YCA George loved to ride in the car (except to go to the vet's office; he always knew when that was our destination :11. He liked visiting friends and staying in bird-friendly hotels too. While he was riding, he'd talk and laugh and sing. Although it was rather small, he liked being in his travel cage, and it was always tough to get him out of it when we returned home. I think he thought if he stayed in it, he'd get to go somewhere in the car again. I always made sure to bring along "all the comforts of home" -- favorite treats, food and anything else George might need or want.

 

[Taw5106]

Do you remember how you started and how you approached your bird babies? I reflect to dogs, I bought an extra dog bed so my bully would sleep on it, not my nieces. He sleeps on it when we visit. How would I prep my Buddy for that????

 

[lquan]

Start with short trips. Taking him out to meet new people. Let him perch on other people under your supervision. Begin by letting him near other people's shoulders or arms and tell him to go over. If it looks like he is going to bite, pull him away immediately. Keep him in presence of the person he was trying to bite for few minutes and try again. Take him out on short day trips, then night trips. Take him out of the cage while in the moving car when he is really comfortable in his cage. Be careful, he might panic and flies into the windows. Take him close to the window and tap his beak on it to let him know they are solid. My house has 4 walls fully covered with mirrors, that was how I trained my conure not to fly into them.

 

[Taw5106]

Thanks to all! I have a small carrier I bought for Buddy, I will continue working with him. This is great news to hear, but I will be sure to sit in the backseat. Airbags are too rough for any Buddy. Last year we visited family a lot. We love visiting them, they have a good chunk of land. The neighbors have longhorns, no kidding!! One chased their dog out of the field, lol. I love visiting them but right now I have been so worried about Buddy and how he will do. I would love to get Buddy comfortable with travel. I have 11 nieces and nephews, they would love Buddy and he would love them. Of course they have to be trained on what he can eat, when, how much, how to interact, show love, rub, scratch, etc.

One of my nieces I have been looking at to train in the event I pass and he needs a new friend. She doesn't know yet, but she is so good with animals. She wants to be a vet, great plan but she hasn't seen the other side of Buddy yet. I have no doubts about her, she loves animals. Right now she is my little protege, she doesn't know it, but I do want to train a younger animal lover to care for Buddy. He is so amazing.

 

[Birdman666]

OK, how did you do that? We are suppose to go to my neice's the weekend of 4/12, to DJ. I don't want to leave Buddy alone, I want him with me. I kept his old, flimsy cage for travel, but I want him to come and be comfortable.

Well, mine are all out and about trained. So, nothing really bothers them. That's key. You don't really have time to do that in 12 days. But taking them out to places like the park, and short rides in the car should help eleviate any anxiety.

I moved from California to Texas with five large birds (two macaws, two amazons and a CAG) and zero travel cages. Only portable "tabletop perches for sleeping. I put a blanket under them.

In the car my CAG was sitting in the birdie car seat. My Red Lored was on one shoulder, my Greenwing on the other. My RFM in a back seat car seat perch, and my lilac crowned amazon was on my daughter's shoulder, or her headrest.

We put blankets over the seats to catch poop.

Shower perches also make good travel perches. Stick them on the window, and if your bird is good about it, he will just sit and watch the world go by.

Depends on the bird.

I have three that would go with me 24/7 if they could.

The other two love the car, but don't like getting out of it in unfamiliar places... So getting them in and out can be problematic sometimes, but not while you are driving.

Never had a problem with it.

 

[JennyB]

This summer we traveled a lot with our birds and had few problems... they were out of cages and on our shoulders or play stands in the truck. We put towels down and took travel cages for getting in/out of the vehicles. I also cut large "X's" in the center of old bath towels to slip over our heads to catch poop, but for the most part they were unneeded. My cockatiel was more comfortable on the play stand, and the gc conure is very picky about her "poop place"... She goes on the floor, on her outside-the-cage poop perch, or on your leg/foot (I don't think she associates it as part of you). In the truck she had a couple accidents, but once she figured it out she'd go down to the console, on the headrest, or back to the play stand. The only real concern for us was driving after dark. Both birds were upset by oncoming headlights.

That being said, I recently took the gc conure on a short ride up a very twisty mountain road, with a big altitude change, and she got very carsick! Wish I'd had the beach towel (or a rain poncho with hood) that day for sure!!! I got some good advice from people on here to try ginger before our next car ride. I'll have to update after this weekend to let you know if it helped.

Anyway, we love traveling with our birds, and I can't imagine leaving them at home! We're usually camping, but I'll be smuggling them into a hotel for the first time this week! Good luck, & I'm sure your birdie would much rather be with you, too!

 

[BirdyMomma]

Bacci, my Lilac Crowned Amazon drove 7 1/2 hours with us, on my (passenger) shoulder. He had a BLAST, the entire time. When the sun went down, he slept under a blanket on my chest.

 

[treckel]

I have a travel cage and the birds love it!