Traveling with birds

[Mayra]

Hello everyone! I am a brand new member, mother of an African Grey and a Cockatiel. I am moving at the end of October and will have to travel by car with my pets. Does anyone have any advise on what is the best way to travel with birds by car? This is a trip that will take about 24 hours!! HELP!

Thanks,
Mayra

[Nazir's]

That's a pretty long trip. I hope that you get some good advice.

I travel with my CAG. The longest trip that we've taken was about 2 hours one way. The first hour he was fine (playing in his travel cage) but after that he wanted out! I covered him up on the trip back and he seemed to prefer or deal with that better. I also let him exercise his wings and legs when we got to our destination. I put food in the cage for the trip but we were not even on the road 20 minutes before it all ended up in my back seat (Thanks a lot Iris). Next time, he'll be allowed food and water every few hours (while we are stopped) but it wont remain in the cage while we are driving.

Good Luck!

[Lisa B]

I traveled with my grey as a baby from Florida to NJ. he did well, and was even singing in the car.
main thing is to watch they are doing ok and to take stops if you see they need it. I have one grey that gets car sick, so she cant go for more than 40 minutes at a time then 20 after that without throwing up..

take you gang out prior to the move a few times to see how they react. It also helps to have part of the cages covered so they arent afraid of passing cars.

[Jan in MD]

We have taken a few of our birds on vacation with us- driving about 6-7 hours at a time. What we did was put them into smaller travel cages- I did put food and water in and lowered the perches to near the bottom of the cage. I also partially covered the cage for a sense of security. We have done well each time we travel.

I think it helps to get them used to it ahead of time by going on short trip or even letting them play in or around the cage they will be traveling in.

They use those travel cages when we are at our destination for the duration of our stay. I made sure to clip wings before we left for safety's sake.

The birds we took with us are also used to traveling to work with me for day trips so it was not stressful to be in a different location.

When we moved we put the birds into smaller cages for the trip which was only about a half an hour. We were able to move and set up their cages ahead of time. We moved them at night which seemed to be easier on them. As we got to the new house, they were put into familiar surroundings and settled in after about a half an hour with lights on to explore. The next morning it was as if nothing was different for them.

Good luck and let us know how it goes, OK?