# How does your cockatiel cope when you go on holidays?



## shatters (Sep 30, 2011)

Hey guys, 
Just wanted to know how everyone's cockatiel copes when you go away on holiday? What do you do to make it as least stressful as possible for your tiel?


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## Janalee (Jul 25, 2012)

*bird sitters*

I will only leave Bennie with people who know him and who I know will take good care of him. I have a friend who has a couple of lovebirds. She is Bennie's regular bird-sitter. But whenever I can, he goes with me. He has travelled with me to visit my sister in North Carolina (about a 10-hr drive-he's great company!) And he goes with me to spend a couple of days visiting my parents. I hate leaving him!


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## Mezza (Feb 19, 2013)

We are lucky enough to have a bird boarding centre nearby - and they looked after her extremely well last year when I went away. They are also the breeder that I got my Louey from and so I trust them 110%.

I do make sure she has her favourite bell with her 

Unfortunately Skiddles is on daily liver tonic which is given to her by syringe - so I can't expect anyone to look after her and have that responsibility as well. 

I do like to to her with me for the little weekenders though.


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## CaliTiels (Oct 18, 2012)

I have my grandmother come look after them when we go to the cabin or down to San Diego to visit my sister


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## M'éanín's Mommy (Jan 20, 2014)

I have no idea...I never take vacations or go out of town longer than 24 hrs. I had a pair of Green Naped Lorikeets back in College. Went away for almost 2 weeks and came home to very very ill birds due to their improper care while I was gone. One passed away the day after I got home, the other 2 days later.

I honestly don't know what I would do in the event I had to be gone long. The breeder who I got my male P'let from told me that if I ever had an emergency and needed help to call her. She has around 9 parrots total I believe (P'lets, Cockatoos, Grey, 'Tiels...has quite the mix) and takes very good care of them. I would hate to impose but she lives near me and I suppose I could take them there if I needed to. 

For shorter trips though that were for just a few days I would most likely pack them up on their travel carriers and take them with me. I have one for the 'Tiels that holds all 4 comfortably & the P'lets have a smaller one for them. I also have a friend who lives about an hour away who breeds P'lets and I could probably ask her for help too, but I would hate to do that since she's got like 20 birds of her own and is always hand feeding a clutch.


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## skuiper (Mar 6, 2014)

I've been worried about what I am going to do when we travel. With the parakeets we would just fill up their food and they would be fine, but Beaker is the only bird in his cage and is very needy when it comes to human attention. We love to go camping and I'd like to travel this summer. :-/ time to look for a sitter I guess


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## rpo (Mar 8, 2011)

Corona almost always comes with us on our vacations unless we have to fly. For those times she cannot go, she stays home in her cage and we have neighbors look after her, but she still gets depressed and will slowly lose weight until we come home. We also keep a webcam on her cage that we can monitor remotely. It sends out screenshots via email every time there is a lot of movement as well so that we are alerted to anything amiss in real time. We do the same thing when we are on vacation and she gets to stay in the hotel room alone. It may sound excessive, but we just want to cover all bases just in case.


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## Newtonian (Feb 19, 2014)

Wally was okay, but while she tolerated attention from me, she rarely sought it out, so my pet sitter feeding her but not taking her out wasn't a big issue. I don't know how Newton will handle being left alone, since he is very bonded to me.

Has anybody here ever hooked up with another member to trade bird-sitting services? With all the bird lovers about, it would seem like a good place to start a search for somebody who, at the very least, knows what you can and can't offer as food and isn't afraid to take the bird out of the cage for a while.


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## Bagheera (Feb 27, 2014)

I've only had Tiki for a little over a month, but I have been planning to spend a large portion of my summer this year visiting my family down in Florida. When we got Tiki, I began making arrangements with my sister about staying at her house because I can have Tiki there with me, then we decided to stay a couple of weeks with my Aunt who once used to be a cockatiel breeder. I am very excited about that and can not wait. Tiki is very young and I want to expose him to a lot of things so that when he gets older he will be accustomed to change and it won't be so stressful to him. My Aunt is extremely knowledgeable about birds and once saved a baby duck I had when I was like 17 yrs old. I was staying at her house and the duckling got sick and started bubbling snot out of the top of his beak, she gave me some medicine to feed him twice a day and he got better and was able to grow up and be released into the wild with it's relatives on the pond around our apartment complex.


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## CaliTiels (Oct 18, 2012)

Newtonian said:


> Has anybody here ever hooked up with another member to trade bird-sitting services? With all the bird lovers about, it would seem like a good place to start a search for somebody who, at the very least, knows what you can and can't offer as food and isn't afraid to take the bird out of the cage for a while.


The problem with that is that really, everybody's really spread out on this forum. Not too many people are close together enough to do that. If they were, I'd host a monthly bird club and we'd all go to The Bird Shop and stare at birds we know we can't have :lol:


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## Bagheera (Feb 27, 2014)

CaliTiels said:


> If they were, I'd host a monthly bird club and we'd all go to The Bird Shop and stare at birds we know we can't have :lol:


LOL!!! That's hilarious! I actually stare at your Beaker constantly and say to myself, "M U S T H A V E A B E A K E R L O O K - A - L I K E ! ! !"

My husband agrees the Whiteface are gorgeous but he says I can't have another animal. lol.

So I guess it is the same as staring at a bird in a shop and knowing I can't have it, lol

:wf grey: :wf grey: :wf grey: :wf grey: :wf grey: :wf grey: :wf grey:


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## TamaMoo (Jan 12, 2014)

We've never had it come up yet, because we have only taken overnight getaways since Joey moved in just before Christmas. In September we will be in England visiting hubby's family for 17 days, and Joey will be staying with his grandma (my mom). She has her own little guy, Moe, and adores birds so I know Joey will be well cared for, played with and loved. I already know I will be calling her a LOT just so I will be able to hear him although he will be fine.


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