Leaving birds unattended during vacation

Dear all

Have you heard of stories of leaving birds (Budgies)unattended for days together.
In a casual conversation with my neighbour I came to know they were planning to leave their birds unattended for about 8 days and compensate for this lack of human presence by providing a large bowl of food and water.

I immediately cautioned them against this and volunteered to take care of the birds.
Have you heard of such phenomenon? I suppose this happens regularly to budgies because they do not cost much and the expenses of giving to a professional care centre may exceed their purchase cost.

That is FAR TOO LONG. By all means try to be a bird watcher if you can. Even a large bowl of bird seed looks full all the time as the birds continue to drop the seed hulls back into the bowl and they aren't known for digging to find fresh seed. The water bowl would become polluted from them bathing in it and food particles. jh

I will and have left Parker alone for no longer than 36 hours. My biggest concern is for the soup he makes with his food. I leave extra water around but water with food in it will go rancid quickly. Longer than 36 hours and you’ll have left the bird with no drinkable water.

So yeah, agreed, 8 days is too long.

Most house plants require attention in side of eight (8) days! Clearly the birds are little more than decoration to these folks.

Thank you for offering to care for their birds!

Leaving Julio for more than barely eight hours would have him beginning to disassembling the cage. In and about twelve hours and he would have the cage in pieces!

Longest we have left Salty alone is 6 hours, and we were worried sick, jut sick doing that. He needs his family like a ...... well I cant think of anything, but he is almost despondant when hes alone for a few hours. Imagine leaving your 3 year old for that long!

That's terrible and not safe! 8 days?!?!
I think 2 would be dangerous....I mean, anything could happen...What if one got injured or tangled up? Or the water got clogged up (dispenser) or the water dishes got dirty etc?
What if they got sick? What about the social isolation/loss of flock???
That is just awful!

I wonder how your neighbours would like it if someone stuck them in a tiny room for 8 days with no fresh food or clean water and no way of knowing if anyone was ever going to come home??

Based on their overall attitude, if I was babysitting them I'd be very reluctant to give them back!

I have left my prior OWA alone for 4 days and Nike for 2. The trick is multiple bowls of food and water. Even though Nike is out most of the time, there are weeks where she spends a lot of time in the cage, especially when I'm away on biz and is perfectly fine with it. The only time she calls is when she hears someone in the house otherwise she is quiet. I've left my camera on her for the two day trip and all she did was chirp to herself.

LaManuka said:

I wonder how your neighbours would like it if someone stuck them in a tiny room for 8 days with no fresh food or clean water and no way of knowing if anyone was ever going to come home??

Based on their overall attitude, if I was babysitting them I'd be very reluctant to give them back!

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Well ! I was partly reluctant but education is a slow process. And we live in the Anthropocene- the world of Humans , by humans for the humans.
And unfortunately Human egos matter more than avian welfare, more so with "cheap" birds like Budgies.

Cardinal said:

And unfortunately Human egos matter more than avian welfare, more so with "cheap" birds like Budgies.

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Not in my house they don’t. And I’ve always been a “do unto others” kinda girl, regardless of species!

LaManuka said:

Cardinal said:

And unfortunately Human egos matter more than avian welfare, more so with "cheap" birds like Budgies.

Click to expand...

Not in my house they don’t. And I’ve always been a “do unto others” kinda girl, regardless of species!

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Yes!! 100%.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've left my birds for 3 days by themselves
I am able to do this by using gravity feeders and extra food and water dishes and giving them heaps of things to keep them occupied
I have never had a problem, all birds have been happy and content when I arrive with plenty of food and water left over
Thanks
Noah Till

I don't like leaving my birds alone just for the entire family to go out to eat.
My Cockatiels are to easily frightened and could damage a blood feather.
Happens all to often when we are at home. If it happened while we were out... I could loose one in less than 1/2 hour.

I have the Arlo wireless cameras for security. I recently bought one with sound and I set it up so I can watch if we all go out. It even lets me talk to them when we are at a restaurant.

LaManuka said:

Cardinal said:

And unfortunately Human egos matter more than avian welfare, more so with "cheap" birds like Budgies.

Click to expand...

Not in my house they don’t. And I’ve always been a “do unto others” kinda girl, regardless of species!

Click to expand...

Your house is the exception. I am talking about how Society functions in most parts of the World.
The Birds are legally their 'property'. The only option I have is to slowly build the "friendship" with them and then educate them about bird care.

Cardinal said:

LaManuka said:

Cardinal said:

And unfortunately Human egos matter more than avian welfare, more so with "cheap" birds like Budgies.

Click to expand...

Not in my house they don’t. And I’ve always been a “do unto others” kinda girl, regardless of species!

Click to expand...

Your house is the exception. I am talking about how Society functions in most parts of the World.
The Birds are legally their 'property'. The only option I have is to slowly build the "friendship" with them and then educate them about bird care.

Click to expand...

Completely empathise with you there.

Many folks where I live would rather buy a new budgie instead of paying double the cost of a budgie for medical treatment. They're treated like Pokemon - "trade 2 conures for 1 Amazon". I understand where the mentally comes from; I've many family members who see animals for their utility, whether as a guard animal or as an attractive furniture piece.

In fact, the most common starting question from many old school folks here is, "How much do they cost?" It's only the children or folks who are exposed to Western media that ask his name. (I never tell anyone, and when my partner is around, he jokes that the bird is priceless and points out that if anything happens to Cairo that his own head would roll.)

It's also one of the reasons I would rather Cairo go to the national bird park if I ever could not take care of him in this country - I don't trust anyone else (apart from my partner) to give him the level of care that I want for him.

Unfortunately the situation still exists here too that the smaller parrot species are simply not as valued as they deserve to be. Quite some years ago now our then budgie, Pete, developed gout. He recovered from that but later went on to contract testicular cancer. We estimate that we probably spent at least $2000 or thereabouts on his veterinary care and we lost count of the number of times people remarked “It’s just a budgie, why don’t you just wring his neck and get a new one?” There will be any number of households in our supposed “enlightened” society where exactly this is still happening right now, but like I say, not in my house. Sweet little Pete is long gone but it was on his terms, he let us know when he had had enough. And I no longer associate with anyone who suggested that his life held such little value!

I'll just chime in with the others and say not a good idea -- eight days unattended is definitely over the top! I use a 24-hour rule/cutoff -- if only to ensure a bird has fresh water daily and to either scoop out or blow away seed shells or shake the shells down below the uneaten seed. Also a bird may "dirty" the water by way of seed shells, excrement, etc.

I have always engaged my neighbors during vacations to bring in my mail, water the plants (if away for a longer period) and change the bird's water daily. While my neighbors were never "bird people", they found that looking in and checking up on the bird was a relatively easy task, and most neighbors became fascinated with birds and bird behavior over time. (In exchange, I watch their dogs, cats, etc. when they are away.)

I do not ever ask them to change the paper tray or let the bird out.

I'm planning to be out of the country for 3 weeks this Spring and I'm already getting things lined up. The only concern is the cage getting dirty but the bird can deal with it. Parrotlets are anything but neat-nicks! I've been away for weeks at a time previously and a dirty cage has never been a life-threatening issue for my birds, with a neighbor checking in daily.

Great thread... so many good cautionary thoughts...

I can't imagine leaving a pet(s) alone for 8 days. My apt. policy is pets cannot be left more than 12 hours, and if they found out I'd left Oliver, my parakeet, alone for days he'd be sent to a rescue and I'd probably be charged with animal abuse. Those people wanting to leave those birds alone that long are highly irresponsible.

Eight days is too long, by an order of six to seven days. The animals have no recourse to escape the amount of accumulating droppings their captivity creates, nor will the water stay fresh that long. Effective way to end up creating ideal conditions for sickness, disease, and premature expiration.