Help! We need to travel....

I just got a triton cockatoo, Echo (10mths old) on Thursday.....I live in Colorado, my daughter Carrie lives in Kansas and is keeping Echo for me till Thanksgiving when I bring my teen daughters to surprise them. We normally fly (it's a 1hour 10minute flight) or we can drive (it's a 8hour 30minute drive) I need some opinions as to which is better and safer to get Echo Home w us to Co. If I do fly him, what kind of cage and how do I go about it? If I do drive him, my daughters are 12 & 13yo- they will play /hold him for the 8.5hrs-I'm sure I will have to get a cage for the car ride, as it's going to be a long one!!
NEED SOME ADVICE!!

How fun - it sounds like your two teen daughters are in for a wonderful surprise.

You will probably get a lot of differing opinions about flying vs driving. Here's mine - Unless you can fly Echo in the cabin, I wouldn't even consider flying. I tend to be anal about safety and I just don't have enough confidence in airline employees to ensure the safety of a beloved pet.

Driving on the other hand could also be difficult. I visit my daughter - 7 hour road trip several times a year. Tsali and my three yorkies load up in my mini cooper and off we go. Always in the car, Tsali is wearing his Aviator Harness. During the ride, if traffic is light, Tsali rides on my shoulder, if it is heavy, he is in his travel cage. I make it a point to stop often so that we can all stretch our legs, potty break (me and the yorkies) and get water and snacks.

With this said, I want to add that I have had Tsali since he was 3 months old and he has traveled all his life. Prior to making his first big trip, we harness trained and took multiple short trips. He has never ever been bothered with car rides. If you choose the car ride method, I would definitely get him an appropriately sized travel cage that you can secure with a seat-belt. You will need one anyway for trips to the vet. Get him comfortable riding in the car in the travel cage, lots of favorite treats will help.

I have no experience with shipping birds Via plane, so I can't comment on that. Though I have to agree with the sentiment that I'd be hard pressed to trust the care of my birds to *any* random stranger. Especially ones whose jobs push them to work as quickly as possible.

And I'm not saying it isn't perfectly safe. For all I know every single airline employee who deals with securing pets is incredibly caring and top of the top at their jobs. It's just the whole out of sight thing tends to make me focus on the what if's, and I know I'd be a stressed out nervous wreck the entire trip.

I've had fantastic luck traveling by car with several of my Fid's on fairly decent trips though, between 5-6 hours or so. Peaches, our M2 loves it so much that he starts bouncing saying "goin on a car ride" when we start walking out to the car. But the first time we traveled home with him he spent the 6 hours in either my lap, or my wifes lap, whoever was in the passengers seat at the time.

And Conan loves riding on his window perch, he made a drive from TN to VA riding one the entire way.

I've heard stories of birds that hate being on car rides also though. And most everything in between. Personally, I would see if your daughter could take him on a few car rides between now and then, and see how he reacts. He may love it right off the bat.

Tsali said:

You will probably get a lot of differing opinions about flying vs driving. Here's mine - Unless you can fly Echo in the cabin, I wouldn't even consider flying. I tend to be anal about safety and I just don't have enough confidence in airline employees to ensure the safety of a beloved pet.

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Precisely my thoughts, as an airline employee!! The ambient climate at both origin and destination is a determinant, regardless of policy. I have some but fewer concerns once the bird is aboard the aircraft in the cargo compartment. While modern airliners provide a similar temperature and level of pressurization as in the cabin, it takes some time to achieve a proper temperature once the cargo door is closed.

While strict protocols exist to embargo animal travel during extremes and care is taken to exclude hazardous materials from placement in the same compartment, people are only human. I'd feel much better having Echo in a travel carrier with you in the cabin.

Amy loves car rides,but I introduced her to riding when she was just 4 months old ( now 27 yrs old) She also gets excited "OUTSIDE??...IN THE CAR??" she will say as we head out the door

The longest ride she has taken was just a few months ago,when she and I went to visit Salty and his family. It was only a 2.5 hour ride,but she absolutely loved it. She was in her pet carrier for maybe 10 minutes,as she looked out at me in between the the bars of the carrier,with her beaky munching down on them.
She rode on my shoulder 95% of the way,very excited,looking out the windows,chattering away as people looked at us and beeped the horn and waved.

I have never taken her on a flight,and because of reasons listed above,I wouldn't do it,unless I was GAURANTEED she could ride in the cabin with me.

Your 'too being so young, I can almost say for certain he/she will love it.

Jim

All of my birds love car rides. We've been getting Charlotte used to them slowly but surely, in preparation to going to go visit GrandmaC for Thanksgiving next month.

One thing I do notice with the birds: They are all MUCH happier if we travel during the day and position their travel cages so they can see outside.

Have never flown with a bird, but if you can keep them in a carrier under the seat would consider it. Planes are LOUD and the process seems like it could be frightening for a bird. Also you have to take them through security and they might make you take the bird out to X-ray the carrier. We took our BF Amazon on hundreds of car trips. From an hour to three days. He sat on J's shoulder the entire time, except when he would walk across the steering wheel to get out of the sun. The only issue is that you can't take them into a restaurant, so it's drive-in dining on the road. If it's very cool, we would leave him in his cage in the car with a cover so passers-by didn't bang on the glass. Oliver loved car trips, but Gus seemed to get pretty carsick on the couple hours it took to get him home.

We're planning to take a car ride from jersey to NC during Christmas week, we have a travel cage which Gracie has no problem with. I'm reading that a lot of you take them out of the cage when driving is that safe? also you think that Gracie will be okay for a week in it and I'll bring her Java tree so she can have sometime out during the day and sleep in the travel cage or should I get a table top cage for the week

I have never taken my bird on a plane and never would unless they could sit with me in the seat. No way would I let my bird be 'cargo'.
My Green Cheek used to come in the car all the time and he loved the outings. If your bird is not used to the car, this can be tricky. You can try to get him in the car just for play time and then gradually build it up to a drive around the block and then eventually longer times.
If you are taking him in the car, be sure that his cage is secure, in case of sudden braking, carry a towel to cover part of his cage should there be to much sun and be mindful of having windows open in the car as it can get windy for him and also be sure the temperature is comfortable with the vents not blowing directly at him. Carry lots of snacks and give them to him along the way and do stop for breaks.
Having your children keep him company is a great idea too but just remember car rides can be exhausting for us humans as well as our pets too, so some time for him to rest is also advised.

Side note:
Several years ago I had a toy poodle (he too has now passed) and I went away and had to take my car on ferry and do a 45 minute crossing. Prior to booking I had confirmed I was able to take the dog in the ferry with me to be seated and not left in the car. Come check in day this was a different story and they wouldn't let my dog be with me, so I made a scene about it and they told me if i wanted to i could sit in the car in the basement of the ferry with the dog - and so I did, there is no way a person would leave a child in the car alone and I would never leave my animal children on their own either