questions on quarantine/moving with a senior bird

Hey. I asked in a thread I have for my physically handicapped budgie, but nobody has responded to that thread in a while, so I decided to make a thread specifically for the situation.



My 17 year old Cockatiel has been staying in Maryland since we moved to Kentucky, but he will be moving here in less than a week. Should I quarantine him when he gets here? He has met some of the adult budgies before, but not all of them, and none of the babies. We are thinking to put his cage in our bedroom and move all other birds out of there so he has somewhere relatively quiet in which to settle in. But should I do a full on quarantine? A partial one? Or do you think after a couple days to a week(whatever time he needs to settle in) he would be ok to start coming out of the bedroom with me to hang out for a bit?



Terrifyingly, he will be making the 500 mile trip with unclipped wings. My mom will be bringing him, and she bought a smallish(18"×30"×18") finch cage for him to make the trip in. All doors will be taped shut for the journey, but still I am a nervous wreak. My mom doesn't do grooming(I used to trim wings and nails for her budgie when I lived with her), and I couldn't find anyone to do it for her.. an old coworker of mine from the parrot shop lives local to her, but is out of town until after the trip. My mom isn't comfortable taking Alex all the way to our bird vet for a wing trim, and the only "local" parrot shop to her is about an hour's drive each way. But that is neither here or there, I am just ranting due to nervousness I suppose lol. I am very very excited, but also terrified something might go wrong. I've had Alex since I was just a little girl and he is more precious to me than words could ever describe.

Anybody have any thoughts?

Our Amazon is fully fighted and travels all the time.
If your mother plans to keep the Parrot in the travel cage during the entire trip, (good idea) everything should be fine. If she plans a night stay only open the cage in the motel room.

Basics regarding traveling, food and water available as is covering for the cage to block the Sun from beating down on the cage during part of the day.
Quarantine is a good idea since the two flocks have been apart for a long enough time period. Remember that quarantine is protection both ways. Normal quarantine is 30 days, separation, the further the better.

Travel never goes a planned, so normal safeguards when opening and closing doors and windows. Remember the basics when you made the move and provide for those.

You absolutely need to do a FULL 30-day Quarantine in a separate room from your other birds! I don't know how long your Cockatiel has been separated from the rest of the Flock, but you also have new baby birds apparently, and you don't have a clue what your Cockatiel may have contracted or be carrying while away from you states away...You always need to error on the side of caution with birds, simply because of how well they hide all outward signs/symptoms of illness and pain, sometimes for months and months until they are very, very ill...So just to the responsible, safe thing and do a Full 30-Day Quarantine in a separate room/air-space, that way you can be sure that putting them together is safe and no one is going to become ill...Better one sick Cockatiel than an entire flock of multiple birds and young baby birds (who are much more fragile with their young immune-systems)...

Alex and my mom arrived safe and sound. The second he heard my voice he went nuts. He tried getting me to pet him thru the clear plastic and tjen went to the little slits and insisted I give him head scratchies and just hung out as close to me as he possibly could get. <3 I think it is safe to say he missed me as much as I missed him.



He is still staying the the travel carrier because there isn't currently space in our bedroom for his big cage. He is totally not stressed in the slightest: I was worried for nothing. We will do a full 30 day quarantine. Legs is maaaaad she doesn't get to sleep in the bedroom with mommy and daddy anymore, but she will get over it. There wasn't another place to do quarantine, since the living room area has the breeding budgie cages, the middle bedroom is where the cat is, and the far bedroom isn't sealed well yet and it is like a greenhouse in there on sunny days and cold on overcast days. Also wasps get into that room, and this way Ale, gets to spend plenty of time with us.



I am *SO* happy he is here. Oh my God did I miss him!!!!! All is right in my world again. <3

That is so over the top!

Over the top?

bug_n_flock said:

Over the top?

Click to expand...

Funny! I was just looking at my reply with a ‘huh?’ Too! (No wine involved!)
What I meant was, wow, fantastic reunion! So awesome when it works out this way!

Yeah, it worked out perfectly, and I am *so* glad. She split the trip into two days and the first day it was getting late and she hadn't called to say she was at a hotel for the night so I called her. Voicemail. So I texted to say, call me or text when you get a moment. An hour later I still hadn't heard anything so I got woooorrrrr-ied! The trip is a beautiful one, but it is mountains the whole way and there are always car wreaks. My fiance is a first respomder so he always pulls over to help if there aren't already emts on the scene. Kind of makes you more aware of how dangerous highways are. Man, I was so scared that my mom and bird were in a wreak.. but the next time I called she answered. She had checked into a hotel for the night and was off getting dinner to take back to the hotel room. Phew!



On the way home she will still be traveling with 1 dog and 1 bird: she picked out one of the baby budgies to take home with her. she chose one of Leg's brothers, a yellow based recessive pied we were calling Snake. Yay!

May you never be apart again!

WHEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!