Advice about taking a Parrot on holiday on a boat (expecting some pirate jokes here)

15 year old Senegal. Never been on a boat. Do not want to leave him with a sitter and COVID is making it difficult for his usual people to commit right now.

I have a good sized travel cage, he usually enjoys a trip outside with me. He has a swing which he is on all the time - would he cope with a bit of turbulence on the boat?

Wow! Sounds like an interesting undertaking to say the least. No pirate jokes from me. (Wrench, our resident pirate, you want in on this hahaha!) I think we'd need more information before forming an opinion. How long of a trip? What kind of boat? Private boat, or like a cruise ship? Where would the bird be on the boat during the trip? Possible temperature/weather changes? Are you crossing state or international lines with your bird?

These are the ones that quickly come to mind. As you can see, not a simple question as there's a lot to consider. Very difficult without specifics of your situation.

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Good question, I was actually wondering something very similar. My conure Yoda gets carsick pretty consistently. Unless he is tucked away in my hair and sleeps he will throw up all over his carrier. We've been considering taking some time to go traveling in an RV or a sail-boat (like a live-in catamaran) and travel all over for a year or so, bringing the fids with us. We were worried this might be unhealthy for the boys, especially Yoda, if they got sea-sick... do birds get sea-sick? If so, is it like humans where they get accustomed to it and are just fine? Or could Yoda stay sick and get dehydrated and suffer serious problems?

Thanks to Frirubett for asking this and thanks to any insight others could offer.

Ok, so its my boat. It has space for two adults / two kids comfortable enough. We were planning to cruise on the river and a bit on coastal waters. Its a sailing vessel with an outboard motor so there would be no petrol fumes where he would be staying.

Weather wise, it will be UK summer which ranges from 12 to 22 in July. I can get a bit cold on deck but once all the hatches are secured then its fine inside. We do use a gas lamp (paraffin) if it does get cold and cook with butane - when these are in use we ventilate the boat. I do not know if these is any ill effect known in birds with burning gas?

My partner is not a fan of rough sea so we would not be making any passage which would be too choppy but it will roll around a bit on the open water passages. I have a good sized travel cage which is about half the size of his usual accommodation, but he can enjoy out of cage time with relative ease on board.

Duration, we would probably do a week but we would overnight on a marina. He has always been fine in a car journey and when I was a student I used to take him on four hour train journeys at beginning and end of term.

Squeekmouse said:

We've been considering taking some time to go traveling in an RV or a sail-boat (like a live-in catamaran) and travel all over for a year or so, bringing the fids with us.

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This is exactly what we are planning for 2021 but this year is getting my partner used to life on board in short spell (and potentially our sen). He is bonded with my mother and father but how great would a year at sea be, with a parrot!

Tons of experience with Boating and Parrots.

The smaller the boat, the greater the difficulties, as is the experience needed thing.

The greater experience you and your family have with Boating the better. If you're considering getting into to Boating 'as a family' you had better have 100% buy-in of every Human member of the family prior to even considering BUYING a boat. Tons of boats from small to large sit mostly unused because one member had a wild idea of life traveling the bay, region, section or World. First semi bumpy day and half the family over the side feeding the fish and the dream dies right there.

I learned as a child to sail my great uncle's sunfish, ended active large sailboat racing after being hit by a rouge wave, which rolled the craft up on its gunnels breaking my right arm and seriously hurting several others. It took a short four hours for the twelve of us to reach a Port and another three hours to hospital.

Classic test for a beginner: Find a well used port-a-potty, hook-up a shower head and attach to cold water source. Climb in and lock the door from the outside. Have all your enemies begin bouncing the unit around for a couple of hours. A Stormy Crossing West to East takes six to twelve hours on 'Lake' Michigan...

Long ago there was this Romantic Advancer Movie: Romancing the Stone. Tons of Landlovers purchased sailboats and sold them soon after their first bumpy ride.

Rent an RV... See if you can stand each other for extended periods of time.

Sailboats are not for beginners!

Car sick Parrots are more common when their travels are limited to and from the Vets office. Most Parrots do better when they can see what's happening around them. A few need their cages covered. Still others need to be locked into their human...

Sorry for being such a downer, but really? An Outboard motor? Think downwind and the interior fills with what!!!

Your boat is likely, under sail, capable of maybe 6 knots! A fog bank rolls in at 12 knots, a storm at 20 to 30 knots! If your Port is upwind, you could send hours trying to make a safe Port...

These days, I shift Port for large Yacht owners and pull four to five of you folks off the Great Lakes every year, lost in the fog or over-come by the weather. I commonly find them on our current full suit of electronics, beyond wind speed, over the bottom speed and wind direction what other electronics do you have and just how new is it?

Again, sorry for be such a downer, but if you are a serious sailor, you need to think this though in greater detail.

SailBoat said:

Tons of experience with Boating and Parrots.

The smaller the boat, the greater the difficulties, as is the experience needed thing.

The greater experience you and your family have with Boating the better. If you're considering getting into to Boating 'as a family' you had better have 100% buy-in of every Human member of the family prior to even considering BUYING a boat. Tons of boats from small to large sit mostly unused because one member had a wild idea of life traveling the bay, region, section or World. First semi bumpy day and half the family over the side feeding the fish and the dream dies right there.

I learned as a child to sail my great uncle's sunfish, ended active large sailboat racing after being hit by a rouge wave, which rolled the craft up on its gunnels breaking my right arm and seriously hurting several others. It took a short four hours for the twelve of us to reach a Port and another three hours to hospital.

Classic test for a beginner: Find a well used port-a-potty, hook-up a shower head and attach to cold water source. Climb in and lock the door from the outside. Have all your enemies begin bouncing the unit around for a couple of hours. A Stormy Crossing West to East takes six to twelve hours on 'Lake' Michigan...

Long ago there was this Romantic Advancer Movie: Romancing the Stone. Tons of Landlovers purchased sailboats and sold them soon after their first bumpy ride.

Rent an RV... See if you can stand each other for extended periods of time.

Sailboats are not for beginners!

Car sick Parrots are more common when their travels are limited to and from the Vets office. Most Parrots do better when they can see what's happening around them. A few need their cages covered. Still others need to be locked into their human...

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Exactly the man I was hoping to see on this one! Thank you, Sir Boats! While I have my share of sailing experience, zero of it involves the birds. So...

You're in very good hands now

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My dear wife and I owned a 45' race /cruise (which means it kind of had a minimal interior). Offwind, 12 knots+ was fairly easy even short-handed. With a crew and reaching higher speeds. 12' deep fin keel with a bulb made her a hand full with a crew. Detuning the mast and running a transport (smaller) main allowed for comfortable shorthanded sailing

The two of us completed hundreds of after race homebound short-handed trips mostly the two of us with our Amazon (Darby, YWA) and from time to time another couple would join us.

Setting the boat too cruise configuration was handled quickly prior to the racing crew leaving by shifting all the racing sails off and deep cleaning of the interior and exterior, and on-loading of the cruise interior then the (transport) sails on-board. Detuning the Mast was in reducing specific loads that assure maximum driving use of the racing main to softer setting to allow for the deeper belly of the transport main (think lighter wind conditions and easy of reefing it).

Setting the boat up for the Amazon was a bit more detailed as it included screens for all access covers. The magnetic locking screens work Okay, so I away purchased two and removed the magnetics from one and doubled up the one in use. When Darby was out, one Human was down below with him and helped assure that if anyone came down or went up, he was never close to the opening.

We know more than a couple friends that have lost cats and dogs overboard, only those that had them in a life vests retrieved them!!!

Life Vests are monitory while racing sailboats. We use only the self-inflater style, which including the added off-shore requirements, plus a connecting harness line from the vest to the boat. We do the same when short sailing!!! IMHO, it is even more important when short sailing.

FYI: The reason for the harness line while racing is to assure that you can bring the body back to their family (cold water kills!!), plus get them out of the water faster. Short-handed, unless you are trained on the how too, you at least get to bring them home still living...

Thanks for all this advice.

I spent seven years in the Royal Navy before skippering a research vessel (M/S Origo if you are interested) into the Artic circle from Svalbard for the next three. Regularly we were dealing with conditions upwards of force 8 and as Svalbard is pitch black for half the year - a fog bank rolling in at 15kt is of little worry. Thanks for the cold water tip, I am aware how cold the water is especially when salt water starts turning to ice on the deck.

I have been landlocked for the last fifteen years but sailed (and motored when needed) at 6kts happily in fair weather conditions. As my adventurous days are well beyond me, I am quite content with gentle cruising, short-handed or with my partner as crew. As I stated in my previous post, we would be river cruising and a little bit of coastal - not the high risk game you seem to tell tales about.

Back to the question in hand. Does anyone have useful experience and some practical experiences with a parrot on this sort of cruise?

Hmmm, tales, never wasted time with tales...

Someone with your stated experience would have known that being soft of details would not garner an offering of much more.

Several useful tips provided, may want to revisit.

frlrubett said:

Ok, so its my boat. It has space for two adults / two kids comfortable enough. We were planning to cruise on the river and a bit on coastal waters. Its a sailing vessel with an outboard motor so there would be no petrol fumes where he would be staying.

Weather wise, it will be UK summer which ranges from 12 to 22 in July. I can get a bit cold on deck but once all the hatches are secured then its fine inside. We do use a gas lamp (paraffin) if it does get cold and cook with butane - when these are in use we ventilate the boat. I do not know if these is any ill effect known in birds with burning gas?

My partner is not a fan of rough sea so we would not be making any passage which would be too choppy but it will roll around a bit on the open water passages. I have a good sized travel cage which is about half the size of his usual accommodation, but he can enjoy out of cage time with relative ease on board.

Duration, we would probably do a week but we would overnight on a marina. He has always been fine in a car journey and when I was a student I used to take him on four hour train journeys at beginning and end of term.

Click to expand...

Let me preface this by saying my boating experience is limited to a single fishing trip when I was around 10, and a few short jaunts on the Circle Line and boats in Hawaii. Always as a passenger, and nothing longer than a few hours. So, no practical experience at all.

That said, I do know birds and their respiratory systems. They are far more susceptible to damage from things like gasses, powders and aerosol sprays than we are, and something we might barely notice could conceivably kill them. (Their vulnerability to off-gassed teflon, for instance, is a prime example.) It's the reason you always hear about the old practice of canaries in mine shafts. They would die before the humans noticed there was bad air.

I mention this to say, if you ever get strong smells from gas or some such that you find somewhat tolerable, it could actually prove lethal to your bird.

Now, again, I don't have the experience with boating to say whether your particular vessel type would present this type of issue... nor whether there could be anything done about such an issue if it did exist to eliminate or mitigate said risk, but I just wanted to make you aware of their extreme respiratory sensitivity.

On the flip side, I know there are lots of people who take their birds on boats. I'm just not sure of what, if any, precautions they're taking.

Squeekmouse said:

Good question, I was actually wondering something very similar. My conure Yoda gets carsick pretty consistently. Unless he is tucked away in my hair and sleeps he will throw up all over his carrier. We've been considering taking some time to go traveling in an RV or a sail-boat (like a live-in catamaran) and travel all over for a year or so, bringing the fids with us. We were worried this might be unhealthy for the boys, especially Yoda, if they got sea-sick... do birds get sea-sick? If so, is it like humans where they get accustomed to it and are just fine? Or could Yoda stay sick and get dehydrated and suffer serious problems?

Thanks to Frirubett for asking this and thanks to any insight others could offer.

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Squeekmouse, I can't speak to much of what you've asked here. (See my noted sea inexperience indicated above.) But I can give a bit of advice on poor Master Yoda's carsickness. Carsickness comes from the body's response to a perceived threat of poison or toxin. Why? Because the eyes perceive movement while the body is at rest. Or there is at least motion inconsistent with the body's current level of activity. So, for some, the body assumes something has been ingested that is disrupting equilibrium and causing the world to swim before your eyes. So, how does the body work to eliminate this perceived ingested threat? By expulsion. Via regurgitation!

As such, there is a good chance that covering Yoda's travel cage during car trips could help. Of course, the body perceives the movement differential via feel as well as by sight, so this isn't guaranteed to work. But depending on just how sensitive he is, there's a big chance it would help. A great deal of his - and our - sensory input is visual, after all. Hope this helps!

I used to take my grey out in a small Jon/flats boat. All inshore, never too rough, and I simply threw a plastic sheet over his travel cage if it rained.

He was wide-eyed and curious his first time out, but after that, it was like “oh hum” to him. Just another day on the boat.

South Florida, so temps were never an issue.

Thanks for that.

My concern would be using the paraffin stove and gas lamps in the same space as the bird and as those are both needed for daily life then it might not be the best experience for him!

As a person with no experience, my thoughts are more around the practical safety. In the case of you knowing you have to use gas and paraffin I would say it's a no no in such a confined space.

I'd also be concerned about him spending a long time in his travel cage, which might get a bit tedious and boring.

I'm surprised to hear about parrots being travel sick, but maybe it's about being confined in something that's moving rather than up a tree in the open.

My terror would be gas and fumes as you have said and an escape somewhere where there is no chance of survival or rescue.

I guess a day trip would be fine, but I think a week might be unpleasant for your little guy/girl.

not to disappoint,

Why are pirates called pirates?

Because they just Arrrrrrrrrrrgh

A pirate walks into a bar with a parrot on his shoulder. The bartender looks up and says "Wow, that's great, where did you get him?" The parrot says "The Caribbean, there's hundreds of them".

A pirate walks into a bar with a big wooden ship's wheel in his pants. The bartender sees him and says, "Hey, that looks really uncomfortable!"
The pirate replies, "Arrrrrrrggh, ye is rrrright! It's drivin' me nuts!"