When you've left your babies for about a week, how did they act when you came home?

We're going on vacation and Skye is going to have to go to boarding for 9 days. The place is kinda far away from our house but it has nearly perfect reviews online and we were very impressed with the cleanliness, amount of toys, etc when we visited a couple of weeks ago. She'll have her own appropriately sized cage with new toys in a room that the public can't get to and they have a tv in there set to cartoons all day. It's just a better fit than going to my mom's, where they have five dogs who bark constantly.

This is our first bird and our first time leaving her for more than a few hours, so I'm having a little anxiety about it. Since coming home, she's only really been around my SO and I. She's met a handful of other people for brief moments but was scared and did everything she could to get back to me or my SO when they held her. My initial worries were about her getting hurt or being too scared to eat or if she forgets us but I've worked through those and know that she'll be fine.

But the one thing that I can't get out of my head is, what if she's mad at us when we pick her up? Especially if she's so mad that it changes the way she acts towards us?

What have your experiences been? I'm worrying too much, right?

Almost two years ago I was in the hospital for three days. Husband said my fids were very quiet. When I got home we both said we weren’t going to make a sound, just walk in the house. This is because my Husband says I get kudos when I walk in the house, he gets nothing. We walked in the house, he went in first, we heard nothing. They see me and talk about a sound explosion. Buddy had to have head scritches, Venus had to be on my shoulder, Buzz had to have a conversation but do not touch me, typical Buzz, lol.

Recently I went on a road trip with my mother, when I got home Buddy, scratch my head, Buzz, he threw a block at me.

I have talked with the, via phone and FaceTime. They get so excited! Try it.


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Explain to them upfront, that you are going to have to leave them someplace for a while but that they will be safe! And you will be back in whatever number of days! I have to leave by JoJo multiple weeks at a time, or days! It has always gone well, except the last time I made mistake of having him loose in the room with me while I packed my suitcase and that was the first time in all of the years he literally attacked me everytime I tried to put something in my suitcase!

The Rb makes me PAY for any unapproved absences, and that means all of them. I just make do. I know you're nervous. I do believe boarding is better than leaving them alone at home with visiting caregivers. We have a wonderful Ursuline nun who house-sits for us, which is a wonderful solution. She knows our bird by now. She sits in the rocking chair by his cage and reads the Bible to him, which she says he likes. Isn't that wonderful?

Good luck. Have fun!

I left Nico for two weeks in the care of one of my good friends, who Nico sees often and knows pretty well. When I came back his “come back!” call when I leave the room he’s in intensified, but other than that he was much the same bird. I was kind of worried that he would forget my existence, but that didn’t happen. I thought that maybe he would bond with the friend I left him with, but that didn’t happen either (Nico apparently does not like boys very much).

Yup, I went away for 10 days and my husband looked after my birds. They were absolutely fine. I got rewarded by a lot of lovely attention and a bite on my neck!

It's OK for your fids to be annoyed, you went without their permission! It doesn't last

Thank you so much everyone for your responses! I'm feeling much better about it now. I sure hope we get an ecstatic happy greeting and not a grumpy baby when we get back but it's good to know it doesn't last long.

GaleriaGila said:

We have a wonderful Ursuline nun who house-sits for us, which is a wonderful solution. She knows our bird by now. She sits in the rocking chair by his cage and reads the Bible to him, which she says he likes. Isn't that wonderful?

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Awww, that is wonderful. I wish we had someone like that so she could stay more comfortable and we could hopefully get daily pics/Facetime. Alas, the people we would trust to do it are either unable because of their own animals or are schoolteachers that are simultaneously getting their Master's and, understandably, don't have the time. So, away to Birdie Camp she goes! I hope she doesn't pick up any annoying noises from her neighbors lol. She has pretty good mimicry abilities.

Before retirement I was away from home for fairly consistent 4 day periods followed by 4 days off. My flock acclimated to the 4-on/4-off cycle by noticing certain behaviors before departing. My last day off ritual was to change cage paper, perform heavy cleaning, and remove chop a bit earlier. They seemed to notice, and I learned to say goodbye before changing into my work uniform. Upon return home, they would be a bit more clingy for the first day or so.

In my absence they were cared for by either family or my gf.

My almost 2 year old CAG does fairly well, no plucking at least, but when I get home from a couple days away she gets so excited about my return that she gets on me and tries to feed me...so I have to put her back onto her cage while she tells me about her time without me...lol...settles down and just wants her head scratched....wish I could find a nice place to board her, but places around me aren’t quite up to my standards

I leave my flock now and then from 3 days to 3 weeks (only once and I had only 1 bird at the time). I now have 3 birds and I have my babysitter/birdsitter take care of them. If I take a bird with me (which I often do) she'll take 2 to her house but if three she'll take care of them at our house for us. It's great because they know and trust her and she can handle all 3 of them because she's been around since the 1st day we brought them all home. She also takes care of them when we go to the city for dinner 2 nights a week so that's how she is able to handle them because she's here all the time (she cleans for us also).
Anyways....when I get home they're all over the moon to see me and my husband and we tell them we're going on a "long bye bye" or a "short bye bye" and says before we'll count the days with them and that seems to help. My oldest and 1st bird Ollie is happy to see me at 1st but alternates with being excited to see me and scolding me lol... it's funny and cute because he cheese me out a bit but by the end of the day he's fine.