Worried about Travel

[Darkfifi29]

Could you advise me please?

Hello Everyone...As you know, my baby Grey is coming home in about 4 weeks. My concern is that a few times a year I travel overseas to exhibitions or to photograph in museum collections. Because NZ is so far away from Europe and USA, I would normally stay away for about 2-3 weeks.

My priority this year is not to travel, but to learn to be a responsible and loving companion to my parrot. I don't want to damage our bond as it develops, or let him feel I have abandoned him by going away overseas for too long.

However, I have no experience with what 'too long' is for a parrot. Because I work from home I can offer a lot of quality time to him, but I will have to fly around NZ some times for a day or two for business, but no plane travel in NZ takes longer than 2 hours anyway, the islands are small compared to the continents. I also travel by car a lot with my dogs, so the wee parrot is going to be coming too in a Cell-tie travel cage. Its just the overseas trips that I am worried about. What do you think?

 

[Featheredsamurai]

My advice would be to harness train your gray so he can go out and meet lots of people and have many experiences. Have friends you trust who are willing to learn about birds come over and interact with him often. Then when you do have to travel oversees it won't be as traumatic to have different people taking care of him. You can even let your friends take care of him for a day so he isn't as stressed out when you are suddenly gone.

Let your gray have new experiences every single day, and on occasion change the area surrounding his cage a little. This is a great way to make any bird well rounded and change doesn't effect them as much. Also, get him used to drinking out of travel cups you would use in a car while out of his cage.

 

[lotosha]

Same situation here. I usually travel abroad ones or twice a year. Usually for a week or so. Me next trip is in two and a half weeks. So I asked the breeder who sold me my AG if he could babysit for my bird. He agreed and hopefully it will work fine . I'll post here the results as soon as I got back. So maybe this idea will work for you too
Also wish you good luck with your new AG. They are so much fun!!!

 

[PikaLina]

My advice would be to harness train your gray so he can go out and meet lots of people and have many experiences. Have friends you trust who are willing to learn about birds come over and interact with him often. Then when you do have to travel oversees it won't be as traumatic to have different people taking care of him. You can even let your friends take care of him for a day so he isn't as stressed out when you are suddenly gone.

Let your gray have new experiences every single day, and on occasion change the area surrounding his cage a little. This is a great way to make any bird well rounded and change doesn't effect them as much. Also, get him used to drinking out of travel cups you would use in a car while out of his cage.

Fantastic advice! I think it's probably the least traumatic way you can safely leave your baby grey. I don't know if there are other brands of harnesses out there, but personally, I've been using the Aviator Harness for my birds. According to the size guide, the medium harness is suitable for African Greys. It came with a how-to dvd that covered training as well. Best of luck!

 

[LoveMyParrots]

I recommend harness training your grey, as the members said above. Most young parrot can be harness trained within 5 weeks, and it would be really fun for you and your parrot.

The aviator harness is very good, and I recommend them. The parrot university website sells it for $35, and free shipping world wide.

 

[Darkfifi29]

Thankyou everyone! I am waiting for an aviator harness to arrive, and I will talk to the lady who has hand-reared my baby grey when I pick him up about to see if she would babysit when I go away overseas. I can take him back to her. Brilliant!! Phew! I feel so much better now. Can't thank you all enough for taking the time to advise me.