Moving w/ a parrot(macaw)

[spotter]

Hey gang! I've been searching around the forums for threads about moving w/ a feathered friend, and haven't been lucky; and on Google, I've only seen articles about re-homing.
My military macaw, Radar, and I moved across town yesterday. He handled the car ride pretty well and seems to be content, but cautious in his new environment. In your experience, how long does it usually take for a bird to adapt to a new house? I want to start taking him on walks again(in his harness), but I don't want to throw too many new things at him.
Any advice on making him more at ease is appreciated. I've included a picture. He's in his same cage, but I think I want to get a new one for him soon after things calm down.
Thank you!

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Oh! We just moved recently too back in February with our ekkie.

Not sure how different macaws are in terms of adaptability.. Cairo is used to trekking around everywhere with us in his harness - almost every other day. So he's not too phased about new places, but I think the traumatic part for him was seeing his old home get taken apart (we moved furniture over the period of a week or two).

As he spent the first few nights in the new place, he was very clingy, especially since he didn't know the layout. I made sure to always bring him room to room with me - one, to teach him how to navigate the new place, and two, to reassure him we were not abandoning him (when he was rehomed to us, they also dismantled his cage in front of him). I slowly weaned him off being brought room to room as I started up recall training, first within rooms then between rooms. Once he got the hang of flying between rooms, he was fine. I think he was originally panicking because he's always used to being able to find us, but the new layout meant finding us was a bit harder.

The tricky part was when we bought new furniture a few weeks later to replace our old furniture. He thought we were moving again and started screaming again. We didn't react to those, and he quickly calmed down within the week or two.

We actually kept taking Cairo out on his harness since that was already part of his routine. I wanted to keep some semblance of normalcy to iterate to him that this was home. (I also want him to be able to recognise his new neighborhood in case he gets lost for any reason). He was quite happy about the walks, and I think they did help him a lot simply because he loves going outside.

As for the new cage part, we also kept his old cage for about a month or less. Perhaps it's because he's still young (16 months after the time), so he had no problem adapting to his new cage, despite the change of address. He was a bit confused (he grew up in the old cage), but I don't think it had anything to do with the new house.

 

[ChristaNL]

It's all about how flexible your bird is.

Like charmed already stated: if your bird is used to new impressions it will go relatively smooth, if your bird is a one-person-bird/ indoor one-room-couchpotatoe it may take a bit longer...

Usually 3-4- months for my birds when they changed not only house but also owner.
So I think yours will settle faster than that.

So if you keep the cage the same...the bird will let you know when he/she wants to explore and how long and how far...

 

[Birdman666]

When I have a skittish bird in new surroundings, I usually walk around the entire place with him and "introduce him to his new place.

Mine are kind of used to adapting to new things, so it hasn't been much of a problem with my flock. Half my flock are "out and about" trained, so they really don't get spooked by much, and the benefit of that is they adapt pretty stress free to new situations.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

When I had to move several months ago my kids took it well. Amy had been in the same house all his life ( almost 30 years) but he is,to quote Mark,(Birdman666) an "out and about" birdie also..going/visiting many places.
Amy took less than a couple days to settle right in. BB is a youngster and it didn't bother him in the least



Jim

 

[CallumConure]

I moved a year and a half ago with Callum in tow (had to move into my aunt's and then into our new home), and now we're looking at yet another move. Anyways, Callum adapted to moving very quickly, only because he's a very laid back bird and knows to come to me if he's scared.

Callum settled into my aunt's within a month's time, and then easily took a move to a new place. I think he more upset about his cage being set on its side to fit in the car lol! Then when we moved, I showed him around the house on my shoulder. He finds my shoulder to be the "safest" spot.

Again, it's all up to your bird. I think it also depends how you treat the situation. Most of us know that birds feed off of us and our emotions (we're excited, they get excited; we're sad, they're sad; we're mad, they're mad; etc.). If you go into the home nervous, the bird will probably be nervous (if they aren't already).

At least for me, Callum's a very spooky bird, and I was just prepared to handle a spook. Thankfully, he thought my shoulder was pretty safe, so he just sat up there to observe.

 

[spotter]

Hey guys! Thank you all for the reassurance. Radar is right at home now. He walks and climbs freely around the apartment following me without hesitation. No flying, unfortunately. I did just as you said, I initially walked him room to room and eventually he warmed up. Probably took about a month and a half or so until he was completely chill. All is good! Also, I just bought him a new cage and it just shipped today! I'm going to make a thread about it