"Sukha is our newest little addition at 8 months old and he is an Indian Ringneck Parakeet. If you take him out on your hand have a seed or treat ready and bring him to the top of his cage or to his playstand in the living room and make sure the dogs are locked in the kitchen if you do. If you put him on his cage make sure the blue blanket is draped over the futon so he doesn't poop all over the futon. If he flutters to the floor at any time go within maybe 3-4 feet of him and say "Come here Sukha, step up" in a light and happy tone. Sometimes he will, sometimes he won't. You can try to edge closer or corner him but he does have a sharp beak if he doesn't want to be handled. You can also try a spare perch that should work. If there is no danger and you can stay there until he is secured again then do so, if there is danger try to herd him away or if you absolutely cannot wait an extra couple minutes, a towel can be used in dire need by draping it over him and *-gently-* scooping him into the towel and putting him gently into the cage that way. Birds are extremely delicate (having hollow bones and being so small) and if anything breaks it would be very costly if not lethal to them. Things he should not even be touching are: coffee or caffeine, chocolate of any kind, alcohol, tobacco, drugs of any kind, avocado, and any kind of chemical. Nothing but hot water should be used to clean anything he can come in contact with as birds are very sensitive, and absolutely NO AEROSOLS or gases of any kind around him as these will kill birds! If you don't know, birds used to be used by miners and whatnot to detect gas leaks. They are so sensitive that if the birds died, the mine was evacuated. No lead, zinc or unknown metals to be safe (the metals in the cage are stainless steel) and basically the best thing for birds to remember is "IF IN DOUBT, DON'T!" Fresh foods are safe, pretty much anything healthy you can eat, you can generally share with him like noodles, rice, cooked meat, yogurt, fruits, veggies, nuts and so such. The only stickler to that is no seeds or pits from any fruits like peaches, plums, cherries, apples and so such as they contain levels of arsenic that are harmless to humans but toxic to birds. Seeds from pumpkins are fine and other squashes like cucumber, squash, strawberries and whatnot can be fed. One good way to get Sukha to like you (or at least tolerate) is to feed him bird seed every time you are near the cage, then he will start to associate you with treats, just like any other animal and thus starts a relationship. If he ever gets out of the house, there will most likely be no getting him back and you will be held responsible so never take him out of the house, never leave the doors open and refrain from opening doors to the outside if/when he is out of his cage and keep a vigilant eye. Birds are like toddlers, they will chew on anything, do not know many boundaries, love to chat, are fascinated by bright colors and shiny things and always very curious. Sukha likes to hang onto bars or perches and flap vigorously but this is just exercise and nothing to worry about. He also likes to chatter in the mornings or if he hears other birds. Sometimes he'll fall and you'll hear a racket (he is still a baby) but as long as he can still climb he should be OK. If he acts drunk, cannot stand on his own, is on his back, breathing heavily, wheezing, sleeping all day on both feet without any activity, or is at the bottom of the cage and cannot get up on a perch call me immediately for advice and get ready for a vet trip!
If you smoke, always wash your hands as soon as you come in, do not leave any cigarette butts at the house as the dogs can and will eat them, never smoke inside and make -sure- no smoke gets inside as it will kill the bird."
That's what I can think of now, if I need correction or elaboration or am missing something please tell me, I want my baby to be safe! The trip is for two weeks and I'll clean everything right before we leave and instruct her on things to do if needed, but I'd rather have a little extra poop to clean up and everything safe doing it myself when we get back rather than have something happen because she cleaned something wrong. The bottom of the cage has layers of paper to just pull out and toss with replacements beneath, so should be easy there. There are details that I've told her I'll show her and she's going to visit a few times before she actually pet sits and she's babysat my toddler son before so the animals somewhat know her, as do we and we trust her.
Thanks for the help
Jessica
P.S. I looked up petsitting and birdsitting but it didn't pull anything up in the search, so sorry if this is a redundancy!
I just got back from Vacation and that pet sitter had bailed on me so I got a professional pet sitter that actually owned birds so it became much easier. I didn't tell them but we can remotely work the webcam in the office and we watched them interact and they did really well, even more than I required of them which was nice. Since they were more comfortable they took him out every day and talked with him and I had cut up fresh food in advance to put in a stainless steel whisk I got (clipped to a cage clip, they make awesome treat holders!) and showed them everything in an interview before hand. I did tell them they could use a perch if they weren't sure about him (he grabs and tests.squeezes a little with his beak before perching), but they were good and he was good with the hands and gave him tons of treats XoD