Going away for the weekend, what about IRN?

[jmlw7]

Hi all, I figured I would start a new post in case anyone else was wondering this... but what do you do with your IRN if you have to go away over the weekend? Perhaps Friday night to Sunday night? Do you take them with you or leave them at home?

My 8 month old ringneck, Remy, came to live with us as his first home two weekends ago on a Saturday. From that night onwards for the entire week, we got him comfortable with stepping up and us, with playing and getting him familiar with our house and his cage, etc. The following Saturday morning, we went away on a 4 hour drive and left him at home until Sunday night. We kept the tv on for a couple of hours on a timer, gave him a full bowl of seeds, lots of toys and water and a massive honey stick that he demolished. When we got back on Sunday night, he came out of his cage and was super clingy.. Didnt want to go back in and wanted to hang out with us all night. We really only hung out with him for a couple of hours that night, but made it up to him that week since we had some free days from work where he got to hang out and play all day/night long.

The following weekend - this past weekend, we spent all weekend with him out of his cage and it was great. He is getting extremely comfortable now. We are trying to prepare our next weekend getaway (6 hr road trip this time), in the next two weeks, where we will most likely leave on Friday night and come back late on Sunday. What should we do with Remy? Will he still be okay with double dishes of water, food, and toys? We really dont have anyone near us around that weekend to pop in and change his water, etc. We dont want to spend much $ to board him for one day. Will he be okay for 2 nights and 2 days alone? I feel like it may stress him out to bring him on a 6 hour car ride to the in laws house where we wouldnt really be around anyway.

What do you do when you go away for the weekend, and at what point/length of time should you absolutely not leave your IRN alone unattended? Especially when no one is around to feed them while we are gone? At what point do we start shopping for a bird boarder?

Just planning ahead, thanks so much in advance!

[ellieelectrons]

With our guys, the most I leave them unsupervised is one night. For two nights I'd take him with me or ask someone to look after him. If you only have one bird, he/she must get mighty lonely when you're away.

Ellie.

[MissK]

Two thoughts from a practical standpoint-

1) It is not unheard of for a bird to spill out its water soon after you leave and be thirsty until you come back. By the same token, if you leave wet food it may spoil or be flung out of the cage. There is no telling how your bird may act out when you are gone until it happens. Being sure the water supply is reliable would be my primary concern, though I have others.

2) Does your lifestyle tend to include overnight trips frequently? If this is part of your lifestyle, I don't see any reason your bird can't accompany you, provided he is not too noisy for any hotel you might use. He's going to be a part of your life for the forseeable future, barring incident, so your lifestyle might as well include him. It's certainly easier than trying to book a sitter all the time.

I have an 18" x 18" x 20-something cage I sometimes use to travel my bird safely through the house (since I have dogs). If your bird is accustomed to a small cage with plenty of rewards, he can happily use a "weekender" size travel cage on trips. Heck, actually, my bird spent close to a decade in a cage not quite size before I got him.

My two cents.
-MissK

[InTheAir]

We take our bird on short camping trips, afternoon bbqs/parties and to stay at friends houses. We have a small cage for travelling. He also has an aviator harness so we can take him out without a cage.
You would be amazed how many cafes don't mind a small well behaved parrot in the outdoor dining area, and will make a nice little ringneck sized salad on a relish dish!
Training them to wear a harness is hard though! Our bird doesn't like it, he just puts up with it.

Claire

[Skyes_crew]

The harness was going to be one of my next posts. Advice, suggestions, recommendations etc.

As for the 2 nights away, I couldn't do it. I would worry the whole time. I'm not really the go away for the weekend type, but we do go away once a year camping. My whole fan damily comes with. The three dogs, the birds, and the 5 kids. I also have an 18x18x20 cage I use for travel. We set up a family cabin tent and use one room for the pets lol.

[InTheAir]

Skyes-crew; you guys must have the most popular campsite, I bet half the kids in the district would be hanging around. I love it!
Our harness training leaves a lot to be desired.
I will start a new thread on it, I'd love to discuss it and hopefully get some insights from you and others.
Claire

[Skyes_crew]

Skyes-crew; you guys must have the most popular campsite, I bet half the kids in the district would be hanging around. I love it!
Our harness training leaves a lot to be desired.
I will start a new thread on it, I'd love to discuss it and hopefully get some insights from you and others.
Claire

Yup it's like our own little traveling circus

[jmlw7]

Hi all, thanks for all of the input. The last time we went away, we only left Saturday morning and returned Sunday night. Remy was fine, cage was clean aside from the honey stick seeds all over the floor he destroyed and the toys were used. He has been quite the clean water drinker thus far.

If we are able to go away Saturday morning to Sunday night again I wont worry... but now I'm regretting his travel cage I just bought (that clear acrylic perch and go for short vet trips), and feel like I should have bought a larger cage for him to spend weekends with us if we go away (which we dont do often, usually once a month or every other month and stay with family). However, my fiance brought up the fact that Remy's cage isnt too large right now (32"x 20" x24" - Petco's Designer Green Dome Playtop Parrot Cage - for googling sakes -we will upgrade probably within the next few months as he gets older) and it has handles. So it's currently on a stand that we built and can just simply be carried out to our car for weekends we need to be gone from Friday-Sunday or whatever.

I thought it was a genius idea actually, especially if we will be at the in laws, we wont feel so guilty about leaving him in his cage for a few hours at moms house on a Saturday if he has the comforts of his own cage - even in a different house for a few days.

We can also bring his perch and go carrier as well as it's small and who knows if we'll need it also. (by the way, this carrier still needs to be used for the vet this coming Saturday.. we took him out last weekend on a small 10 minute road trip to the store to get him used to it and he was terrified, but he was fine when we got home and set it open right next to his cage. We wrapped the top handle in tight hemp rope and now he climbs down his cage to sit on the handle as his perch and munch on fruit and nuts... so progress)

[Skyes_crew]

That is great idea and I googled the cage, that is more than sufficient enough for traveling. The more you travel with him the better he will get at it. In the beginning you may have to cover his cage while he's in the car because sometimes the blurred images flying by confuse them. But good for you on choosing to travel with him

[sanjays mummi]

PAC A BIRD look good!, we never leave Sanjay apart from shopping trips, I like to give him fresh food and water daily, and give his palace a quick clean.I would worry non stop and not enjoy myself at all.