Home alone/weekend away

[Bubblelady]

I spend every other week end caring for my mom. Buddy always goes with me. Obviously I can't take my new baby because of quarenteen. Will he be alright home alone for 2 days, seeing how new and all he is? Or should I board him?

Once he can go with us, I am concerned about the cage situation. His cage is too big for my car. Buddy has what I call her "car seat" which is a smaller cage than her "home" cage. Would Gus be ok in a smaller cage, two days at a time, every other week? I have a spare cage that is 16 by 13. If that is too small, I could switch Buddy to that & give Gus Buddy's 16 by 16 cage, since she doesn't play anymore. Or, after another pay day or two, get a slightly bigger but not humongous cage to be Gus' car seat/guest house. Opinions, please.

Gus is nibbling my ear every so gently right now :)

[momo]

Ive read on various forums that people do leave their babies at home.. as long as they have a GIANT load of food and LOTS of water they should be fine.

If you are worried.. maybe get your neighbour if you know them.. or family near by just to check up on him once a day?

[Tango's_Mom]

i don't advise leaving him at home on his own, if he spills or spoils his water he could be a long time with nothing suitable to drink, also if something else were to happen (like an accident or something with a toy) it could have very bad results if you didn't find him until much later, the same applies if he were to come down with some kind of illness, lovebirds don't generally appear sick until it is an emergency, if you left him alone by the time you found him he could be in very bad shape. I personally would try and find someone to atleast come in and check on him a couple times a day, or see if he could stay with a friend, if those aren't options boarding him might be, but you can be certain that quarantine conditions would most likely not be maintained and if i were to do that I would be inclined to start quarantine over again, this would be a big concern if he were to be boarded every other weekend.

[michael]

I could not leave my lovebird for two days without reasonable care intervention. Unless I were able to find someone knowledgable enough about avian care (who also owned a cell phone) to check in at least twice daily (hour per visit) or find a "qualified avian" boarding shelter with good references (as well as understanding the ongoing quarantine), he would be going along for the ride.

When my bird must travel to the vet (about 1 1/2 hours away) or anywhere else, I have the option of using either a certified avian flight carrier or a small hamster cage reinforced with zip ties. I actually like the hamster cage because he can view the surroundings as we travel. I keep it on a cushion in the rear seating area well secured with a seat belt. I also carry his very first cage (now a spare) which is slightly bigger than the spare you mentioned as its easier to manage him in the vets office with a larger cage. Before leaving the van I lock the doors, take him out, and he usually hops right into the larger spare one. Then its off we go. I would have no problem using this spare cage if we were to stop at a hotel because he still likes it.

Perhaps this may be a small compromise, but if worse came to worse I think depending on how long a trip your taking (couple hours maybe) the quarantine could still be somewhat managed by keeping both birds covered in separate small travel cages for the duration of the ride. Once you reach your destination, transfer them to the larger spare cages and follow the proper quarantine procedure like you would at home (Unless of course your mom lives in a one room apartment and/or can't stand constant lovebird chatter :x) Also too, this means you will need two spare cages that fit into your vehicle along with two safe travel cages. I will add, before I started using a van for travel our little Dodge shadow held two of Goofs original cages (yes, we did have two) along with plenty room for a safe travel cage. But then again we always did travel "lightly"................:2cents:

[LauraO]

Ditto to what others said! I would not leave any bird alone for two days, cause too much can happen. I would board the baby or have someone to come over a couple of times a day to check-in on him.

[Bubblelady]

Just to clarify: Buddy, the lovebird, is definately going with me. She would be hysterical if I left her home alone for two days! She has never been alone for more than 30 hours, and that was just once. My question is about the baby green cheek conure that I got yesterday. I could board him, which would be the easiest, & my vet does maintain safe boarding precautions. They will only board birds that have annual physicals that include blood work & will not board a bird who has boarded elsewhere w/in the past year. They are kept in aquariums, not cages. They take them out individually to have one on one time. I would only board the conure since the lovie always goes with me. I would prefer to take them both with me, however, since we've only been together a little over 24 hours. I am afraid that 1) he'd get in trouble left on his own, and 2) he'd get upset left alone. His initial blood work came back okay today. But the beak & feather test takes longer & won't be back till next week. But I don't want to mess up the quarantine. My mom is 2 1/2 hours away. Should I take the gcc, what is the smallest cage that would be comfortable for a 2 day stay? Probably I should just leave him at the vet's & be safe. But I will miss him already :very_sad: None of my friends know anything about birds & most have cats. I don't know enough about my neighbors to know if they are reliable. So, my choices are, 1. Leave the baby gcc alone for 50 hours, 2. board the baby gcc, or 3. take both birds with me, keeping the new bird in the back seat, covered, and the lovie in the front seat, covered, and in separate rooms at my mom's.It will be after dark during both legs of the drive.

[bbslovie]

Hi, my :2cents: worth is if you have to go and can't postpone your trip then board your gcc. I wouldn't risk leaving a bird unsupervised for 2 days and I wouldn't jeopardize the quarantine that you are doing. I know you'll miss Gus but at least if you have to go that you have a great place to board. Hope that helps!

[bbslovie]

Hi again, the other reason that I wouldn't leave a bird unsupervised for that long is that so many things could go wrong without you there! I just wouldn't take the risk when you have qualified people to board with.

[wilkiecoco]

i would not leave kiwi alone for two days. i always take him to a vet, or a friend who loves birds. too much can go wrong to take a chance.

i would board your gcc, and take buddy with you. it's only two days, and while i know you will miss him, for health and safety reasons, your gcc would be better off in a safe environment. just my :2cents:

[Bubblelady]

Thanks for the input. In my heart I knew that was what I should do. I just didn't want it to be true! This has been a very expensive week. But it would be penny wise & pound foolilsh to risk all that money I spent to save another $30. So, it's off to the vet this afternoon.

[Bubblelady]

Resewrvations all made for Gus. I also learned just now that his hatch date is May 23, so he is 15 weeks old, not 8. And from now on I will post Gus stories under the proper heading--other birds :)

[Janie]

For what it's worth, I have never left my three alone, even overnight, but before I adopted Oliver he was left alone for as much as a week at a time. :omg: Hard to believe, I know, but the young girl didn't know any better and her parents obviously didn't care enough to find out what "good" bird care means so that was that. They figured that one big bowl of food would be fine and of course much of that was waste after the first day or two.

Even more than the worry of dirty water or seed, my fear would be the bird getting into trouble. Of course that can happen when you're at work but something about leaving one with no one check in would really worry me.

I agree with everyone else..... to be safe, I'd board him. :)

[Bubblelady]

Gus is safely at the vet's, where he should be. I, too, hate to leave them alone. But I think my biggest reason--even though I know about safety risks--is that I don't want them to be lonely! My canary stays alone every other weekend but he doesn't care, as long as he has lots of food. Actually, I think he might prefer it that way. He hatesme, ever since I caught him last Christmas to put him in a smaller cage to transport him, again to my mom's, because I was staying 10 days. He's back in his large cage now, but he has never forgiven me. Spreads his wings, goes eeee eeeee eeeee at me, then hops on my finger & pecks for all he is worth--every day when I feed & water him. Guess nobody ever told him not to bite the hand that feeds him. Well, off to load Buddy in the car & hit the road. Thanks to everyone for making me do the right thing.