Traveling with our Tiel?

[oliveoctober]

Hi, there!
I've been looking online at various posts about car travel with Cockatiels, and I'm getting mixed reviews on the subject. My question was:
We're traveling up to Canada to visit relatives for around 3-4 weeks...it's a 9 hour car trip and I wondered if it would be less stressful and upsetting to our 6 month old male Cockatiel to have this long car trip each way, OR to be given to a family member for the extended time? He seems pretty attached to us already, and I worry that he would be depressed by our absence and be scared in a new place without us (if we were to have someone watch him while we were away). Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
-Beck

[cherylrowland]

Beck,

Travel is very hard on birds, but it can be done. A lot of us travel to shows and take our birds by car. If you should decide to take him, make sure that you have a cage large enough for him to move around and plenty of food and water for him to snack on while traveling. Before leaving I would check with the border to ensure that there will be no problems going in and out of Canada with him. Several months ago, someone said that they were planning on traveling to Canada, but there was some problems at the border.

[cerrissa MacNichols]

Hi Beck,
Our family has had a cockatiel for 1 year (and actually we now have a second tiel who is a rescue bird) but me and my sons used to take him during the summer every week to stay at my husband's work week apartment. It's 1 1/2 hours each way and he did fine, even singing on the way in the car.

We were gone for 2 weeks at Christmas and he stayed with a friend at her office during the day and she brought him home at night and he was fine there too. He is a really social and outgoing bird though so perhaps your bird's temperament might help you make a decision. He has also stayed with my parents for the weekend and another neighbor. All of our friends were able to let him out of the cage to play and loved having him visit. They only thing is that he does tend to bond to one person, even on short stays. I'm not an expert but I hope our experience might be helpful to you.
Kind regards,
Cerrissa

[oliveoctober]

Thank you so much! We'll give it a try...he seems like a pretty resilient little guy.

I do appreciate it!
-Beck