boarding advice needed please - urgent!

selma · Post by **selma** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:41 am

Hi everyone. Hubby and I are going away for 6 weeks and will have to board Bibou for the entire time. We went to check out the place today and it's really nice. She will have her own huge cage with toys but they said we had a choice. Either they could place her next to the other birds (i saw a couple of ringnecks, the blue ones) but it's quite noisy because the kennels for the dogs are a few metres away so she can hear the barking or they can place her in a huge cage in their office where she won't hear the dogs but she won't have other birds around although there are quite a few of the staff going in and out.
I feel she should be kept in the office because she's not used to dogs barking and i think she could possibly just die of fright. On the other hand I like the fact that she can 'chat' to the other birdies who look like her. Hubby and one of the staff think that she will get used to the barking even though shes never even seen a dog. They feel that her wild instincts will come out and she will be ok.
What do the experts out there think? I just want her to be ok. Please please help us to make a decision. We will be taking her on thursday. Also have any of you put your birds in boarding while on vacation. How did they cope? Were they ok afterwards. I just don't want her to feel like we've abandoned her.

Dani03 · Post by **Dani03** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:22 am

Is she going to get one on one attention with someone there everyday? She is still young yes? You have to be careful about her not becoming cage bound...

I personally would want Prinny in the office, more people.

Dani and Prinny

selma · Post by **selma** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 9:41 am

dani she is about 8 months old. If she stays in the office they will take her out during the day (just in the office) but if she's in the outside cage they wouldn't.

Mazziemom · Post by **Mazziemom** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 11:16 am

That would settle it for me, these guys need to come out of their cages.

Athena

Post by **Datsun and Family** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 1:03 pm

I would absolutely put Datsun in the office, she is a real people bird and other birds would just encourage her to scream. 6 weeks is a really long time and I would want her to get as much handling as possible.

From my own experience I have found that another ringneck near your own will result in them using the contct call a LOT and I dont know about you but I hate that noise!!!!!

Also you do not know about the health of the other birds and having them in such close quarters could get Bibou sick.

I would feel more comfortable with her in the office anyway. But thats just my opinion.

Post by **kyria** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 2:44 pm

Kai or Jordan would be in the office MOST DEFINATELY!

selma · Post by **selma** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:08 am

Thank you everyone for your replies. I feel so much more reassured now that it's unanimous. The office it is then.

Will let you know how she does after we get back.

Mikaela · Post by **Mikaela** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 5:53 am

ALL I am going to say is:

It only takes ONE day of me being sick or something and not getting Baby out for most of the day and she reverts VERY QUICKLY to wild.

If I left her in all day, she would puff up and refuse to come out. I know, it happened yesterday.

But, this morning we got up and back to the same routine.

IRN's revert back sooooo fast. My husband and I have always been travelers but now, not so much because of this.

PLEASE, please tell them how very important hands-on is. And MAKE sure they have this site addy so we can walk them through any problems they encounter.

Otherwise you could very well come back to a bird that has to be re-trained. This is why IRN's are abandoned so often. :cry:

selma · Post by **selma** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 4:13 am

Well, everyone Bibou is gone and the house feels so empty. This is the first time she's away from us and it's really very difficult. We cancelled two trips last year because we didn't want to leave her and I'm so tempted to do the same again. They placed her in a huge cage which looks very much like her own and we took some of her own toys so hopefully she will be ok. She put up one heck of a fight but when we left she was sitting quietly on the perch. Leaving her was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Needless to say I balled my eyes out last night. The staff all seem really friendly so I just hope she'll have fun with them.
How does everyone else deal with leaving their bird when going on holiday?

Post by **Datsun and Family** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:04 pm

I DONT!!!!!! Hahahahahaha we might be going about a 10 hour drive away in Feb for a week and my family would happily take Datsun but I still dont know about it!!!!

Thinking of taking her with us but its so hot here at the moment, she would cook in the car if we were to leave her for any length of time. So we would need to find Datsun friendly accomodation.

She is over 1 year old now and would have a ball with my parents or James' parents or my grandparents but what would I do without her??????????

OH my goodness, never let me have human children!!! :roll:

selma · Post by **selma** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:31 pm

Datsun I think with human children it easier. Not because you love them less than your pets but birds especially are so dependant on humans. They are stuck all day in their cage and have to depend on someone to feed them, play with them, clean their cage etc. At least a child can say what he wants and you can explain to them you're coming back. My biggest worry is that Bibou will think we abandoned her. I just feel so sad for her.

Mazziemom · Post by **Mazziemom** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:36 pm

I havent left for more than five days in... oh god it has to be 15 years?

The last time we left (had to for an emergency with family) we boarded one of our birds and had a sitter LIVE in our house with the rest.

I wouldnt change it for the world though. Who needs to get away when you can just go get bird kisses ??

Athena