FINCHforum

Recently I made the decision to part with my entire collection of show English Budgies. A friend in Texas works with them and we arranged for them to be shipped mid week from Tampa to Houston then to Dallas/Ft Worth. 19 of the 31 budgies went this trip, the others will fly out in little over a week.

We decided to use a medium size dog crate, divided it into two levels using a rubbermade container lid which was secured to the crate. The vent holes and metal vented door had galvanized 1/4" attached to it. 11 English budgies were loaded into the top portion, 8 on the bottom. You are allowed food and water in the crate with them. Everything went well until the lay over in Houston. The birds were offloaded from the plane and driven to an air conditioned room....but they forgot to get the birds on the connecting flight from Houston to Dallas. We were not contacted when they were not loaded on the plane. Even tracking the flight it said it was due to arrive in Dallas upon schedule. When they failed to show up we were calling the Pet Safe office and they found the birds, they were still in the pet room...they were quickly scheduled on a new flight from Houston to Dallas where they arrived 4 hours later. A bit scary for us but the birds were fine, a bit scared and very anxious to get out of the crate into their new walk in flight!!!

The shipment of societies and zebras to me went well, instead of a layover to Houston we decided to do the red eye and have them overnight in Chicago and then down to me in Tampa mid morning the next day. It went perfect, birds were great.

We have another shipment scheduled for 17-18th from Tampa to Dallas. The rest of the budgies (pairs) will go them and a pair of Scarlet Chested Parakeets also.

glad everything worked out well,,,I was a travel agent for some
15 years, and I shipped many animals,,,,,,

always ask if the animals will be shipped in cargo and if that cargo is a controlled environment,,,,,

also beware that some airlines have limits on how hot it can be on the ground, and if any temperature exceeds that limit or is EXPECTED to exceed that limit (arrival, changing or departure) they CAN refuse to take the animal.

The temperature limit is a good thing, so animals don't die of heat stroke. I've used Continental and Delta and they were good.

I only use the flights for the Pet Safe, climate controlled. There are now only allowed two crated or animals shipped at the same time on the petsafe flights. Two crates of birds from two different people are not allowed so it is usually a dog or cat and a another crate with the birds, guess it is to prevent disease, that is a good thing.

It took days of coordinating flights and getting the shortest lay over...it worked out well.

When you call United Pet Safe, hit option 3, not 1....3 will take you to an operator for domestic flights, 1 is international including the US.

The animals are offloaded into an air conditioned van and taken to a air conditioned building.

United (Continental) is very good, and they had the best price the last time I used them. Always talk to the people at Pet Safe, as they are familiar with the special needs of live cargo. Not every aircraft has a pressurized, temperature-controlled compartment in the cargo area, so those aircraft can't be used for live shipments. That is what makes it hard to schedule sometimes--there may be lots of flights, but the wrong aircraft.

That is a good idea to use the dog carrier for larger birds. I have used kitty carriers for smaller birds, they can be adapted quite easily.

Sally, Joshua actually shipped me the societies and zebra back to me in the same carrier. He used the little travel cages like this He attached them to the inside with zip ties, threading it though the air vents of the carrier and linking two together, there was room for two carriers on both levels, each carrier had food and a water tube and a special drinker bottle on it (his birds knew how to use these.... (bottle with yellow flip top.... http://www.bunnyrabbit.com/price/waterbottle.htm#BRcom The carrier will be cleaned out and the remainder of the breeder budgies will be sent next week

wow, I'm happy to say that in the last several years, the pet shipping has SERIOUSLY improved with the airlines,,,,

they used to ship animals in the belly of the plane and it wasn't even pressurized!!!!!