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Searching for a Good Bird Sitter By John Geary Anyone with pets knows the value of finding someone dependable to look after your companions while you’re away. And if you share your life with a parrot, finding someone you trust to care for your birds while away often resembles a search for the Holy Grail. Parrots are not animals that you can have your neighbor visit once a day to change their food and water like you would with a cat or hamster. Parrots need exercise, stimulation and regular companionship. There are two main options: You can either board your birds or hire a pet/house-sitter. Some pet stores offer these services, or can at least put you in touch with a bird-sitter. Your avian vet may also be able to refer someone to you. In most cities, there are several professional pet-sitting services available, although finding services that include experienced parrot sitters can be difficult. |
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If you belong to a local bird club, you might be able to hook up with someone willing to swap bird-sitting services with you. This can be a dicey proposition, though, if you sit someone’s bird, then they’re always unavailable when you want to go away. A better way to make use of your club membership is to ask fellow members about sitters they have used and would recommend (conversely, they can also tell you about sitters to avoid!) Personally,
I always try to find someone I trust to stay with my birds in our house. I’ve
never actually boarded them anywhere, although I know many people who have
boarded their birds quite satisfactorily. There are several reasons I favor
leaving the birds at home as opposed to boarding them:
That being said, I have, on occasion, let my greys, stay at other homes while on holidays. But the people who lived in those homes were not professional bird boarders; they were well known friends or colleagues who had handled birds many times, so both our birds and the people were comfortable with the arrangement. There will probably come a time when I have to actually board my birds somewhere, but only after I have exhausted every other possibility. When it comes to at-home pet sitting, there are two sub-options: visits and live-in sitting. |
Questions to ask:If
you choose to have someone stay in your home, there are some basic questions you
have to ask a potential bird-sitter: ·
What qualifications do you have
for pet sitting? Have
you received any training, are you bonded (usually only an issue if you don’t
know the person and you’re paying them for their service) Are you familiar
with animal hospitals/vets in the area? ·
What
experience do you have handling birds, and if
so, what kinds of birds? Granted, these first two questions, while
important, are not vital. Both of the examples cited in
the main article involved hiring sitters with no experience with greys, but with
many other important qualities. ·
Are you willing to come and meet my
bird(s)? If they say "no,"
forget it. If they do, pay close attention to how they interact; if your bird is
terrified of the person - or the person terrified of your birds! - keep looking. ·
What is your schedule like - will you be at work most of the day at
another job? It's almost pointless – and you’re not getting good
value for your money – if you pay someone to look
after your birds who then leaves them alone for eight to 12 hours every day.
Professional pet sitters will almost always have other jobs simultaneously, and
you have to allow for this, but the good ones book only one housesitting job at
a time. ·
What back-up do you have? If something happens to your sitter - an
unexpected illness or accident - you need to know there is someone else who is
aware you have birds that need looking after, and is able to do so. (This is one
of the advantages of using a service as opposed to an individual – most
services have schedules and people ready to step in at a moment’s notice. At
one time, we employed the pet sitting services of the family-run pet store where
we purchased our second grey, Coco. It was their good service as pet sitters
that convinced us to purchase a bird from them.) · For private boarding: Is anyone in your house a smoker? If the answer is "yes" look elsewhere. Also, visit the house before you drop off your bird, so you can see firsthand what the environment is like. |
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Many pet sitting services will make a specified number of visits to your house to take your birds out of their cages, exercise them, play with them and make sure their food and water is fresh. (And in the case of many greys, make sure they relieve themselves – something they rarely like to do in their cages.) However, with this option, your birds are left alone all night. The second option, and often the more expensive one, involves paying someone to stay in your house, sleeping there overnight and spending a reasonable amount of time with your birds out of their cages during the day. This option is one of the most difficult to fill. Usually the best way to find someone like this is through personal contacts. After all, you’re not only trusting someone with your birds, you’re trusting them with everything in your house, although in our house, our material possessions are far less important than our birds. In each
case, our best bird-sitters were people who came recommended by people we knew
and trusted. In Calgary, AB, we employed a recent zoology graduate who had
worked with raptors at a wildlife rehabilitation center. The president of the
centre – someone I knew through our local parrot club – recommended her,
based on her own experience working with her at the center coupled with the fact
she had sat her Quakers. We were very happy with her. When we moved
to Vancouver, we again discovered a new bird sitter – a Buddhist nun -
through friends who trusted her to look after their dogs. Although she had very
little experience with parrots (she’d looked after cockatiels and budgies) it
became apparent very quickly that she would be very good with them from the
moment she met them. We gave her a little bit of training, plenty of written
instructions about food, toys, hazards, routines, avian vet, emergency numbers,
etc., and let her handle the birds during a few pre-vacation visits. That brings
up what is arguably the most important point about deciding on a bird sitter:
your birds’ reaction to the person. While neither of the sitters mentioned
above had any experience handling greys, they were very comfortable with our
animals and – most importantly – our birds liked them. I’ve actually
interviewed pet sitters that were much better qualified on paper than
either of the women above, but based on my birds’ reactions to them, I would
not let them sit my birds except in an emergency situation in which there was no
other option. When it
comes to selecting someone to look after your birds in your absence, the most
important thing you can do is trust your gut instinct. While logic may
try to convince you a particular sitter is okay, if you intuition is sending
conflicting signals, pay attention. Finally, remember that leaving a parrot behind while you go off on vacation is like leaving a four-year-old child behind. Your bird will feel disoriented and lonely. If you wouldn't leave a four-year-old caged up in a playpen alone all day for two weeks, take steps to ensure you don't do that to your parrot, either. (A slightly different version of this appeared in the African Ark, Volume 10, Number 4) |
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General Information About African Greys
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