[kaston]

Hello! Newbie here, we are getting our quaker in the next couple of weeks and are trying to round up everything we are going to need. Does anyone have suggestions for a travel "in the car" carrier? We have a travel cage, but I am looking for the best carrier out there for using during the trip. Typically our longest trip is 5 hours and our most common trip is 2.5 hours. We maybe travel one weekend a month at most. I have read some posts/articles about not having something where your bird can have a 360 degree view so they don't get "over-stimulated"? Is this true? I have found some carriers that are similar to backpacks/handbags, are these the best? They seem rather pricey! Any/all advice is greatly appreciated.

[Andie's Mom]

Once again it depends on the bird. We have some birds that are do quite well having full view of whats going on, others it scares them to death and yet others get car sick if they see the world zipping by them at 60 mph.

We have small vari kennel type crates we use for traveling, A hard sided carrier with a metal grate door and metal grate over the air holes more for durability than anything and they are airline approved. Depending on the size of birds you have...and I'm assuming Quaker The smallest Cat carrier you can find is plenty large enough. We cut a dowel or stick of wood to fit the width about 2-3 inches from the bottom of the crate and put a screw through from the outside to secure it so they have a perch Some people don't even put perches in, If we're traveling very far we attach food and water dishes and our birds seem quite happy.

Places like Shopko, Target, WalMart etc have this type of crate for under $20.00 and they will last forever and they come apart and nest inside each other if you are short on storage. Plus they are easy to clean.

[kaston]

Thank you so much for the information from reading all your posts, you are a wealth of information, better than "Guide to the Quaker Parrot"!