Are you considering boarding your bird while you are away? Have you wondered how to choose the right holiday pet hotel for your pet bird parrot?
If so, keep reading to find out the important factors to consider!
After a long search and research, you have decided on boarding your bird(s).
The decision is hard but sometimes necessary.
Before me and my partner decided on taking our bird to the parrot hotel, we tried many things:
- Took our bird on holidays with us twice;
- Spoiled our parrot on holidays with various treats and snacks;
- Tried to create a comfortable environment for our conure.
None of the above worked.
This is when we realized that he doesn’t like it on holidays with us. For our following holiday we decided to board him.
But what are the things to consider before choosing a holiday pet hotel?
Here are some factors that we considered when choosing the right holiday pet hotel:
1. Visit the parrot hotel beforehand
It is a great idea to pay a visit to the place that your favorite feathered friend will spend its time while you are away.
You can get a good idea of the place once there.
The first indication would be the birds at the place, how do they look? How do they sound?
Ideally you would look for happy birds chirping and playing all together.
In case a visit is not possible, another option would be to check out their website, Facebook page, Instagram page, any other page they might have. Try to look for pictures and videos of the place and of the birds there.
Do they have sufficient space to fly around? Do you get a happy feeling seeing those images? Would you trust such a place with your parrot?
2. Can the birds play outside of their cages?
Another important thing to consider is whether the birds are let out of their cages.
They don’t have to be let free every day, all day long.
If the birds are let out at least a few hours every second day that is still better than not at all.
It is advised that our birds are let out of the cage daily. Whether that is for a couple of hours only or the whole day that is up to the owners.
Assuming your bird is used to being let free daily, imagine what a whole week (or two weeks, or even longer) fully locked up in the cage might mean!
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  | Nutri-Berries Pet Bird Food | |
  | Rope Ladder Bird Toy Attachment for Bird Cage |
3. Are there any parrot toys in the cages?
In a parrot hotel, there are various birds at the same time.
To keep everyone safe, usually the small birds are let out of their cage together (assuming they are let out of their cages) and the larger birds are let out together.
That is done to encourage playing with each other, as birds of the same size tend to play together and to prevent any major injuries that for example a larger bird could cause a smaller one.
Also, not all the birds are let out at the same time to make sure that the staff of the parrot hotel manages to watch everybody interacting with each other.
That leads me to think that there is no holiday pet hotel that would let any hotel guest out for most of the day, every day. There will be a considerable amount of time that the birds will spend in their cages.
That means that there must be sufficient parrot toys in the cage to keep them entertained and occupied.
As you look around in the hotel (or in their pictures and videos), are there any toys in the cages? Are there parrot toys outside of the cages to keep the birds entertained when outside of the cages?
Basically, if you enter the place without knowing it is a parrot hotel, would you be able to tell that a lot of birds live there just by looking at it?
4. Are the birds watched?
What I mean here is not just looked at but actually watched.
If any of the birds get into a fight, is there someone to see this and interfere? If your bird (same as my bird) gets stressed in new places and because of that eats less, will anybody notice that? If so, will they make sure the bird eats?
In our case, when we brought our parrot, there were other conures that were flying on his cage and trying to bite his feet. The staff immediately took action and removed the bullies 🙂
5. What food is offered at the holiday pet hotel?
It is important that our parrots get a balanced nutrition, made up of fresh vegetables and pellets, with a smaller amount of fruits and seeds.
Is this something the bird hotel will consider? Will the birds be offered more than just seeds?
If assuming the hotel only offers seeds, will they be able to yet accommodate the same dietary habits that your bird is used to at home?
When we dropped our green cheek conure at the parrot hotel, one important selling point for us was the fact that the hotel was offering vegetables and fruit to the birds. We concluded that even if our conure gets stressed at the hotel and will not eat, he will never refuse a piece of broccoli or a piece of apple.
Final considerations
For our parrots, there will never be a better place than our homes: their homes. That is the place they are used to, the place they know. That is where their family-flock is and where they are loved and spoiled.
A holiday parrot hotel will never truly replace that. However, a parrot hotel should not become a place that our birds hate to go to. It should be a fun and happy place, where the birds are sometimes let out of the cage, where they are spoiled sometimes with a piece of broccoli and where they get to meet other happy birds, just like them.
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To all the Parrot Lovers,
Tatiana
Founder of Best Parrot Toys
Disclaimer: I am not a parrot expert therefore the information in this site represents my opinion based on my experience. Please do not make decisions based solely on my articles. It helps to do further research.
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Wow, a holiday place for your pet parrots, it’s such a wonderful idea. I work in the hospitality industry in Australia and I see many families bring their beloved pets with them because they are part of the family. I often see, not just dogs and cats but chickens, roosters, different kinds of birds; we even had a camel come to stay for a few nights and a horse.
Hi Yvonne and thank you for your comment.
It is so funny to read that people bring their camels and horses with them on holidays! Definitely in a hospitality job you have seen it all 🙂
I agree that pets are family members, so is our bird parrot. At first we did try to take him with us on holidays. To be precise we took him with us on holidays twice and both times it was unsuccessful, nobody enjoyed the time away.
That is why we decided to board him.
Certainly there are other options, like ask family members, friends of neighbours to come over and do the necessary. However, we felt more comfortable leaving him in hands that have dealt with birds before.
Do you have any pets Yvonne? Where is Australia do you live?