Pet Birds on board?

[FLHippy]

Most of the bird postings here are asking how to keep birds off the boat

Does anyone have any advice on making a large blue and gold macaw feel somewhat at home on a relatively small boat? She gets very upset if she's left home alone for more than a few days. She seems OK on car trips...

I'm not sure how birds handle the constant motion of a boat.

Has anyone kept their large birds on board with them?

Would you do it again?

What kind of arrangements were made for the bird and the mess?

At home she's out of her cage whenever I'm home and either on her perch (pooping allowed) or on the couch (no pooping). She's very well trained to that environment. She's 9 years old.

We're not planning on leaving the country but we are planning on week or two cruise adventures in Florida this spring and what to do with Charlie is a big question. She won't let strangers feed her so pet sitting never works out well when the sitter has to use a funnel to get food into her bowl

 

[Ross]

We have friends that sailed and lived aboard for several years with a cat and a parakeet for companions. the bird was always caged but during a rough passage they would put the cage on the floor and the cat would lay down against the cage and the bird and the cat comforted each other.
A few years ago a woman stopped at a local convenience store with a large blue parrot in her car. she left the windows open and the parrot guarded the car.

I would introduce the bird to the boat without going anywhere a few times.

 

[John Nantz]

Macaw experience

At least I think it was a Macaw. It was a large colorful bird.

The owner had a 34' boat with a cage that hung from the overhead in the main salon. Main salon? On a 34-footer? Make that THE salon. As I remember there was a fair amount of bird seed on the settee seats and cabin sole. Everywhere the skipper went on the boat he took the Macaw along.

A couple things I remember:

When the skipper would leave home, such as going to work, one thing the Macaw would do is "ring the phone". Just as the door closed and locked the "phone" would ring. the owner would unlock the door and come in only to find the bird laughing.

Another experience, at a rendezvous, I was relaxing down below and could hear this phone ring. Well, this was in a marina back in the early '90s and there were a few liveaboards in the marina. After a fair amount of ringing I eventually looked out and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Nearby were all the rendezvous boats and it certainly couldn't be from one of them. I eventually traced it to the boat with the Macaw on board. That is when he told me the story above.

The skipper also had a couple small pooches, terriers? At the same rendezvous, from the same boat, I heard something like "*whistle* *whistle* dinner, dinner", or something to that effect. The two pooches where down at the end of the dock with the skipper and they came running down the dock and jumped onto the boat. You know what came next. Lots of laughter!

Don't think I need to tell you who called the dogs.

I suspect the poor little guy was probably left caged, and all alone, but he was still able to have some fun.

From these experiences and what you said, I get the feeling Macaws don't like to be left alone.

I've heard they can catch cold easily. Don't know if this is true.

 

[zeehag]

i would rather live on a 30 ft sloop with a crazed and hungry snow leopard than have a birdee as a pet in a boat of any size--bubba does a great job of defending boat against flying invaders LOL.....birds are very messy.....

 

[woodster]

pirates

i would rather live on a 30 ft sloop with a crazed and hungry snow leopard than have a birdee as a pet in a boat of any size--bubba does a great job of defending boat against flying invaders LOL.....birds are very messy.....

'hell ya just cant find any good pirates this day and time' ...what is this world coming to ???????