So many customers wonder what happens when they board their bird with us. A lot of us parr-onts get nervous leaving their babies for an extended period of time (myself included). We strive to give each bird under our care the best possible experience we can, including our boarders. I want to share what our daily routine in our boarding room looks like to hopefully put some minds at ease.
Upon dropping your bird off, there are a few things we do to ensure your bird is adjusting well. We always do a quick inspection to make sure the bird appears healthy and take note of anything that could be concerning. As some of you have seen, we make a tag for each boarder that comes in, white tags for normal boarders, and a yellow tag for any bird that needs medication, to ensure they are given medications they need in a timely manner.
We ask our boarders to bring at least 2 toys with them, not just so they have something to do, but also so they have something that is familiar to them in this foreign environment. Once you walk out the door, we finish up the paperwork, and bring them over to the boarding room.
We have two sections to our boarding room. One side is for larger birds (typically louder) and one side for the smaller species. This helps keep smaller birds that may have never been exposed to larger birds stay calm. Can you imagine being a canary and being kept next to a screaming macaw for a week away from home? We try to avoid any unnecessary stress! It is very important to us that each species of bird has the appropriate amount of space when setting them up in a cage, giving each bird the best size for them when we set them up. We also ensure that the perches are appropriate for their foot size, and that everything is easily accessible. We then get them setup with clean water and the food they are used to.
As for feeding, we feed them each morning between 8:00-9:00am. Each bird gets fresh chop on top of their normal dry food every morning, made fresh each morning by Pete. Bowls are washed and given back to each bird properly. At 3:00pm, we go back over to give everyone fresh water, refeed any young birds and the birds who love to throw all their food onto the floor , and to make sure everyone is doing alright.
Lights are on from 7:00am-7:00pm, and during day hours we have a radio playing music for the birds.
As far as cleaning goes, each cage is stripped down and disinfected after every bird that goes home. They also get their cages cleaned 2-3x times a week while staying with us, just like our store birds, as cleanliness is very important to us, and we want to take the best care of your babies as we can. Every day the room is tidied, swept 2x and adjusted as needed.
All of us staff try our best to make sure every boarder gets enough attention, and, while we are constantly busy, I often find myself spending a lot of time just talking to, interacting with, and giving scritches to our visiting birds. Our normal boarders already know that we love building relationships with your birds! Seeing all the different personalities, different species, and silly antics in the boarding room is one of my favorite things!
After their stay is over, we make sure to get any grooming done before you come to pick them up. In short, we love taking care of your birds as if they were our own. We try our best to make this a vacation for your bird while you are away, and we can clearly see how excited some birds get to talk to new friends of the same species. You can make a boarding reservation by calling us or by talking to us in the store! 937-848-4819
