Need some advice. Swan Valley Birds in Perth are buying all my young birds from me HOORAY! However there are approx. 40 birds. Species are African fires, stars, chestnuts, double bars and painteds. My first question is:
Should I ship in a split box? Ie: smaller double bars and African fires on one side and more boisterous stars, painteds and chestnuts on the other and:
Will a box with dimensions 30x50x15cm be adequate to safely ship 40 finches on a 3 hour flight? or should I do 2 boxes?
I always put sprigs of tea tree brush in with mine . . acts as a steadier, and will stop them from sliding on a smooth floor
Smaller the better for containers, provided they are adequate . . steadies down flighty birds
If you want to 'subdivide' your box, and are not a carpenter, heavy cardboard such as beer carton can be cut with scissors and PVC glued into place
2 or more subdivisions would help to reduce the body heat factor of 40 birds clumping together . . pretty hot where I am at the moment and would be more critical where you are
Mark your box with "STORE IN SHADE-- DELICATE BIRDS"
Shipping birds has been discussed elsewhere on this forum
KB,if your not sure use two boxes but i wouldn't be putting 40 birds in a box that size in your weather,is the receiver paying the freight and for the box/boxes and if so it's better to be safe than sorry.
Also,calm are pretty strict so don't over crowd. Craig
My recommendations would be (based upon my experiences in freighting birds into and out of Kalgoorlie, where it can also get quite warm) :-
I think that the birds will travel and arrive in good in in a box of those dimensions. A water dish filled with cotton wool and water (I find kids yoghurt container liquid nailed to the floor good for this), plus a few liberal sized pieces of cucumber and some dry seed. I always put ample seed in the box, more than enough to just get them through. Seeding grass also would not go astray, but isn't imperative.
The fact that the box is 15cm high is probably overdoing in my opinion. I try to make my boxes 10cm in height for small finches - if you are able to modify you box to this height then you can reduce the cubed out volume by 30% and save a few $$$ and most importantly without any detriment to the birds.
Note that when being charged for freighting (assuming you are using AAE or Qantasfreight), they charge by weight or volume (height(cm) x depth(cm) x width(cm)x 2.5 all divided by 10000) whichever is greater! They also tend to round up rather than just round off. So if my maths is correct the box will cube out to approximately 5.6kg but if you can reduce the height to 10cm then 3.8kg
My other recommendation would be to put them on Spark for a couple of days immediately preceding their transportation and also use Spark in the water which is to be used in the box.
If you can get them on the 8:05am plane (which leaves most mornings, bar Tuesdays) then heat shouldn'nt be an issue your end and from the Perth end they should be in Mauries shop before lunchtime, so again heat shouldnt be an issue. If possible keep it to a weekday, and have look at the three day forecast for either end just to make certain (moreso the Perth end).
As for CALM, being an internal (within WA) shipment they do not need to be notified or involved at all. SV Birds will though record where they got the birds from in their log book (these are submiited to CALM on a regular basis).
Finally, regardless of all of our best intened suggestions to date, if you are not comfortable with the suggestion don't go with it, rather go with what feels right to you and the welfare of your birds!
