AIRFREIGHTING BIRDS JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS

[arthur]

Any chance somebody can post a 'dummies guide' to air freighting birds?

Jim, what might pass for a 'dummies guide' can be found on this forum under subject heading "Air Freighting Birds"

[Danny]

I too ship a lot of birds around the country. For the last few years I have been using Petflyers based in Townsville and they deal with flights all over Australia. The owner, Peter, is very helpful and researches all the possibilities for a quick and transfer free flight if possible and pre books everything. All I have to do is show up with the birds 90 minutes before the flight and sign the consignment note. His rates are reasonable and because he has an A/C with AaE and Virgin, I get better treatment than turning up unannounced. When using Virgin the waiting time in the office doing paperwork is much less than AaE who seem to have a much longer process to deal with. The number for Petflyers , if interested, is 1800-738359.
EOrix's guidelines are spot on and I also use the foam on the ceiling of the box, especially with some of the pigeon and dove species.(Avoids scalping) Some species will not eat anything that you put in the box due to the stress that they are going through, but we do need some standards in animal transportation and should give them the choice in case of delays etc.

What does an average 2 kg box of birds cost you??

[jusdeb]

$93 under 3 kilo .
30 x 30 box
Dubbo to Brissy .

[Tintola]

I too ship a lot of birds around the country. For the last few years I have been using Petflyers based in Townsville and they deal with flights all over Australia. The owner, Peter, is very helpful and researches all the possibilities for a quick and transfer free flight if possible and pre books everything. All I have to do is show up with the birds 90 minutes before the flight and sign the consignment note. His rates are reasonable and because he has an A/C with AaE and Virgin, I get better treatment than turning up unannounced. When using Virgin the waiting time in the office doing paperwork is much less than AaE who seem to have a much longer process to deal with. The number for Petflyers , if interested, is 1800-738359.
EOrix's guidelines are spot on and I also use the foam on the ceiling of the box, especially with some of the pigeon and dove species.(Avoids scalping) Some species will not eat anything that you put in the box due to the stress that they are going through, but we do need some standards in animal transportation and should give them the choice in case of delays etc.

What does an average 2 kg box of birds cost you??

Depends where they are going and whether there is a transfer or not.

Coolangatta to Syd or Melb about $75 or $85

Bris to Darwin $115

Bris to Adelaide $95

[Misso]

Picked up some birds at 3:30 from AAE, all ran smoothly, the box didn't have any arrows saying to keep this way up, ( which normally the sender will do) so I thought the birds may have been tipped upside down somewhere along the journey, but il assume not once did they flip it the wrong way, because the small plastic shot classes of seed were still half full and the water aswell. Misso

[gouldianpaul]

In the future I will be sending my freight boxes (irrespective of size) with a handle on the top of the box....trying to make it idiot proof for the freight clowns.

Cheers
Paul

[BlackCobra]

The dealer from here sent a big consignment overseas with cotton wool with water in it, the whole lot died.

[wagga]

Sounds like this 'dealer' you have mentioned is a idiot/imbecile/$%#& for sending overseas the birds in the first place. The fact that these poor birds died, as you mentioned, is such a waste of our/Australia's already depleted non renewable gene pool of birds.

Please PM this dealers/idiots name, as I am new to the area and do not want to support his business at all.

[Tintola]

AIRFREIGHTING BIRDS JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS? All I can say is DON'T DO IT Most of my shipments during the year go very well. This week's dramas unfolded as the birds were sent and arrived to the airport at midnight. AaE kept them until morning and then called Petflyers , who called me and I phoned the office in Darwin and told them that the man to pick them up had to drive 500 klm and would be there within half an hour. No sorry mate,we can't keep them for another half hour (Despite keeping them since midnight) Petflyer's agent in Darwin would have to came and pick them up, drive 30 klms to and 30 klms from the airport and that would cost another $110 . The reason given was that the volume of goods going through pre Christmas was so large that they couldn't find room for a 30 cm square box, and didn't want the responsibility of it getting crushed. Lesson learned? Make sure that you are at the airport as the plane arrives, regardless of the time, or all hell breaks loose.
The birds were eventually retrieved by the new owner and were OK. Just as well I put plenty of food in with them as they were in the box for over 24 hours and that was the no stop/no transfer flight. If something can go wrong, it will happen in the pre Christmas period.

[arthur]

Weekends can be a bad time too . . at any part of the year because sheds are only open for brief periods around plane arrival times
Which is tough because it is often the only time that some can send/ receive
I was told to come at x hours one Sunday night (AAE again but no other choice) . . shed locked and phone calls unanswered
Went to shed at daylight next day . . open but no one there so went through freight room, found birds and took them
Never got a phone call to ask if it was me who had got the birds or to report them missing

Couldn't care less mentality alive and well