Tour de France Summer 2010
TOURING EUROPE WITH 2 AMAZON PARROTS
I have recently completed a 3 month tour of Europe with my son and my 2 Amazon Parrots. First I will explain how it was that I was spending so long in Europe, then I will introduce you to my Pet Parrots, then I will outline the DEFRA controlled procedures for taking Pet Parrots abroad and then I will outline the pros and cons, the good things and the not so good things and hopefully by then I will have convinced you to take your pet parrot on holiday with you.
Well I am retired and my son, Adam, is a European Modern Languages undergraduate at Bath Uni studying French and German. As part of his studies he had to spend a year abroad, spending some time in each of the two countries whose languages he was studying. He secured himself a job as a Languages Assistant working for 2 Secondary schools in Saarbrucken, Saarland, Germany, from September 2009 until end May 2010. He then managed to find another job for 3 months in France but unfortunately this job fell through at the last minute. To the rescue came Dad with the family caravan and I booked a tour of France travelling from East to West on the condition that we could first spend a week in the Rhine Valley in Germany. You see I had missed out on a school trip many years ago to the Rhine Valley but as I don’t speak more than 5 words of German have never plucked up the courage to go but being able to do it with Adam who can speak fluent German was an opportunity too good to miss!
My mammoth trip started with a sea crossing from Dover to Dunkirk; then went south through Belgium, Luxembourg and into Germany. After 3 weeks in Germany we then headed to a place near Strasbourg for 2 weeks; then 2 weeks at a place near Lyon, then 2 weeks at a place near Limoges; then 1½ weeks near La Rochelle (where my wife and daughter flew over to join us); and finally 1½ weeks near Lorient before another sea crossing from Roscoff to Plymouth followed immediately by 4 weeks in Devon. We had an absolutely great time!
Now to introduce you to my two pet parrots. Kenny is a 10 year old Male Orange-winged Amazon. He has been part of my family for 8 years and has been coming away with us for all that time. He first took to a harness surprisingly easily. True it took two people to get it on him but once on he totally ignored it and has never once bitten it so I assume he is not troubled by it. Nowadays one person puts the harness on easily but it did take about 5 years to achieve that so it is definitely worth persevering. Kenny comes out of the cage at breakfast time and is happy to sit on my finger all day until after our evening meal. He is sort of “house trained” too which helps. He never “deposits” in the car when still on my finger (although we do stop hourly to hold him out the window to “deposit”. If we are walking he usually asks to “go” and we sit him on my walking stick to do his business. If we take him in any shops or similar I always sit him on my stick before we go in to give him the chance to “go” and he never lets us down inside the shop. He is a frequent car, bus and train traveller and again never “goes” inside. Once on this trip we had been on a German train for 1½ hours and I knew he must be desperate so as soon as we got off I put him on my stick. He looked up, saw the station roof, realised we were still inside and refused to “go” until we were outside the station where he could see the sky!
Sydney is a 2½ year old female Blue-fronted Amazon. She has been part of my family only since March of this year. We took her away with us to Devon for 2 weeks at Easter and she was as good as gold. Like Kenny she comes out of her cage before breakfast until after dinner in the evening. She is not so keen on the harness and it definitely is a 2-person job to put it on. I have a theory though. I always spray my birds daily and when on holiday I do it as soon as they have their harnesses on so they can dry out in the car. Now Sydney doesn’t like being sprayed. I still do it as it is good for her feathers but she doesn’t like it and I think she makes it difficult to put her harness on because she knows she is about to be sprayed. The solution is simple and I will start spraying her when the harness comes off and see if that improves things. Having said she is difficult, once on, she very rarely chews her harness though she does swing it around so that it is “skew-whiff”. Once she is satisfied that it is “skew-whiff” then she tends to ignore it all day. Now I walk with a walking stick so I have a stick in one hand and Kenny on the other so Sydney has to sit on my shoulder. I know that in theory this is not considered a good idea but Sydney was used to it from her previous owners and she is as good as gold up there. Unfortunately Sydney is not “house trained” however she very rarely “goes” when I am sat down but usually does “go” as soon as I stand up or get out of the car. I have a collection of old Terry Nappies and half hand towels which I put over my shoulder and tie under the opposite arm which serves to keep my shirt or jacket clean! I plan to sit her on my walking stick as soon as I get up to see if I can train her to “go” on the stick which will be so much easier. So, now you have met Kenny (green harness) and Sydney (blue harness).
Well if you are thinking France and Germany is hardly a tour of Europe then you are right but we also passed through Belgium, made several trips to Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy and during our time in Saarland and near Strasbourg we regularly crossed the borders into France or Germany – all with no problems (see below).
Now for the part which I hope will interest you the most. How we did it and were there any quarantine problems?. Well the short answer is easily and No! I had to contact the Animal Health Team at DEFRA in Carlisle (tel- 01228-403600). They e-mailed me the forms I needed to “export” my 2 Pet Parrots to France and Germany (our 2 main countries). First I would like to add that this only works for “pet” parrots and not aviary stock. They then rang me and told me they would send the forms to my vet during the week before my departure date and I was to make an appointment to see the vet within 24 hours of departure. The vet gave them a quick check over and confirmed there had been no outbreaks of notifiable avian diseases in our area and signed the forms which I had to take with me. That was it! We could now legally take our 2 pet parrots to France and Germany. “What about coming back to the UK?” I hear you ask. “I don’t want my parrots to go into quarantine and be away from me”. Well surprisingly there are NO requirements for “importing” your pet parrots back into the UK. No health checks and no forms are required. In addition to that, once you have legally exported your birds they can pass freely within European countries without checks and forms. So, every time we came across a national border we could pass across it without any hassle! So you see, it really was a very simple process that enabled me to take my 2 pet parrots across Europe.
Now for the Pros and Cons of our trip.
I have recently completed a 3 month tour of Europe with my son and my 2 Amazon Parrots. First I will explain how it was that I was spending so long in Europe, then I will introduce you to my Pet Parrots, then I will outline the DEFRA controlled procedures for taking Pet Parrots abroad and then I will outline the pros and cons, the good things and the not so good things and hopefully by then I will have convinced you to take your pet parrot on holiday with you.
Well I am retired and my son, Adam, is a European Modern Languages undergraduate at Bath Uni studying French and German. As part of his studies he had to spend a year abroad, spending some time in each of the two countries whose languages he was studying. He secured himself a job as a Languages Assistant working for 2 Secondary schools in Saarbrucken, Saarland, Germany, from September 2009 until end May 2010. He then managed to find another job for 3 months in France but unfortunately this job fell through at the last minute. To the rescue came Dad with the family caravan and I booked a tour of France travelling from East to West on the condition that we could first spend a week in the Rhine Valley in Germany. You see I had missed out on a school trip many years ago to the Rhine Valley but as I don’t speak more than 5 words of German have never plucked up the courage to go but being able to do it with Adam who can speak fluent German was an opportunity too good to miss!
My mammoth trip started with a sea crossing from Dover to Dunkirk; then went south through Belgium, Luxembourg and into Germany. After 3 weeks in Germany we then headed to a place near Strasbourg for 2 weeks; then 2 weeks at a place near Lyon, then 2 weeks at a place near Limoges; then 1½ weeks near La Rochelle (where my wife and daughter flew over to join us); and finally 1½ weeks near Lorient before another sea crossing from Roscoff to Plymouth followed immediately by 4 weeks in Devon. We had an absolutely great time!
Now to introduce you to my two pet parrots. Kenny is a 10 year old Male Orange-winged Amazon. He has been part of my family for 8 years and has been coming away with us for all that time. He first took to a harness surprisingly easily. True it took two people to get it on him but once on he totally ignored it and has never once bitten it so I assume he is not troubled by it. Nowadays one person puts the harness on easily but it did take about 5 years to achieve that so it is definitely worth persevering. Kenny comes out of the cage at breakfast time and is happy to sit on my finger all day until after our evening meal. He is sort of “house trained” too which helps. He never “deposits” in the car when still on my finger (although we do stop hourly to hold him out the window to “deposit”. If we are walking he usually asks to “go” and we sit him on my walking stick to do his business. If we take him in any shops or similar I always sit him on my stick before we go in to give him the chance to “go” and he never lets us down inside the shop. He is a frequent car, bus and train traveller and again never “goes” inside. Once on this trip we had been on a German train for 1½ hours and I knew he must be desperate so as soon as we got off I put him on my stick. He looked up, saw the station roof, realised we were still inside and refused to “go” until we were outside the station where he could see the sky!
Sydney is a 2½ year old female Blue-fronted Amazon. She has been part of my family only since March of this year. We took her away with us to Devon for 2 weeks at Easter and she was as good as gold. Like Kenny she comes out of her cage before breakfast until after dinner in the evening. She is not so keen on the harness and it definitely is a 2-person job to put it on. I have a theory though. I always spray my birds daily and when on holiday I do it as soon as they have their harnesses on so they can dry out in the car. Now Sydney doesn’t like being sprayed. I still do it as it is good for her feathers but she doesn’t like it and I think she makes it difficult to put her harness on because she knows she is about to be sprayed. The solution is simple and I will start spraying her when the harness comes off and see if that improves things. Having said she is difficult, once on, she very rarely chews her harness though she does swing it around so that it is “skew-whiff”. Once she is satisfied that it is “skew-whiff” then she tends to ignore it all day. Now I walk with a walking stick so I have a stick in one hand and Kenny on the other so Sydney has to sit on my shoulder. I know that in theory this is not considered a good idea but Sydney was used to it from her previous owners and she is as good as gold up there. Unfortunately Sydney is not “house trained” however she very rarely “goes” when I am sat down but usually does “go” as soon as I stand up or get out of the car. I have a collection of old Terry Nappies and half hand towels which I put over my shoulder and tie under the opposite arm which serves to keep my shirt or jacket clean! I plan to sit her on my walking stick as soon as I get up to see if I can train her to “go” on the stick which will be so much easier. So, now you have met Kenny (green harness) and Sydney (blue harness).
Well if you are thinking France and Germany is hardly a tour of Europe then you are right but we also passed through Belgium, made several trips to Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy and during our time in Saarland and near Strasbourg we regularly crossed the borders into France or Germany – all with no problems (see below).
Now for the part which I hope will interest you the most. How we did it and were there any quarantine problems?. Well the short answer is easily and No! I had to contact the Animal Health Team at DEFRA in Carlisle (tel- 01228-403600). They e-mailed me the forms I needed to “export” my 2 Pet Parrots to France and Germany (our 2 main countries). First I would like to add that this only works for “pet” parrots and not aviary stock. They then rang me and told me they would send the forms to my vet during the week before my departure date and I was to make an appointment to see the vet within 24 hours of departure. The vet gave them a quick check over and confirmed there had been no outbreaks of notifiable avian diseases in our area and signed the forms which I had to take with me. That was it! We could now legally take our 2 pet parrots to France and Germany. “What about coming back to the UK?” I hear you ask. “I don’t want my parrots to go into quarantine and be away from me”. Well surprisingly there are NO requirements for “importing” your pet parrots back into the UK. No health checks and no forms are required. In addition to that, once you have legally exported your birds they can pass freely within European countries without checks and forms. So, every time we came across a national border we could pass across it without any hassle! So you see, it really was a very simple process that enabled me to take my 2 pet parrots across Europe.
Now for the Pros and Cons of our trip.
- Well when we were in Strasbourg the daily temperature was 34 degrees C which was a little hot for Kenny (Sydney seemed to cope better). However all we needed to do was put him in the shade and he quickly recovered. We sometimes sat under the umbrellas of a local bar and refreshed ourselves and sometimes we were just able to cross over to the shady side of the street. If all else failed we returned to the car (with aircon) and took them for a short ride.
- The way other people reacted to our birds was magical. There were so many reactions, virtually all positive, that it really made it worthwhile bringing them out with us. Whenever we walked you could here comments like, “Régards! Les Perroquets” (Look! The parrots). “Ils sont beaux, Ils sont sages, ils sont mignons” (They are good, they are tame, they are cute). Then there were the children. Kenny is so tame that he will safely go to anyone and we often used to let the children hold him (Sydney being much younger was still just a tad unpredictable. Whilst he wouldn’t bite he did sometimes “hold on” with his beak which although not causing any pain was enough to frighten a small child). Some of the expressions on the faces of some of the children were absolutely magical and it certainly made it all the more worthwhile.
- The day we went to Aiguille-midi (the peak alongside Mont Blanc) was a challenge. The staff kept telling us we couldn’t take the parrots up in the cable car. When we protested (Adam speaks fluent French so this was easy for him) we established that they had no objections to the birds going up but because the air was so thin at 3842 metres, they were afraid the birds would die. We agreed to take them to the first level of 1500 metres where I got out with the birds and left Adam to go to the summit and then we swapped over. Certainly we were glad we did because I found myself feeling a little giddy at the summit and as birds have a much more sensitive respiratory system they would undoubtedly have struggled.
- Because our caravan is relatively small and has a narrow door the birds “holiday cages” are quite small – much smaller than I would normally keep the birds in but they only slept in them! They were out with us all day and all evening. We had 2 small travel cages kept in the car but the only time we used them was when we went food shopping as we obviously couldn’t take the birds into food shops. I was a little concerned about the 12 hour rule whereby birds should have 12 hours sleep a day but they went under cover in their cages at about 22:00 and were out again about 09:00 so they only dipped out of an hour’s sleep a day and seemed to cope very well with this.
- Mealtimes with the birds were “different”. In fact all eating was challenging to say the least! Eating out wasn’t a problem and we never had any problems in bars/restaurants in taking the birds in with us. Kenny in particular got to know that with a coffee you were usually served a small cinnamon biscuit and he just loved those biscuits! He was smart enough to realise that the biscuits didn’t accompany a beer but wasn’t smart enough to realise that not all bars served the biscuits so we had to keep a small supply ourselves. We usually found that when our coffee and biscuit arrived an, “avez-vous un petit biscuit pour les perroquets, s’il vous plait?”, resulted in a small handful of biscuits for the birds, especially if the waiter/ess was allowed to hold Kenny first! Eating times back at our caravan were much as at home really. The parrots were very happy as long as they had some of everything we were eating (and they could tell if there was just one thing missing!!!).
- Just occasionally the birds weren’t allowed in places. This was very rare as our continental cousins take a much more relaxed view than the Brits but just occasionally it was a problem. Then we either went into the place individually with Adam or me staying outside with the birds or else we didn’t bother!
- Ice Cream time was fun! Both Kenny and Sydney love Ice Cream! I know as a dairy product they shouldn’t really have it but I shouldn’t have cream cakes but just sometimes I do have one so I work to “a little of what you like does you no harm!” Obviously we make sure we don’t have chocolate ice cream (in fact I usually had Walnut or Pistachio). They very enthusiastically tuck in to the ice cream and then want the cornet as well! There must be so many photographs in Europe of Kenny and Sydney eating Ice Cream as everyone wanted to take a photo as they passed!
- We quite often used public transport instead of the car and Sydney and Kenny have been on countless trains, buses and trams and we never once had a problem. The ticket inspectors on the trains (having more time than on buses) often wanted to hold Kenny which we were fine with.