Not long ago one of the premier breeders in the country died saving his birds from a bush fire. We have fire fighting equipment here very nessesary when it seems everything burns every winter. Because I am inside city limits I do have access to the municipal fire station. Last year I had a hose over the neighbours wall to fight fire because my birds are close to the boundry wall. A fire inside my house I would simply take my birds and walk to moms house or else where on the property. Toxic smoke would worry me more as you never know what paint or other chemical could be in the smoke. I would turn on the sprinklers over the aviary to help alleviate this. Beyond fire there are no other natural disasters that can occur here in this country.

I've got carriers either beside or underneath every cage. They're always ready to go whenever we need them. I'm so paranoid about something happening & I need to get out quick so I make sure I can grab & go!

Man, this is a really important topic! We have a problem in that Buster is free-flight and will not step up on command. The emergency situation was one of the reasons I think it is really important to get her to come to us on command.

Thanks for bringing this up and I hope all of us take the time to think about the unthinkable. We need to have plans in place to get ourselves and our pets out quickly and safely.

It is certainly something nobody like to think about, but very important. I have the travel carriers in my closet right now, ready to grab and go. I have also prepared a grab and go kit (seed, food/water dishes, 2 water bottles and 2 towels). I find that in the case of a tonado (most common natural diaster around here) that I would be prepared to grab the birds and go. Having everything ready before hand is so important.

I wasn't purposely timing myself but it took me about 18 minutes yesterday to catch all 14 of my fids, bring them into the kitchen, weigh them and put them back in the bird room. Every 3 or 4 birds and I came back to the bedroom to add the weight on the post. Some hopped right up, some I had to catch in a net. They all HATE being stuck in the little kitchen scale. It takes half a minute to take a cooperative bird like Chaska into the kitchen and weigh her and bring her back.

Going roughly on that, in an emergency situation where I am not being careful to keep the perches and playgym in order and just grabbing fids and sticking them into a carrier (with hubby helping), I can't see this taking more than 3 or 4 minutes.