Bird sitting while you're away: food, company, fumes and heat

Dog and cat charities give hour limits; for birds none of the welfare bodies we checked does. What they agree on is why a bird cannot be left with a full bowl and a covered cage. Merck's bird owner pages say birds are social and can get lonely if they do not get enough attention, and that in nature birds hide sickness so they do not look weak. A bird that is unwell over a long weekend may show nothing until it is very ill, and nobody would be there to see the early signs.

Food and water are the other limit. Fruit and vegetables spoil within hours in Indian heat, and water bowls collect husks and droppings. So Petym's advice is a visit at least once a day for a healthy bird on a short absence, twice a day for a trip of a few days or in hot weather, and a sitter living in the home for a week or more. A single bird that is used to people all day, an older bird or a bird on medicine needs more contact, not less.

This page is about birds kept legally as pets in Indian homes, such as budgerigars, cockatiels and lovebirds, which are captive-bred parrots. Merck notes that today's pet bird population is mostly captive-bred parrots.

Many native Indian birds are different. They are listed in the schedules of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended by the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022, published in the Gazette of India on 20 December 2022 (checked 21 October 2026); those schedules list Indian birds down to individual munia species. A Petym sitter cares only for birds kept legally. If you are not sure whether a bird can be kept, ask your state forest department.

The RSPCA says birds from tropical or subtropical habitats need a temperature between 12 and 26 °C, kept out of draughts and away from radiators, fires and stoves. Indian summers are far hotter: the India Meteorological Department declares a heat wave in the plains at 40 °C or more, and at 45 °C whatever the normal is; 47 °C is a severe heat wave, and on the coast a heat wave can be declared at 37 °C. A cage hung on a sunny balcony or beside a west-facing window can overheat quickly.

Petym's advice for summer: keep the cage in the coolest shaded room, never in direct sun, with fresh water topped up at every visit and a fan or cooler moving air in the room but not blowing straight at the cage. Tell the sitter where the inverter is so that cooling continues during a power cut. The RSPCA advises placing the back of the cage against a solid wall with a cloth over the top so the bird feels safe, and, outdoors, keeping at least a third of an aviary in shade.

The Animal Welfare Board of India's 2026 heat circular lists dehydration and heatstroke among the dangers animals face in hot weather and asks for shade and fresh water in stable containers. In the monsoon, keep the cage away from driving rain and damp walls, and change food more often because it spoils faster in humid air. Around Diwali, Petym's advice is to move the cage to an inner room before dusk, close the curtains, keep the usual cover routine and play the radio or television quietly to mask the noise.

Before the first booking there is a free meet and greet at your home, so the sitter meets the bird, sees the cage and learns its routine and what its normal droppings and behaviour look like. You book and pay through Petym, and the sitter is paid after the booking.

During the booking the sitter follows your plan as you wrote it, logs each feed, check and medicine, and sends a photo update every day. If something is wrong, the sitter calls you and takes the bird to the nearest 24-hour vet on the city's list. Every Petym sitter has an identity check with PAN and pet first-aid training before the first booking, and a named 24-hour vet within reach. Sitters who host pets in their own home also have a video walk-through of the home by Petym, the housing society's permission and a pet limit.

Petym's services are built first around dogs and cats. A sitter's visits or stay can cover a bird too; at the meet and greet, check that the sitter is comfortable with birds and knows the household dangers on this page.