Parrot Rescue

Parrot rescue in a short amount of time
By Pierre Stonbout

Being a backpacker I wanted to try and find moments where I could get as many things for free as possible. Many travelers travel to Australia and work with animals to earn some money to fund their travel expenses. I too, looked for suitable jobs with animals while visiting Australia. I found a place advertised online that offered an animal job where it was required to build some bird cages and aviaries so this to me was a good opportunity to have some free accommodation when I visited Sydney, Australia. I contacted them before I left home and said I wouldn’t have a lot of time when I was there, but they said that was ok as it wasn’t the biggest job.

When I arrived they had all the wood ready and were just starting to put some of the pieces together. It was a pretty easy design so I just helped to make sure everything was correctly in place before putting in things like feeders and toys for the pet birds. The family already had plenty of birds, like parrots but they would often rescue other birds they found in trouble which wasn’t too bad as it mean a little bit more work for me. After a few days we had the shell of the cage up and it looked pretty good, so we just had to move all the birds across.

Working with animals, such as moving a bunch of birds across probably sounds a lot easier than it actually is, and trust me that is actually the case! This family had about 30 different birds, and then rescuing more meant even more to transfer across! It was fun though, and I actually bought a bird when I got home as I liked birds now after that experience! And I got to meet some lovely people too so that made the experience worth it as well. The accommodation I was offered was also pretty good and the food the family would cook was amazingly delicious. I was very thankful for their hospitality.

I think it’s a good idea for people who are travelling overseas and going backpacking to look for potential jobs in Australia opportunities like this, as you can save a bit of money in accommodation. It will also give you some valuable work experience doing some pet jobs you may not be all the familiar with, which is also a pretty good excuse to learn some extra things. You can find lots of advertisements online for pet jobs like this. Just give it a go and you don’t know how it will turn out.

There are many pet care jobs offered to international students. While students stay for free at their host’s house, they perform animal care duties, such as becoming pet sitters or dog sitters.