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Travelling from Australia to Canada - Urgent advice

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eillync01

New Born Pup
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Hi everyone,

I am moving to Canada permanently in April and the only way to get there from Melbourne, Australia, is 2-stops flight (Melbourne to Sydney; Sydney to Vancouver; Vancouver to Toronto). Time on air will be 25 hours (approx.). I have two beautiful piggies, Stuart (6 mo) and Kevin (10 mo) and I just can't make up my mind about taking them with us.
We have thought about two ways we could get to Toronto:
Plan A: Melbourne to Sydney (train, 11 hours), Sydney to Vancouver (14 hours), Vancouver to Toronto (road trip, one week).
Plan B: Melbourne, Australia; Melbourne to Sydney; Sydney to Vancouver; Vancouver to Toronto: 25 hours flying in total.

We came up with Plan A because we know it's better for pigs to travel by train and it'd be good for them to sort of understand that we left home and that we'll be travelling...a lot. The other option, Plan B, is to just hop in and hop off of airplanes...which worries us a lot as we have no control over some aspects of the trip such as them getting on and off of the plane (changes in temperature, potential mishandling, loud noises, etc.).

The thing is, we really really want to take our pigs with us. However, we understand that this trip will be a lot for them to handle and that there is a change of them dying. Hence, I wanted to reach out to you guys for advice. I lost one of my first two pigs in July 2020 to a failed castration surgery done by a horrible vet and the pain was unbearable - I am still recovering from that terrible experience.

Please share with me your travelling experiences and give advice regarding the best decision to make here.
Thank you so much.
Eillyn
 

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Bless you. Sorry I have no advice as the most i have travelled is an hour to the vets in a car with them... it must be a hard decision and will take a lot of planning whatever you do.. all I can say is, hope you can get some advice from others on the forum xx
 
eillync01 said:
Melbourne,
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artcasper said:
Bless you. Sorry I have no advice as the most i have travelled is an hour to the vets in a car with them... it must be a hard decision and will take a lot of planning whatever you do.. all I can say is, hope you can get some advice from others on the forum xx
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Thank you :) The other choice we have is rehoming them but...it would break our hearts doing that after all we've gone through with them. But we want to make an informed decision.
 
There’s someone here who had her piggies ‘shipped’ to Canada using a pet travel company. In general they travel well. I’ve not travelled with mine but I don’t think that they’re a a chance they will die - unless they’re put in freezing conditions. You’d have to make sure they have access to water and lots of hay to keep them going.

The most important thing would be to check whether the airline would allow you to take them on as hand luggage. If not then I don’t know if you’d be able to find a company that would move them over for you.

All the best and I hope you can arrange to have them with you.
 
Would it be possible to take them on the train to Sydney, and do the rest by plane? I'm not sure of the practicalities of a week long road trip in April for the piggies.

There are a couple of people who moved with piggies to Canada, but from the UK, seen in this thread transatlantic flight
Maybe they can help a bit , at least with the requirements at the Canada end. Are there any companies in Australia that specialise in animal/pet transport abroad? Or emigration advice specialists who might know?
Wishing you the best of luck with your move, hope you are able to take your piggies with you! :nod:
 
I have flown with guinea pigs (and rabbits and dogs) and if it were me I would opt for the flight option.
A 25 hour trip is long, but certainly do-able, and I believe this would cause the piggies the least stress.
One long and difficult day is certainly easier than weeks of travel.
And as the flights are long this gives the piggies a lot of 'down time' to switch off and munch hay.
I think it would be ok - your boys are young and it is worth it for a long life in a loving home at the end.
 
artcasper said:
Bless you. Sorry I have no advice as the most i have travelled is an hour to the vets in a car with them... it must be a hard decision and will take a lot of planning whatever you do.. all I can say is, hope you can get some advice from others on the forum xx
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It's the hardest decision I have had to ever make! But, it will all depend on the actual possibility of taking them with us. Everything is 100 times more complicated with covid. Thank you for your message <3
 
Siikibam said:
There’s someone here who had her piggies ‘shipped’ to Canada using a pet travel company. In general they travel well. I’ve not travelled with mine but I don’t think that they’re a a chance they will die - unless they’re put in freezing conditions. You’d have to make sure they have access to water and lots of hay to keep them going.

The most important thing would be to check whether the airline would allow you to take them on as hand luggage. If not then I don’t know if you’d be able to find a company that would move them over for you.

All the best and I hope you can arrange to have them with you.
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Thank you for your message. I really appreciate it ❤Unfortunately, the airline doesn't allow people to take piggies as hand luggage. The only option is cargo.
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Would it be possible to take them on the train to Sydney, and do the rest by plane? I'm not sure of the practicalities of a week long road trip in April for the piggies.

There are a couple of people who moved with piggies to Canada, but from the UK, seen in this thread transatlantic flight
Maybe they can help a bit , at least with the requirements at the Canada end. Are there any companies in Australia that specialise in animal/pet transport abroad? Or emigration advice specialists who might know?
Wishing you the best of luck with your move, hope you are able to take your piggies with you! :nod:
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Yes, it could be possible to take them to Sydney by train and then the rest by plane. I think the idea of doing a week-long trip is off the table now because of the covid situation in Canada. We'll probably travel in August in the end because my program will be delivered online and also the chances of taking our piggies with us are quite slim at the moment - we will call a couple of pet transport agencies next week (one of them told us to call in Feb and the other one in March). Thank you for your message ❤
 
Swissgreys said:
I have flown with guinea pigs (and rabbits and dogs) and if it were me I would opt for the flight option.
A 25 hour trip is long, but certainly do-able, and I believe this would cause the piggies the least stress.
One long and difficult day is certainly easier than weeks of travel.
And as the flights are long this gives the piggies a lot of 'down time' to switch off and munch hay.
I think it would be ok - your boys are young and it is worth it for a long life in a loving home at the end.
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I'm so hoping that this trip is doable. Your message gave me lots of hope ☺ I am also hoping I'll be able to take them with me - I love them with all my heart.
 
I hope you get a good result, meaning you can take your beloved piggies with you. I can't give you advice, as the furthest i have travelled is 60minutes by car, but I'm sending you best wishes. Please let us know what you decide. Fingers crossed you can take them with you.
 
Hi, I know this is a year later, but I’m possibly going to go through the exact same situation and was wondering what you decided to do? I literally registered just to reply to this thread 😅
 
HannahW13 said:
Hi, I know this is a year later, but I’m possibly going to go through the exact same situation and was wondering what you decided to do? I literally registered just to reply to this thread 😅
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Unfortunately the original poster hasn't been back on the Forum since January 2021, so they may not respond.
 
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