Bringing our African Grey Parrot to the UK

Hello all. Husband (UK) and myself (USC) are relocating to East Sussex April 2006 from Florida. My UK hub has been here in the states 5 years, i have never been to the UK. I want to bring my pet Grey Parrot of 11 years with us. Has anyone brought a similar parrot as ours (which requires a CITES certificate) from the USA to the UK? Please jump in here with any and all info i need to prepare ahead of time, costs, experiences, ect. I cant bare to part with him!
Cheers from Florida
Deb & John

Deb, I saw this in a CNN article....

European Union officials, meeting in Luxembourg, called for a ban on commercial imports of live birds into the 25-nation bloc. A committee of EU veterinarians gave their backing to the proposal Tuesday, the commission said.

The decision followed confirmation that a parrot in Britain died in quarantine from the H5N1 strain. (Full story)

"The ban covers captive live birds other than poultry imported for commercial purposes," the European Commission said in a statement.

"A separate decision regulates the movement of (pet) birds accompanying their owners which will be subject to certain conditions."



You're probably going to have to make some phone calls to find out exactly what is going to be required of you at this point. Really unfortunate timing. 

yea we saw that, but were told at that point by DEFRA there was no ban in place for domestic birds from America

*Pet* birds from many countries are still allowed into the UK at this time. This can change at anytime. The paperwork can take months, so I suggest you get started asap!

We have an African Grey, a Green Cheeked conure, and a lovebird and I wouln't move without them. so I know how you feel.

We moved from the UK to Singapore last year with our 4 parrots. In April, we'll be moving back to England with our 4 parrots. There is a lot of paperwork to be done and the EU has now set out some new regulations regarding the import of pet birds.

You'll need import and export licenses from the 2 countries involved.

You'll need CITES export/import permits. Start looking for receipts, hatch certificate, microchip info, legband info now because you will need this info to prove that your Grey is not a wild caught bird. It's possible that your Grey may need to be microchipped, if not done already. Our Grey was already chipped, so it wasn't an issue for us, but I'm sure one of my friends had to get her cockatoo microchipped for CITES. (The more commmon, less expensive birds probably do not require a microchip--our lovebird and conure did not.)

You'll have to fulfill one of the 4 (new) conditions set out by the EU. You can obtain this informaiton from DEFRA.

You'll also need a health certificate for your grey before travel (the health check usually needs to be done no earlier than 48 hours before departure) and they will have to be checked by a DEFRA approved avian vet at least twice during the 35 day quarantine period.

Currently, DEFRA are still allowing pet birds to be quarantined in your home (as opposed to an official quarantine facility.)

Most of the paperwork needs to be done in a specific order (meaning in most cases, you have to be granted one permit before applying for the next). Most of the permits or licenses have 30-90 validity periods, so the timing of each needs to be right.

We are using a pet relocator to handle all of the paperwork and details, which I highly suggest you do, if it's within your budget. Otherwise, DEFRA is quite helpful.

Also, some airlines are not allowing birds on the planes, so you may have to do some research on that aspect. We'll be using BA from Singapore to the UK--not the best airline, but they do allow birds at this time.

If you want to correspond offlist, let me know.

Good luck!