Vol. I · House Rules What we promise, and what we won't

The house rules.

We'd rather hand you the rules than a wall of praise. Here is how the studio actually runs — the cap on how many birds we take, what lands in your inbox each day, what happens if your bird gets sick, and what you get back if you cancel.

Two households at a time. That's the cap, not a target. A household can be one bird or a bonded pair sharing a cage — but there are never more than two separate cages in the room. Birds settle better in a quiet room, and we can't give six of them the same attention we can give two.

A daily photo letter, refusals included. Three to five photos and a short paragraph, every day, by email or text — you pick. What your bird ate, what they refused, what they did, anything we noticed. It's a real update, not a marketing template, and if something seems off you hear about it the same day rather than at pickup.

We call you first. Always. If your bird gets sick we call before we do anything, then follow whatever you instruct. If you're unreachable and it's a genuine emergency, we go to the avian-experienced vet in Aurora we keep on file — the visit you pre-authorise at first booking, so nobody is guessing at the worst moment.

We file beaks. We don't dremel nails. Most birds find the dremel distressing, so we don't own one. Nail and wing trims are $25 to $35 each and they're on the rate card, not bundled into a vague package. A daily mist bath is free if your bird is used to one; a full bath happens only if you ask.

The first meet-and-greet is free, and it happens in the room. About half an hour, at the studio, before you've committed to anything. You see the actual room your bird would stay in rather than a photo of it, and you ask whatever you'd want to know. Bring your bird, or don't — sometimes the human meeting is enough.

A refund policy you can read before you book. More than seven days before drop-off, full refund. Three to seven days, half back. Inside three days, nothing — unless we manage to re-book the spot, in which case you get 75%. Holiday weeks are stricter, and we tell you that up front rather than in a footnote.

We'd rather you didn't visit mid-stay. Birds settle into the routine within 24 to 36 hours and a visit usually resets that clock. The photo letter exists precisely so you can check in without your bird knowing you did.

A note about reviews

Why there's no wall of five stars here.

Every bird-boarding website you'll open this evening has a page of glowing quotes on it. Ours doesn't, and that's deliberate. We only publish what an owner has actually written to us and given us permission to use, which right now means we publish nothing at all.

We'd rather you judged us on the things above — the two-household cap, the vet on file, the refund percentages, the fact that we don't own a dremel. Those are checkable. You can ask us about any of them at the meet-and-greet and hold us to the answer. A stranger's paragraph about a bird you've never met isn't checkable, and we'd be asking you to take it on faith.

If your bird has stayed with us and you'd like to write something, we'd genuinely like to read it — and if you're happy for it to go on this page, it will go up with your name on it and nothing edited out.

— Northbird NewmarketTwo households at a time, every time

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