Bird Sitter SF & Peninsula
Finding a bird sitter in San Francisco who actually knows what they’re doing is harder than it should be. Most pet sitters either don’t take birds at all or take them and treat them like a fish — daily feed-and-fly, no real understanding of what’s normal versus what’s an emergency. Birds are subtle, and they hide illness until it’s nearly too late. A sitter who can’t read a bird is a liability. House of Guineas is here to fix that.
Our founder, Alexandria, spent years at Bay Area Bird and Exotics Hospital, where birds were a major part of her caseload — from cockatiel emergencies to large parrot wellness exams. Our team approaches bird care with that same clinical lens: every visit includes proper feeding, husbandry, and observation, not just “make sure the bird is alive.”
What’s Included in a Bird Visit
- Fresh chop preparation — washed, sorted, and portioned to your bird’s diet. Pellet/chop ratio kept consistent with your routine.
- Pellet measurement — we don’t free-feed. Your bird gets the amount you specified.
- Water tower or bowl change — fresh daily, with the dish cleaned thoroughly each visit.
- Full cage cleaning as scheduled — paper change, grate cleaning, perch wipe-down. We don’t do major cage rearrangement while you’re away (birds find that stressful).
- Out-of-cage time for birds whose owners give them established free-flight or perch time. We don’t introduce new behaviors — we maintain your routine.
- Photo and video updates from every visit, plus written notes on appetite, droppings, vocalization patterns, and overall behavior.
If your bird is on medication — oral suspensions, topical applications, or nebulizer treatments — we can administer.
Free-Flight Handling
Some bird owners have trained their birds for free-flight time at home. We will not introduce free-flight to a bird who isn’t already trained for it. But if free-flight is your bird’s normal routine, we will safely manage it: doors and windows secured, ceiling fans off, hazards cleared, recall practiced. The protocol matches what you do at home, not a cookie-cutter approach.
For birds who are clipped or who don’t free-fly, we focus on cage-side enrichment, target training (if your bird already knows it), and conversation/whistling time as your bird prefers.
Recognizing Illness Signs
Birds hide illness — by the time symptoms are obvious, it’s often urgent. We watch for:
- Fluffed-up posture lasting more than an hour while the bird is at rest
- Tail bobbing while breathing (indicates respiratory effort)
- Open-mouth breathing
- Discharge from nostrils or eyes
- Sitting on the cage floor when not sleeping
- Refusing food for more than 12–24 hours
- Significant changes in droppings — color, consistency, or near-zero output
- Unusual quiet or sudden change in vocalization patterns
- Visible blood
If we see any of these, we contact you immediately and recommend whether the bird needs to be seen. We know the local avian vet landscape — Bay Area Bird and Exotics Hospital in San Francisco is often the first call; Medical Center for Birds in Oakley is the go-to for complex cases. See our bird care guide for more on each species.
Service Area
We provide in-home bird sitting across San Francisco and the Peninsula:
- San Francisco — Inner Sunset, Outer Sunset, Parkside, Pacific Heights, the Marina, SOMA, Cole Valley, Noe Valley, the Castro, the Mission, Haight-Ashbury, the Richmond, Forest Hill
- Peninsula — Burlingame, San Mateo, Foster City, Redwood City, Hillsborough, Millbrae, and surrounding areas
For Peninsula visits, a travel surcharge applies — the exact amount depends on availability and your specific location.
Pricing for Bird Visits
- 30-minute visits start at $85
- 60-minute visits start at $115
- Routine twice-daily care runs $140–$190/day depending on visit length and number of birds
For multi-bird households, additional birds are typically billed per house, not per bird, when care can be done in one visit window. Walk us through your setup at the meet-and-greet.
Frequently Asked Questions
What species of birds do you take care of?
Cockatiels, parakeets/budgies, conures, parrotlets, lovebirds, finches, canaries, and most companion parrots up through medium-sized species. For larger parrots (Amazons, African Greys, macaws), we handle them when our team has prior experience with the specific bird — talk to us at the meet-and-greet. We will tell you honestly if your bird is outside our comfort zone.
Can you administer my bird's medication?
Yes. Oral suspensions, topical applications, and nebulizer treatments are part of our standard scope. Medication for birds is a precise art — wrong dose, wrong technique, or stressed handling can do more harm than good. Our founder's clinical training at Bay Area Bird and Exotics Hospital sets the bar for how we handle it.
How do I know my bird will be okay with a sitter?
Birds bond hard, and they will absolutely notice you're not there. The goal of a good bird sit is to keep the bird's environment and routine as consistent as possible — same feeding times, same lights-on/lights-off schedule, same vocabulary spoken at the cage. We don't try to win your bird over; we maintain the world they know. Most birds settle within a day or two and start treating us like familiar furniture.
My bird is a free-flyer — can you handle that?
Yes, with the caveat that we follow your established free-flight protocol exactly — we will not introduce free-flight to a bird who isn't already trained for it. At the meet-and-greet, walk us through how you secure the room, what your bird's recall reliability is, and what your hazard-check looks like. We match your routine.
Ready to book in-home bird care? Call or text us at 415-484-6493 and we’ll set up a free meet-and-greet. You can also browse our bird care guide, our San Francisco Bay Area exotic vet directory, or our in-home services page.