Parrot-related damage

[Jen&Bug]

Ok...I'm taking a deep breath...I'm setting aside the folder I carefully prepared for work tomorrow that has just been shredded by my beloved sun conure...and I'm just going to ask the question...

How do you stop your birds from destroying your stuff?

I'm not really talking about IRNs here, because Bug will explore everything in the apartment and hardly ever damage it. I'm talking about Rufus, my sun conure, who can shear through an electronic cable in a single bite, and is so quick that an object can go from whole to confetti in the blink of eye.

I try putting out interesting toys for him to shred. I try to keep an eye on him, and put things away that I really don't want damaged (aforementioned work folder excepted!) But inevitably there'll be a lapse in my attention at some stage in the evening, and something will end up with more holes in it than it should have.

Has anyone had to deal with this kind of problem? What did you do? I'm stuck for ideas, short of installing a walk-in aviary in the living room so I can sit with Rufus in his space, rather than having him come out to mine. It's an extreme solution I know, but another 20-or-so years of property destruction is feeling like quite a long time right now

Advice appreciated, as always.

[MissK]

Hi Jen,

I'm really sorry. I'm with you. I know how it feels.

I keep a dog who at random times, few and far between, eats the wrong thing. More usually, I'm concerned for her well being, than that of my stuff, but I get it.

With sympathy, with empathy, we both know the answer. Prevent access to your things.

Since the bird is out and about, part of your life, maybe you can drape a heavy quilt over your important things. Maybe you can have a box for stuff like that. Get a briefcase for work papers. A bookcase with doors. A closet or freestanding cabinet.

There really isn't a way to train this out.

Again, sorry.
-MissK

[Jen&Bug]

Thanks MissK - the voice of wisdom as always. Looks like another case of the owner needing training more than the parrot. I appreciate the sympathy, and will try to lift my game in parrot-proofing the apartment. It isn't fair on Rufus to end up being an extremely bad birdie when he's just...well...being a birdie.

The irony is, I think the situation has escalated recently because I've been gradually trying to teach him to play more independently. I've been putting play sites around the house with shreddable objects, to encourage him to be less of a 'velcro parrot' and do his own thing sometimes. He's made great progress at this over the last year or so, but of course the next stage (foolishly unanticipated by me) is that everything has now become a play site. I'll need to have a re-think of how the living room looks to a small orange bird with an appetite for adventure!

[Skyes_crew]

Once you figure that out Jen...let me know lol. We affectionately refer to our sun as the hole puncher most recently she ate through a picture frame that was mounted on the wall. That was my fault though I suppose because stupidly I wanted to decorate the bird room I keep all of my important stuff in a locking lid plastic container. Wires are hidden under furniture. And I hung a three tier vegetable basket full of shreddables and chewies. I found that the small size rawhide is a great chew toy for conures. Keeps that beak busy for a long time. But she will still inevitably get into something. It's the nature of the beast when jewel destroys something I just keep repeating to myself...I love her, I love her, she doesn't know any better. We spend so much time and effort giving them plenty of things to play with and chew on that we fail to realize that they don't know the difference between fun confetti and the fringe on my favorite tapestry.

[Jen&Bug]

Hmmm, a 'bird room' you say...

We're looking at upsizing our home in the not-too-distant future, and I've been pondering what kind of layout would work best for the birds. We've previously favoured open-plan designs, which means the birds can go anywhere, but the obvious drawback is that everywhere needs to be parrot-proof.

Do you have a special room just for your birds? If so, how does this work? Do you go in there when you want to hang out with them, or do they come into other areas of the house? What are the advantages, compared to having a cage in a central location?

I was thinking that a kind of enclosed balcony might be cool too, like a 'bird room' outside...

This is all daydreaming at the moment, but it would be good to get some different ideas about arranging space.

[Skyes_crew]

I don't LOVE the layout of our house, but its not my forever home so ill deal with it for now. We had the birds in the breakfast room off of the kitchen and I was becoming anxious every time I cooked over weather I was harming them in some way. So I recently moved the bird room. Now they are in what was formerly our sitting room. The thing I like about it is that it is not completely closed off from the central locations of the living room and dining room. There is a wall with a cutout so that they can fly back and forth. They like to play in their room most of the time and I have my reading chair in there so that I can sit with them. It's hard to explain so ill post pics below.
What's really nice is that when they're tired or just want to get away from the kids and the dogs and the noise, they can go to their room to relax. My whole house is parrot proofed though because you never know what they'll get in to

[Jen&Bug]

Wow, thanks, that's really helpful and has given me a few ideas about what our next home might look like. The concept of a chillout space for the birds is a good one, especially if our family gets bigger when we move to a bigger home (kids maybe - dog definitely!) I especially like the reading chair - great way to create a space for yourself in their world.

Also love the sign

[ranechild]

Wow that's clean and organized. No poop either. No seeds and pellets on the floor. That room could be in a magazine compared to mine!!!

[MissK]

Mine too!

I have my Budgies and IRN in the front room of my house, the living room. I'm in and out a lot in the morning. There's a doorway (but no door) to the mini foyer and the dining room. I have these furnished with heavy curtains. When birds come out the curtains close. Of course, I'm supervising at those times because the furniture is made of (dum-da-DUM-dum....) WOOD.

Before I had parrots, I had just my canaries (now in the dining room) and they were shut off in the computer room, a spare bedroom. They say canaries don't care, but everything is nicer with the birds in the main living areas. I also recently moved the computer to the living room, which means more time with birds, and that's nice.

There is not really much bird proofing - just confinement to an area I can supervise.

-MissK

PS Melissa, that room is outrageous! You are clearly a PRO.

[Skyes_crew]

Thank you for the compliments, but not necessary lol. I was just giving Jen some ideas for her future bird area. We have our fair share of poop and seed and fruit and veggie and shredded toy all over the floor every day. I clean the room twice a day. Much to my birds displeasure (they hate the vacuum) but if you were to look closely you would see dried poop on the trunk of the tree, chewed up sections of the blinds, and stains on the wall from when jewel flung raspberries around I do love my bird area though. Selfishly it's a place for me to get away to and read. Most times I get distracted watching their antics lol. Skye and hamlet will purposely switch cages to confuse me and Cyrano will detach all the toys from the hanging basket and throw them at me. Yesterday he brought me a Barbie fairy toy he stole from one of my girls I have to keep an eye on that one lol. My ideal room would have that cutout, but a slider to close when I wanted to keep them in that one room. I tried to get hubby to go for a bead curtain. He wasn't on board with that one. He puts up with a lot from me so I can't really complain. The sign in the room is my favorite part. It's a reminder to myself that not only are my birds my form of paradise, but that one day a macaw will be too.

[jmlw7]

Skye your birdie room is amazing and I'd like to live there myself

[Melika]

Hane has been trained that his playstands and his cage are the ONLY acceptable places for him to land. He is also never out if I am not home. Several remote control buttons are missing from the one time I fell asleep on the sofa when he was out...

[MissK]

How did you do that, Melika? I'd really like Rocky to stay off other bird cages.

-MissK

[Melika]

How did you do that, Melika? I'd really like Rocky to stay off other bird cages.

-MissK

I'm actually not exactly sure. When I moved here I just constantly chased him off wherever he was not allowed and placed him on his playstand or cage. Constantly and consistently. I never let him get away with it. Which means A LOT of getting up and down but it paid off. He still tries now and again but at this point I can usually just wave in his general direction and say 'no' and he'll fly to his playstand or cage. Half the time he doesn't even land if I wave/no soon enough.

The one thing you have to watch out for is when they decide it's a game. So I sorta have a three-strike rule. The third time I have to chase him from, say, the kitchen, he gets put away (locked in the bird room). He doesn't often try my patience, but when he does I won't let it become an attention-grabbing game for him.

Back at the other house, he was restricted from landing on the 'tiel's cage, because he would pull out her crest feathers through the bars on top. I did the same thing, just made him move if he landed on her cage. But now he can land on her cage (bigger cage for her) and can't reach her or bother her and she doesn't try to bite his toes so we don't have a problem.

If the cages are next to each other, I can imagine this being a difficult task to keep a bird from landing on them.

[Skyes_crew]

I would literally be running in circles all day chasing birds lol. I have 7 that are out most of the day unless I'm not home or cooking. They mostly stay in their room, but I could never keep them to their own cages. And they share play areas. MissK...Skye loved to go after my tiel, Nani's toes. But jewel my conure became his champion lol. Now if Skye comes close to Nani, jewel comes swooping in from wherever, screeching, to get away from her man. It's so funny to see them together. They all put themselves to bed at night and one night I found Nani in jewels cage sleeping in her hidey hut with her. He's been in there with her ever since. Moral of the story...get your budgies a guard bird

[MissK]

Great story! I'm going to have to continue to be the Budgie's champion -though I really think it's Riff Raff who is looking to start trouble. If I could just relax about it, I should let her go ahead and bite Rocky's foot from inside her cage, and maybe I wouldn't have to sorry about this anymore. But I'm too uptight about it.

I have a long, thin wooden stick I use for opening and closing my curtains, and Rocky is nervous about it. When he goes on the Budgie cage I get up and use this stick to gently, slowly herd him off the cage. I don't like doing this, but I'm too short to get him off by hand. It doesn't upset him, just give him some motivation to go. You guys have some input on this, please share.

-MissK

[Skyes_crew]

How does rocky feel about helium balloons? Tie one to the top of the budgies cage and see what he does. Maybe it will discourage him from landing there.

[InTheAir]

Miss k: if rocky goes to a perch on command you may be able to send him there and give him a treat. If you keep doing this he may start skipping the budgie cage and going to the perch. Mind you it will only work if he likes food more than budgies. ..

[MissK]

Well, Claire, we all had a good belly laugh over that one! Will keep it in mind for the distant future.

Melissa, maybe a helium balloon, but that might just scare the Budgies too.

Perhaps I should invest in some mannequin hands....
http://www.displayimporter.com/images/p ... HandsF.JPG


MissK

[Skyes_crew]

Ok...how about a two way mirror. The budgies can see out, but rocky can't see in

[InTheAir]

Omg imagine what your visitors would think when they walk into a house full of dismembered hands. Lol

That sounds like a good solution for getting our bird to stay in his cage, he'd probably make it his sleeping perch!