Hello there :) I love your blog! Your birds are so cute and you take care of them so well! You're my inspiration haha. I wanted to ask if you have any pictures of your cage and outside cage setup? It looks like they have a lot of areas to play even outside their cage. How did you make that? Was it difficult? Thanks :)
Thank you so much, that’s lovely to hear! :’) My “bird room” (well, it started out as my bedroom, but the birds slowly took over and I’m soon moving permanently to the guest room so that the birdies can have their own room for real!) constantly changes as the birds go through toys and branches and I get new ones. Same goes for their cages. When I’m in school I tend to focus on making their cages fun, because they will spend more time in there. Right now, I have one big cage and one smaller (but still good size) - the big one was intended for the IRNs as they’re quite active and need a lot of space, but I ended up switching so that the Senegals get the bigger one instead, because since sennie Miley attacks me now and then, I keep her out of cage-time kind of limited so that she doesn’t accidentally get triggered to any attacks - that’s stressful to everyone including her - but I also want her to be able to fly whenever she wants to. …So yeah, long story short, big cage goes to Miley. Anyway, here’s the cage area:
Since it’s free and also healthy and fun, their cages usually consists mostly of natural branches and pine cones and stuff from my backyard, but also a few bought parrot toys, often wooden or leathery since that’s what my birds enjoy. A favourite is yucca wood! Around the cages I also have two natural rope nets that I got from a Swedish online bird store - I’m sure you can find something similar where you are too. They’re really fun, and they look pretty, haha. The cagetop play area never really looks the same. Last summer, when I didn’t have the bigger cage, this is what it looked like (the picture to the right): So that was basically just a few branches, an Ikea belt hanger thingy (the white thing with ringy things), some toys and stuff. To the left is a swing that I really like that I also got from a bird store, as well as a big Sisal Boing, a leathery/woody/wicker ball-y toy and some branches and shrubs with healthy berries they can pick and eat or play with. The Sisal rope boing area is basically the “foraging toy” area of the room by now, where I hang all the stuff like that as well as some easy foraging toys, like paper rolls with treats and shredded paper inside.When I buy perches, it’s usually natural wood, and I often prefer natural materials for bird toys too. Most of my birds prefer things they can both chew and pick apart, so I try to keep that in mind when I buy toys. It usually looks something like this: A lot of yucca wood! Always a lot of yucca. It doesn’t last long, but they love it!Here’s another older picture that shows that I just have a very limited amount of money and creativeness. ..And I mean, also that natural branches and shrubs are really practical and appreciated by both me and the birds, haha:That’s about it, really! I don’t personally think it’s that hard keeping the bird room up, it’s basically just about finding (or making) places where you can hang stuff or put branches. As you can see in the right half of the last image, I once placed a big cardboard roll (almost like an empty toilet paper roll, but waay bigger and thicker, you know?) in a christmas tree holder, drilled some holes in the roll, placed some branches in the holes, and a bigger branch/tree on the top. I just try to find every opportunity I can to make everything into bird stuff, I guess. Hah. I mostly collect stuff that they can chew on, hang from or play with/in/on in any way, and try to find a way to fit it all around the room and place it so that the birds can make the most of it.If you can’t really saw any big branches down and drag them into your house, you can always take some smaller ones now and then, or even a bunch of medium ones and tie them together to form some kind of natural play stand or something! Be creative - and also make sure the wood and foliage you might be using is bird safe. Here’s a good list!I hope at least some of this was of any help, haha! Anyway, thanks again, and this was a really fun post to do! :D
