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I'm thinking about building a cage for my Congo. Does anyone have any ideas about what works and what doesn't? Materials, size, cleaning, and other ideas would be greatly appriciated. Thanks D.

I second the stainless steel!

Maalik slammed hard into the window last night, scaring the daylights out of us. You are right. There aren't any parrot perches in that part of the house, primarily because I thought their bird area was expansive enough with enough perches and toys for them to enjoy. They're set up in our dining and living room areas. I do have some dragonwood stands outside, but they have some mildewy material growing on them so they'll need a good sanding down. Our other home looked like a giant bird cage, too. We also have a spacious outdoor aviary for them, but my son's been housing his ducks in it while he builds another 'quack house' for them. It's almost completed, which is good! Picking up some tape material to stripe the windows as a short term fix.

Talon, your home reminds me of that song "I'm gonna hire a wino" [to decorate our home]. Only it looks like you hired parrots. 🤣

Yes, it is a beautiful home! I would immediately get some temporary plastic decals of any kind & put them on the windows until they understand they are windows. You can't have them crashing into the window, that's too dangerous. I can see the confusion with so many things hanging from the ceiling, it's quite busy to navigate in a new place. Can you limit their flying to 1 room at a time instead of the whole open concept. They sell cheap netting/ magnetic curtains on Amazon..again Temporarily. allowing them to practice flying in just 1 room at a time. Also, just a thought, but I don't see many places for them to safely & easily land. Can you put some perches or tree stand, or table top tree stands around for them? I have coiled rope perches hanging on hooks on my ceilings in their room & in between windows, near doorways so they can land on them when they are flying. It is an absolutely beautiful home, but it doesn't look very bird friendly in my opinion. My home with my 3 looks like a giant bird cage! I have attached whatever pics I can find on my phone wheile I am here at work, but it's just so you can see. I have wooden buckets ( chewed up some) on my counter for them to perch & land on. A swirly coil between the kitchen cabinets above the sink & in front of the window. Various things hanging in my living room ( excuse my husband & his family posing for Dinner). The first pic is the skylight in our kitchen.

Thank you! They're crash landing into either the computer cabinet or into the windows. In our other home there was only 1 window that wasn't protected by their cages they could hit. Their other flight area was a straight shot. Here there are a lot of windows and multiple rooms to navigate through.

I love your decor, but perhaps more color contrast would help them navigate. Guessing they aren't crashing into the dark sofa, or bar stools or the television.

Lovely house! But I can see their confusion now. I have no idea how to make ceilings and walls, well, everything really, feel like the simple enclosed box design of a typical house room. Gorgeous house though -- hope they can figure out someway to safely navigate. I know outside birds can accidentally crash into windows, but they do seem to be able to navigate around or to land safely on trees, lamp-posts, bird baths, fences, telephone lines, etc. without injury. Hoping your guys can learn what maneuvers are safe and what to avoid.

Here are a couple images. Second is turning right into where the cages are and where they take off from.

Thank you, Talon. Maalik crashed again 2 nights ago, this time into the window. Extremely concerned he might break his neck one of these times. He was such an adept flyer at our other home that his inability to figure out the boundaries here is perplexing. The rooms are much bigger, and as I'd mentioned before, have high vaulted ceilings. Our ceilings are white and our walls a creamy tone of 'something'! We've already walked them both around their main area multiple times. Guess we'll just keep reintroducing them to the rooms.

Don't forget, they see differently than we do. Depth can be difficult for them sometimes. I have a foyer with a 2 story high ceiling, and regular ceiling in the rest of the house, but our walls are different than the ceilings.. What color are your ceilings, they don't see colors like we do, perhaps that is an issue? You could temporarily add something to the ceilings, such as letters or colored paper pics so they see where things end. Are the walls the same color as the ceilings? That could throw them off? They may have crash landed so much that they are now afraid to fly..it might just take some time for adjustments for them. Greys don't like change, so they may just be taking longer to figure out your new house and how to maneuver the rooms. Taking them by hand around and showing them the boundaries is all I can think of. they seem to not know them yet..be patient, and help them see what they cant figure out...my kids when teaching my amazon how to fly, would run with her and tell her to fly when he got close to the couch and allowed her to crash land there until eventually she could land on her feet on it, it gave her confidence over time to try flying elsewhere. Please keep us posted..this is a tough one to figure out..but hoping in time, they will get it

Way too much trouble. I recommend buying a powder coated one. You won't believe the difference it makes in cleaning.