Trinkapuppy

Personally, I have a number of different birds of different sizes, and I never leave any of them together unless I'm standing RIGHT there. Even then, I don't tend to leave a very small bird like a GCC in beak reach of a much bigger bird like a CAG. It would only take 1/2 second of non-attention on my part, and the GCC could be maimed or worse. That's my personal take on it--I'm sure that others will have different recommendations. Congrats on the new addition, though, and good luck! =0 ) I just adore GCC's, and am currently looking to adopt one! hehe

I have always and will always use Virkon S for disinfection, and white vinegar for odor neutralization and general cleaning. That and my power washer. Virkon S is a powerful disinfectant, without being toxic. It's fairly inexpensive, and you can make up just small amounts at a time. It is one of the few things that will kill pretty much all of the major diseases out there more or less on contact. PBFD, chlamydia psittacosis, salmonella,MRSA, and even human HIV and AIDS. It is used very often by veterinarians as well as hospitals. It will NOT penetrate through waste, however, so in order to sterilize, the surfaces must be clean. Thus why I use power washers/vinegar to clean it all off. Generally, virkon is considered safe for birds--I wouldn't mist them in the face with it, but if it's not completely rinsed out of their cage, it's unlikely to cause a problem. To give an idea on how harmless, overall, it is, my job (prior to becoming a stay at home mom) was at a pet wholesaler--we specialized in fish and rodents, and carried some reptiles. Never birds. I oversaw medication of the fish when they arrived, and discovered from one of our collectors that Virkon S used directly in the water with the fish was very effective in battling a number of EXTREMELY stubborn bacterial diseases that cropped up during the stress of shipping halfway across the world in small bags. We put enough in to turn the water pink, and the fish were some of the healthiest shipped fish available on the market.....Yeah, fish aren't birds, but they are VERY sensitive to toxins. A decent "canary in the coalmine" so to speak. I use it off label for ringworm. I'm just super probe to getting it--if I LOOK at a cat that has it, I'll have two spots in under a week. I rub the powder directly onto it, and generally it's gone within 2-3 days. NOT that I'm recommending it for either off label use--fish or fungus! .....these are simply experiences I've had with it...... If anyone has had any BAD experiences with virkon, I'm very interested in hearing it.

Oh dear. That really sucks! =0 ( It is, of course, totally up to you...I know many who use hardware store sisal and swear to its safety. I'm overly cautious with things, and I tend to stay far, far away from that stuff and the stuff at the feed store. It just makes me too nervous. As a case in point, I have a bird playstand hanging outside for my clipped or harnessed birds, right next to a plat in a macrame net. The bird playstand has several of the overly smoothed branches wrapped in sisal that I purchased at a jewelry store that has had to be replaced twice in the past year. The potted plant, I made the macrame (yeah yeah, SOOO eighties, but I wanted to see if I could do it! ) out of hardware store sisal rope, and even though I water that plant every single day, it looks as good as the day I bought it. Granted the stand gets foot wear, but not all that much--maybe ten to fifteen minutes three times a week. Mostly the birds like to hang off the small atom I have hanging at the bottom, or sit on my lap. The lack of weather related decay makes me a nervous and relatively sure there are chemicals in there. But again, many use hardware store stuff w/out problems. My parents have a 12' x 3' net running the length of their bird room that they tied with stuff from Home Depot; it's been there for three years, and they swear everything is fine. I'm sorry I don't have a more solid answer for you, though I can tell you absolutely what I, personally, what I would do. Which is curse a whole lot, and have a bottle of wine while I unwrapped and re-wrapped the whole dang thing. And yeah. This is actually something I've done. I wrapped an entire hula hoop and made a number of toys with some jute from Lowes before I heard about that. NOT a happy camper......and yeah, it sucked.

Probably a good mix of both!!

....it does. It also makes my pocketbook feel good. I'm a true bargain hunter and do it your-self-er. (I think that's a nice way of saying that I'm cheap....LOL)

Sisal, jute, and hemp from the craft store in the jewelry department is generally chemical free, since it's meant to be worn on our skin. This is what I typically use. You'll pay more for it, but the peace of mind is worth it. And as birdhouse mentioned, there are also many places online to order it bird safe. I find my grey does just fine on 1/4" to 1/2" pipe wrapped in just about anything, or even just given channels with a dremel. The only PVC I glue is the hanging stuff. I like that I can slip it apart and modify it. I use a rubber mallet to knock together pieces that I REALLY want to stay together. As far as the size of holes on a net....I sorta just make them whatever feels right. I don't take the risk with any of the platings, though nickel is generally considered safe...I personally only use stainless steel. The cost is more significant, but you will have these forever, and be able to reuse them over and over and over. The galvanized ones don't last as long, anyway. Instead of quick links however, I do, in many cases, use those lots-o-links things you can get at walmart or target, 24 for $5. They're cheap, safe, can be a toy themselves, and I love hanging several in strategic places so I can just slip the jump ring for various toys on and off and move things around very quickly and easily. Carabiners are not safe, as they can spring closed into the hollow under the bottom mandible. Split rings are not safe, as they can amputate toes. Spring loaded quick links are not safe for similar reason to the carabiners. Open jump rings aren't safe, as part of a beak can slide in and then become trapped. For attaching things to the cage, another safe option is a plastic zip tie zipped nice and tight. Hope this helps. =0 )

I have a hula hoop that I wrapped in polycord suspended above the "little bird" cage (about $10 total to make it). I also have a stand that I made out of PVC that can hang from the ceiling. I also purchased a cheap one on clearance on bird.com that is a favorite, but I believe they're all sold out now. =0 ( Then there's the boing, and the big swings...one I made, one I bought....and a couple of baskets that I'll hang at times. I have a variety of hanging gyms that I'll trade out regularly to offer variety. I have 22' ceilings throughout most of my house, so it does make it somewhat difficult to have as many hanging locations as I'd like, but....oh well. You can also take the wrapped hula hoops and join them together to make a BIG "atom ball"--which I plan to do once Eshe has some ability to flap and regain her balance. As of now, with the severity of her wing trim, I've avoided having her any higher than her cage. I'll try to get pics of some of these in the next little bit. One thing that I do plan to do--should I ever be able to find them--is get some silly saucers to make suspended trays underneath of them as is shown in the DIY section on Land of Vos: (NOT my picture! That is from land of vos....but fairly self explanatory). Those darn saucers are hard to find in central Texas, even in the winter! For now, I just use a vinyl floor protector, but it might help you with the whole tray thing. =0 ) There are also some excellent tutorials for making cheap but very effective ceiling protectors out of PVC--just google "DIY PVC ceiling protector"

PVC and polycord to wrap the perch (vetwrap works, but polycord is just so much prettier! Couple of stainless steel eyehooks for the toys--I think those might have been the most expensive part. Whole project was probably....$20, including the pipe cutter? Which was $10. LOL The toy arm comes off for training, and on for when I want one of the birds entertained somewhere different. I will be buying some chlorplast to velcro to the bottom of the perch for easy removal for cleaning. Sesame Street placemats just aren't cutting it for me. Also, bought this crazy eight's foraging toy on clearance from bird.com: Crazy Eights Neither bird has had much interest, as the chain is a little short for free hanging in the cage, and being against the side makes them lose interest. Put it off the toy arm on this, and Eshe spent hours getting treats out of it. Had to refill it a dozen times. Eventually, she was just taking it out to throw it on the floor. This is fantastic, since I'm having a bit of a tough time getting her to eat enough to maintain her weight. Pardon the kitchen/hallway mess. It's mostly parrot toy pieces and...well, as you can see, a stand. And yes, Jynx the caique is far more interested in climbing to the top of the toy arm and doing his sexy dances (he's just hit his sexual maturity in the past month or so, based on behavior) than playing with the toys. Eshe LOVES the toys, however. LOL

Black Headed Caique. =0 ) I'm so....I dunno....kinda obsessed with their mouths and tongues. I almost can't help myself....LOL. Have a couple of scars on my fingers to prove exactly how stupid that is, too, when it comes to a bird I don't know that well, so yeah....smart to wait before you ever try something like that!!

Eshe cost me $600. She came with five big toys, a decent cage--probably about $350 new or so, a 25 lbs. bag of food (that I threw out, as it had been sitting partially open outside on her porch and in our 100 degree plus Texas days...yeah. Ick. So, we got a great deal on her, but she does come with some emotional baggage. And who can blame her? We're her fourth home in two years. We stopped at the vet on the way home, and dropped another $300 on paranoid owner testing--PDD, chlamydia psittacosis, CBC, full avian panel, PBFD, gram stain, fecal, etc. etc. not all of which is generally considered mandatory for a bird, but I already have several at home that I DO NOT want to risk, and with a history like hers....I just don't know where she's been. I already had most of the other supplies I needed for her. Bless bird.com and all of their cheap, CHEAP toys. Every time I order a cage, carrier, or perches, I tack on another $30-40 worth of $2 perches and $3 toys. We've gotten some pretty awesome things on there. Like, creative foraging systems toys for $2 each, and a couple of BIG cotton and wood toys for $3 each. I got a macaw sized swing for $1, once. Plus, I make my own toys. Which is a good thing, b/c she's chewed her way through nearly a toy a day since she got here. We have spent a small fortune at the health food store on various things in an attempt to find a way to spark her interest in eating and get some extra weight on her-not that she's interested in any of it. All said, I'm about $1000 in on her, not including the very large "nestegg" of parrot supplies I already had on hand. And I imagine will probably drop another grand before the end of the first year with her. After that, the annual cost should go down quite a bit. =0 ) Until I decide she needs a new cage, that is.

Both of my current parrots do that! It makes them look like a little kid. hehe Jynx, my BHC plays a game--he sticks his tongue out and waits until I touch it lightly with the tip of my finger, then he sticks it out the other side of his mouth. Eshe just seems to like sticking her out and wiggling it about from time to time. =0 )

That looks perfect, Popsicle =0 ) Remember, don't force the sleep cage....make it fun, and be sensitive to the bird's needs as you settle in to the routine. I was lucky with both of these two, but my redbelly when I had her took a lot of convincing. I had to give her a stuffed toy (I use the UNSTUFFED dog ones, actually. ) to cuddle with, and i had to get her scritches and love, along w/ an almond every night at bedtime, and it took us about a month to work up to her spending the night in there. But, once she did, it was fantastic, and we all got to sleep in! The amazon I had was old, old, old, and he never did take to the sleeping cage. Approach it like kennel training a dog. Introduce it, play a bit in/around it, offer treats everytime the bird goes into it, or scratches, or verbal praise, or whatever your bird enjoys from you.... I get up and take a peak at them once or twice during the first two or three nights, too...just to make sure that the idea isn't freaking them out too much. Of course, I've never had a baby bird to work with, and I would imagine that'll make a lot of difference

Good luck, Popsicle. Has worked well enough for us! =0 ) Healthier for them, too, since they get their full equatorial 12 hours of sleep. This is what we use for sleeping: http://www.bird.com/item/prevue-medium-travel-bird-cage/533600/ With a choice of a dragonwood perch, or a Polly's Sand Walk Orthopedic perch (which I wish dearly were easier to find. Best things for the nails since EVER!!) Also hung a tent, but she had zero interest, so the caique gets it now. =0 )

This is one of my favorite books, and has been since....well, I think I bought the first edition, when it first came out! In addition to that book, I highly recommend Clicker Training for Birds by Melinda Johnson I feel that the two books go very well together. They are both about positive interaction with your bird and how to use that to train your parrot out of bad behaviors/into good ones, all while your parrot is training you. Eshe loved teaching me to give her an almond every time she touched a chopstick with her beak or foot!!! Even if you have no intention at all of clicker training, this book is all about the psychology of positive reinforcement, and how, and why it works. It is very heavy on target training and using a click to mark the end of a desired behavior along with a treat, but it would be easy to replace the target with say, a finger, and the click with a consistently stated "good". Anyway, yeah. These are the two books I come back to time and again, along with Mattie Sue Athan's much more basic "Guide to a Well Behaved Parrot" for my husband, or a loaner to someone without a whole lot of bird experience.

I was having problems with my black headed caique waking up my young daughters at 5am....which led to all sorts of trouble in the house. A poorly rested toddler is NOT a joy to be a stay at home mommy to!! So, I did a little research, and decided that the concept of a "sleeping cage" was one I wanted to try. We got him a small cage, and moved it into the master bedroom with hubby and I. It does get covered, but that's because he prefers to be covered at night. Jynx took to it almost immediately, and we have actually seen improvements in more areas than just an early wake-up. He seems more relaxed in general, and more "in tune" with hubby and I, his screaming has tapered off in the day times, and the moderate cage aggression he showed (he charged when I attempted to switch his toys) tapered off to nothing, and at night when we say "ready to go to bed?" he pins his eyes and wing flips his excitement to go to bed all the way to the bedroom. He often will hop off and fly the last few feet to put himself away. He is quiet now until hubby and I get up in the morning. Even coming in to bed later at night doesn't seem to bother him. He is a bit cage aggressive over the sleeping cage which is not uncommon, but since he's only in there for sleeping, it is very manageable. When we brought home our grey, she was also surprisingly amenable to the concept of it. Although she won't go to bed until we do (something I'd like to work on, as we stay up too late for her) she does come to bed with us, and sleeps in until I get up. Which is really nice, b/c the two times she told me she didn't want to go to bed, she was up with the sun, practicing her budgie and 'tiel calls. =/ Last night, I was going to leave her in her cage, b/c she was sound asleep in the corner when we went to bed, and I wasn't positive what she thought of the sleeping cage arrangement--she has always seemed very blase about it. However, as I was brushing my teeth, we heard a racket from her cage, and went out to find a very frantic little grey trying to get out of her cage. That said, she has NO problems being in a room on her own, and she doesn't even mind sleeping in her cage when we're not home--we had a house sitter only this weekend while we were out one night who slept in the guest room, and checked on her a couple of times and said she just went to sleep in her cage with no problems. I just think she did not like the idea that we were going to roost for the night without her. Anyway, it's just a thought. I realize not everyone has the setup/need for such a thing, but also realize that many folks haven't ever heard of the concept behind sleeping cages...and I, for one, like having options! PS: we use a $35 bird carrier for Eshe. I also like the idea that I can simply grab their carriers on the way out of the house should we have a fire or some similar disaster. The dogs sleep in portable crates for the same reason! Honestly, my daughters will be harder to get out, in an emergency! 0.0 A fact I hadn't really thought of before! LOL.....Can I train them to sleep in quick-to-grab carriers? (JOKING!!!)