SteveD Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Hi. My name is Steve and I'm new here. I have several birds and am looking for some local supplies for an aviary I'm building. Here's the story. When I married my wife 8 years ago, she brought with her a Minah, a Collared Macaw and an African Grey. The Collared Macaw, (Michael), fell in love with me the first moment he saw me. I'd never been a bird person, so he bamboozled me for a while, but we've gotten closer over the years. The Minah, (Fred) passed on a few years ago. Later, when my sister in law became unreliable for pet care, we inherited a Blue and Gold Macaw named Tango. He was aggressive and angry, and his favorite word was "SHUTUP!" :-( (He's doing much better now that I speak to him softly and sing to him daily, and NEVER tell him to shut up.) The African Grey, (Panchito), is female and is the subject of this message. Late last year, she began cutting her feathers. I took her to a vet and he said she was emotionally stressed for some reason, or reasons. I explained that yes, there were some chnages in her life and asked what I could do to help her. He recommended a wonderful DVD about Home Foraging, which I don't have in front of me, but would also recommend. By giving her something to do besides preen, it keeps her mind busy and lets her have a little fun, too. One plan I'd come up with was to build a larger aviary for the birds we have. I figure it will give them all something to do and more space to do it. I plan to add foraging trees and branches and ropes and such. The two smaller birds will have enough room to fly, but Tango is just too big for his space. His new space will be ~5' wide by 8' long, while the others are 5' wide and 11' long. (I figured Tango wouldn't be able to fly in 11' anyway, but the others could, so they get the big rooms. Tango is currently in a 2' x 3' x 4' cage, so his space will increase by a large factor.) Anyway, I've drawn up plans on CAD and taught myself to weld and began welding wall sections this last weekend. What I'm looking for are recommendations on types of wire mesh to contain the large birds and keep out the considerable sparrow population, and if anyone knows of a supplier in the Phoenix area, that'd be great, too. Thanks for hanging in there with me and my rather lengthy story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Steve, first of all, Hello & Welcome to our family! You are very kind to go to such extremes for your birds. I am sorry I am far from Arizona, and can't help you. But we would love to hear more about your birds, and we love photo's. So if you have any, please post them when you can. When you finish your aviary, would you post a picture? I'd enjoy seeing what all your hard work led to. :cheer: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest briansmum Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 sounds like you have some lovely plans for your birds! welcome to our feathery family and please do share pictures with us.. we do love pictures!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveD Posted July 11, 2007 Author Share Posted July 11, 2007 Thanks for the replies. Too bad we aren't closer. According to the map of my site, the closest person to me is in California! Bummer. I'll take some pics and post them, once I figure out how... B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Monique Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Hi Steve!!! Welcome to the site - I think what you are doing for your birds is WONDERFUL! I have done only a tad bit of research in aviaries and all I know is you must be very careful of the metal as some contain toxic metals to the birds when they lick or chew them. If you do some googling I think you will find some decent sites or at least some people with experience building aviaries to contact. Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 How wonderful of you to build an aviary for your birds, I am not close enough to help you but if you do a search you should find out the information you need to complete the aviary. Welcome to our family and here to the forum, we look forward to hearing more about your aviary and please post some photos of it when it is finished, we would love to see it, who knows it may inspire us to do the same. Feel free to post a photo of your grey so we can admire it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookyhurst Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 I'm from Arizona . Beautiful day today, only got up to 102 degrees . I have that foraging DVD too. Very good ideas in it! I'm also going to build Nikko a foraging tree. Until then, I'm trying out some stuff on her regular gym. I hang a rope down from one of the perches. At the end of the rope, I tie a crushed dixie cup with an almond (in shell) inside. She hoists the rope up with her beak and foot, chews through the dixie cup, retrieves the almond, chews through the shell, and happily eats chows down. Keeps her occupied for quite awhile. Initially, she didn't like the idea of working for her nut, but after a couple days, she seems to be having a lot of fun with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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