cage help

[Marg53]

Hi all

 

I do hope this is the appropriate way to approach this:

 

I have recently acquired a lovely 3 year old Congo Gray, Giz, along with her cage that I assume is the same age as she is. Unfortunately the seed guards did not come with her to her last home and I am now in search of replacements.

 

It is an EZ Care Playtop Cage for Medium Birds

Outside Dimensions: 41" x 32" x 65"

Inside Dimensions: 32" x 23" x 37"

Bar Spacing: 3/4"

 

I contated Kaytee who tells me they no longer make cages and have no replacement parts in stock. Does anyone know if other cage parts are compatible?

 

If anyone knows where I can get replacement seed guards for this cage, it would be GREATLY appreciated. Giz is quite a messy eater.

 

thanks

Marg, Pee Wee (BHC) and Giz (CAG)

[lovemyGreys]

Hi Marg & Welcome to the forum. Sorry i'm unable to help personally, perhaps place a wanted advert in local perstores,papers etc.. maybe someone has some surplus to their needs.

[Tari]

[Laurie]

Hi, and welcome. Sorry, I can't help with the cage. But I'm glad you're here!

[judygram]

Hello and welcome to the family, Marg, glad you could join us and we look forward to hearing more about you and Giz, thats an unusual name, how did you come up with it.

 

I can't help you with your cage but I can recommend reading thru our many threads on various topics for lots of useful information. If you have any specific questions you would like to ask please do, we will do our best to get you an answer and help you in any way we can.

 

Since Giz is 3 years old, how did you come to acquire her and why was she given up, I ask for it helps to get to know you better to know more about your grey.

 

Believe me, they are all messy eaters and even the seed guards don't catch it all, but it helps.

 

If you have a picture of Giz you would like to post, we would love to see her.

[Toni]

So far I havent needed to put my seed guards on. Alcazar has been very neat eating. Sooo far .My cage is HQ what I can do is take a picture of what the holes look like for the guards and post. Maybe HQ can the supply them if the holes match.I'll do that over the holidays since I have a 4 day weekend.

[chapala]

Kali also is a messy eater, much messier than the Macaw, though the Parrotlet has Kali beat in that department. Are most Greys messy eaters, good food flingers?

Reta

[judygram]

Most any bird if they eat foods that cling to the beak like say sweet potatoes for one, will fling that off and greys are no exception, and it can go far and wide.

 

Josey is not too messy an eater when she is in her cage but when I take her in to eat off my plate at the evening meal, she can get very messy and fling food stuck to the beak.

[Kibibi]

I have a seed catcher on Kibibi's cage but like judygram says, most of Kibibi's food gets flung far and wide. I have to clean food off of walls at least 10 feet away from her cage. I'm not sure a seed catcher does me much good

[BadKarma]

I have read several articles from people on the net who are very much against seed guards. There aparently is some inherent danger to them. I will see if I can find them again. My suggestion would to be contact a local metal worker. Any competant metal worker could make you guards. Or I have seen some that people have made themselves useing lexan or plexiglass. Sorry I'm not more help.

[Marg53]

Giz was purchased from her 4th home at less than 1 year by a dear friend, Ruthann. It is all Ruthann's fault that we even have one bird and our first parrot, Pee Wee is a black headed Caique. I actually birdy sat for Ruthann's BHC, Sid, while she was away 3 years ago.

 

I fell totally in love with Caiques and went on a quest for my own Brazilian brat and bought Pee Wee from a lady who was drastically downsizing. He'd been with his mom, Trudy, for over 8 years and while he was originally purchased as part of her bird breeding program, he did not show any interest in girls, just people. He became her pet and was also good with her very senior father. When it was time to cut back Trudy wanted a good forever pet home for him and after several visits, Trudy and I agreed that Pee Wee was meant to be my bird now.I've had him since Sept 2005.

 

Ruthann, the original culprit, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and her original Caique coincidently became hormonal and aggressive at the same time. Ruthann was going through chemo and could not risk a bite so Sid went back to his original home and is there even now. Giz was and is very gentle so Ruthann kept her.

 

Once Ruthann won her battle with cancer, her own grown kids decided to spoil her and took her to the Dominican Republic for a month in 2005. That year I baby sat Giz for the duration of Ruthann's vacation.

 

Her oldest daughter actually bought a home there in 2005 and Ruthann and hubby Bill will be spending their winters there and the spring, summer and fall, traveling Canada and US in a big motor home, crossing the borders and can't take Giz. Giz will be with us as long as Giz wants to stay.

 

BTW I took Giz and Pee Wee to Giz's first Parrot Club meeting Tuesday evening and she was a little apprehensive at first however she settled down nicely and enjoyed visiting with the other greys as well as the other parrots. On the way home Giz was saying,"Nite Nite" to Pee Wee who loves car rides.

 

Obviously Giz was not from a reputable breeder as she wasn't banded nor is she chipped. I will have the banding and chipping done at her next vet visit and check up. It took a lot of patience on Ruthann's part to win Giz's trust and it shows in how Giz has settled here so quickly. Of course we did babysit her last year so it is a somewhat familiar place for her.

 

thanks for the interest,

 

Marg, Pee Wee & Giz

 

photos will follow

[judygram]

Thanks Marg for updating us on your situation and I commend you for what you are doing, you have a big heart. And I am so glad that Giz is settling in nicely and that he has a home for the rest of his life.

 

I look forward to seeing pictures of Giz and Pee Wee too if you would like, we love photos here as you can tell.

[birdgranna]

I find almost anything i need on Kijiji. Don't know if you have that classified site where you live Marg.

[birdgranna]

Can anyone tell me the bad things about seed guards please? I am not sure I really need them as they only get clogged with poop, so I may be tempted to remove them. I have plastic panels and a very washable floor in my bird rooms making it fairly easy to clean so I may get rid of them if there is an unsafe reason to do so.My birds dont eat seeds so why the heck am I scrubbing those darn seed guards?!

[dblhelix]

My cage (and many) come with seed guards. I chose not to use them since I have found they dont do much to control the mess. If the bird is in mess mode, things go flying all over anyways... In addition, there have been reports of birds being injured by the guards that stick out at an angle skirting the bottom of the cage. Birds that are clipped and/or clumsy may fall onto the guards from the top of the cage and get injured, I have heard. I say ditch the guards, but other may have different experiences/opinions... <br><br>Post edited by: dblhelix, at: 2007/11/23 07:04

[danmcq]

Good points on Seed Guards Dblhelix. :-)

 

I presently do have the seed guards installed on both my cages. They do capture a lot of the food that would have otherwise hit the floor for us anyway.

 

However, we place the food and water bowls on the bottom of the cage for Dayo. So when he does fling something, eighty percent of the time it is caught by the guards.

 

If his bowls were in the bowl holders at mid-cage level, the seed guards would probably not server any purpose what so ever, as Mark indicates.

 

Since you also have the plastic strips around the bottom of the cage, it sounds like the Seed Guards may not do you any good either Birdgranna.

 

One thing Mark now has me thinking about though, is the "Possible" injury potential of those sharp seed guard corners. They could not only seriously damage your bird, but also children or guests if they happen to hit one of those sharp corners.

[birdgranna]

Good points all. I think I will remove. My walls and floors are easy clean anyway. Has anyone else installed those plastic wall panels where their bird cages are placed? I don't know how I managd without them.My husband has cut them to size to cover the entire bird room walls where the big birds live.Everything literaly just wipes off them. very cheap too at Rona or Home Depot. Anything to make cleaning easier eh guys? I have 29 adult birds and often babies so cleanup must be easy here at birdgranna's;)

[lovemyGreys]

i have removed the seed guards from my cages as said previously they end up covered in poop & the food goes on the floor anyways

[liefie1]

I use to use miskieto net (it does not look very nice but works) hope this helps;)

[pmaholm]

We removed the seed guards from our cages and got 2 plastic computer chair mats that are about twice as big as the cage footprint, so now food waste or shreds of toys go on the mat or the carpet and poop only goes on the mat if they're on the outside of their cage.