aviary safety?

how do you keep your birds safe when they're in an aviary? Dangers I'm thinking of are predators, people, weather, ect.
I know there are racoons in my area (they ate the fish in my pond and the chicken that used to wander through our yard and we'd feed, r.i.p rusty) plus I've found a snake shed in my yard, I'm guessing gopher snake?
so for you guys with aviaries, do you worry about predators injuring your birds or are the walls of an aviary enough? and what materials are your aviaries made of?

Predators - a big honkin' dog. Or you have the aviary within an enclosed area. Sometimes you can't eliminate the predators, especially when they're hawks. I forget the type of hawk, but there's one that hunt cooperatively in pairs. I knew someone with an aviary and one hawk would slam into one side of the aviary, when the birds inside flew to the opposite side, the second hawk would be waiting and stick its foot in and yank pieces parts off the aviary birds. Snakes - I've heard of snakes getting into cages and nestboxes and eating babies. I've not had that problem and I know I have a lot of snakes. Many of my cages are within another enclosed area so that helps with minimizing predation.

People - living in the city, that was a problem. I did have a parrot stolen out of a cage that was in my yard. At the time I did not have a big mean dog. When I had a big mean dog, this was not a problem. Currently I'm rural, so people are not an issue.

Vermin - rodents are by far my biggest nemesis. I have 5 gallon buckets with a layer of bird seed on the bottom all around. The mice jump in for the food and can't get back out. Then I throw them to my dogs to train my dogs to be mousers.

Big honkin', rear end bitin' dogs solve a lot of problems. Just make sure to train the dog well to leave your birds alone.

If you don't want a dog, a heavy duty aviary made out of like 10 gauge wire and then padlocking the doors shut should eliminate people and larger predators and vermin. Check out:
http://clover.forest.net/kwcages/index.html

patdbunny wrote:

Vermin - rodents are by far my biggest nemesis. I have 5 gallon buckets with a layer of bird seed on the bottom all around. The mice jump in for the food and can't get back out. Then I throw them to my dogs to train my dogs to be mousers.

This was CONSTANTLY an issue with us. We keep our horsefeed in big metal garbage cans and rats would get under the lids all the time and not be able to get out. While I'm much more of a big dog person, and know that they CAN be trained to be vermin disposal, if you get yourself a terrier it's gonna come natural and small dogs are much faster and nimbler when it comes to catching stuff and not being afraid of it. Most of our big dogs are wimps and just don't have the instinct to chase and kill stuff we tell them to. We had a JRT who went bananas for the opportunity to kill something little. As soon as she heard "ROXY, GET THE RAT!" coming from our tackroom I swear she'd pretty much beam herself there. Tip the can over and seconds later the problem was solved.

LyzGrace wrote:

patdbunny wrote:

Vermin - rodents are by far my biggest nemesis. I have 5 gallon buckets with a layer of bird seed on the bottom all around. The mice jump in for the food and can't get back out. Then I throw them to my dogs to train my dogs to be mousers.

This was CONSTANTLY an issue with us. We keep our horsefeed in big metal garbage cans and rats would get under the lids all the time and not be able to get out. While I'm much more of a big dog person, and know that they CAN be trained to be vermin disposal, if you get yourself a terrier it's gonna come natural and small dogs are much faster and nimbler when it comes to catching stuff and not being afraid of it. Most of our big dogs are wimps and just don't have the instinct to chase and kill stuff we tell them to. We had a JRT who went bananas for the opportunity to kill something little. As soon as she heard "ROXY, GET THE RAT!" coming from our tackroom I swear she'd pretty much beam herself there. Tip the can over and seconds later the problem was solved.

I love the Jack Russell Terrorists, but they're desire to kill little things is what makes them difficult around birds. Yes, they absolutely can be trained to leave your birds alone, but I think for a lot of people that will be quite a task. Cattle dogs seem to have the prey drive to do rodent work, but they're also tractable enough to train pretty easily to leave birds alone. So if picking a dog for vermin, look for something that has "prey drive", but is also a breed bred for its obedience/cooperation with people. I used to have a corgi mix. He was a fantastic mouser.

patdbunny wrote:

I love the Jack Russell Terrorists, but they're desire to kill little things is what makes them difficult around birds. Yes, they absolutely can be trained to leave your birds alone, but I think for a lot of people that will be quite a task. Cattle dogs seem to have the prey drive to do rodent work, but they're also tractable enough to train pretty easily to leave birds alone. So if picking a dog for vermin, look for something that has "prey drive", but is also a breed bred for its obedience/cooperation with people. I used to have a corgi mix. He was a fantastic mouser.

Haha... never said I LIKED our little dog They're definitely close to untrainable to leave little animals alone - we lost an escaped hamster or two to that mutt It definitely depends on what you want the dog to do. Terriers are the best exterminators, but aren't very pet-safe and don't do much for guard-dog threat levels.

I've never heard of Corgis being mousers, that's interesting! I kind of had them in the little-old-lady-in-an-apartment dog category. Aussies would be good for a general all-purpose protector I think. Again, I'm taken with larger dogs and still cry when I think about having to leave my GSP at home when we moved down here. I can't wait to see him when I go back to visit in a few weeks

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I forget the type of hawk, but there's one that hunt cooperatively in pairs. I knew someone with an aviary and one hawk would slam into one side of the aviary, when the birds inside flew to the opposite side, the second hawk would be waiting and stick its foot in and yank pieces parts off the aviary birds.

harris hawks will hunt in small groups or pairs- thats why they're popular falconary birds. but yikes! didn't realize they'd go so far I love birds of prey but I might just give the harris hawk at work the stink-eye next time I go in (he's cool though, the turkey vultures are the ones to watch out for :evil: )

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I've never heard of Corgis being mousers, that's interesting! I kind of had them in the little-old-lady-in-an-apartment dog category. Aussies would be good for a general all-purpose protector I think. Again, I'm taken with larger dogs and still cry when I think about having to leave my GSP at home when we moved down here. I can't wait to see him when I go back to visit in a few weeks

aren't they used as herders or something? I know someone who has one and he's the biggest brat of a dog you'll ever meet. the whole training thing never quite happened... and aww I've always been a sucker for the big guys too, hope your gsp is doing well!!

thanks for the advice! any excuss to get an animal is fine by me

moa wrote:

Quote :

I've never heard of Corgis being mousers, that's interesting! I kind of had them in the little-old-lady-in-an-apartment dog category. Aussies would be good for a general all-purpose protector I think. Again, I'm taken with larger dogs and still cry when I think about having to leave my GSP at home when we moved down here. I can't wait to see him when I go back to visit in a few weeks

aren't they used as herders or something? I know someone who has one and he's the biggest brat of a dog you'll ever meet. the whole training thing never quite happened... and aww I've always been a sucker for the big guys too, hope your gsp is doing well!!

thanks for the advice! any excuss to get an animal is fine by me

I'm not sure if your herding question was directed at the Corgis or the Aussies, but after a little research on my end I guess the answer to both is yes! I didn't know that about the Corgis. Roz I think was talking about Australian Cattle dogs, but there are also Australian Sheep dogs, which get confused a lot as people call them both Aussies Both are herders, but in the experience I've had with them, the cattle dogs are more level-headed and aggressive (in a good way). The sheep dogs I've known have all been a little more high-strung and more likely to tuck tail and run if their opponent proves to be too intimidating :hitstick:

And my GSP is doing well, I skyped him the other day He was in an accident a few months ago and was in emergency care for a few days. Luckily enough my mom knew well enough to not call me and tell me about it until he was home and on the recoup. I was still a mess, miss him so much!!

I will use 1x3 wire on the out side and screen wire on the inside,the birds will be in their own large flight cages(1x2 wire) the 1x3 is to keep out coons,cats,dogs etc. ,the screen is to stop misquitoes ants and such, all of this will be guarded by large dog (bitch lab mix from pound) of course our 3 JRT mixes are death on the small furries but have zero interest in the baby birds and are very wary of the zons, But those dogs grew up with birds in the house.i haven't had a problem with snakes and have found them to be the best solution to rats and mice.Ants can be trouble but have found diatomeous earth to work on them. The solution to many pest problems is good house keeping and planning on your avairy to be easy to clean is very important.My cage are suspended over a sloped contrete pad to help keep area clean.