Parrot Necessities.

We all know the actual necessities of parrot ownership, but what are some things you have for your birds that are option that you feel you absolutely need?

For me, it would be Poop Off cage cleaner and their rope swings. Poop Off makes it so much easier to clean their perches and cage grate. Their rope swing provides them hours of amusement.

Three things I feel I NEED.

1) A mirror. Hours and hours of amusement for Sam, I swear he loves his reflection more than he loves me. It'd just make his life a lot more boring if he didn't have one.

2) A playstand and/or interesting or convoluted perches for attaching to the outside of their cage. This doesn't necessarily mean an entire huge thing, just even a potted plant stand in front of their cage or a single branch on top. It gives them more room to play and exercise when I let them out, rather than just a boring old cage to climb on, so it keeps them occupied enough to not climb down and get themselves in the way of feet. It also makes it harder for Eric to slip and fall by accident what with his baby coordination and all. Lol.

3) A rope or string of some kind. Meaning a shoelace or dog leash; something like that. Ducky loves hanging and swinging off these things, and chewing them up.

For the birds

- hair ties (would hate birds to get their feet cut from being caught in my hair, imagine it would be like me getting a paper/razor cut)

For me

- forums such as this. I have no close friends with birds, they dont understand what its like, the good, the bad etc. Its nice to be able to log on, look at everyones comments, have a laugh, know I am not alone in how I feel about the birdies. Quite often, what has already been written is what I am having issues with, experiencing etc. Which is why I may not post much but I do check nearly everyday.

Vinegar. I use it for so many things. I clean EVERYTHING with it. It's not only a safe disinfectant for my birds, but it's also healthier for me. I can't stand the smell of harsh chemicals in cleaners.

Sheesh. I dunno. For me I guess it's a spare cage available at all times for musical birds - injury, aggression, etc. About a month ago I had more babies old enough for cages at one time than I had anticipated. I evicted Xavier out of his cage and he lived on a playpen in my room for two weeks while I got more caging squared away.

Mumto3birdies wrote:

- forums such as this. I have no close friends with birds, they dont understand what its like, the good, the bad etc. Its nice to be able to log on, look at everyones comments, have a laugh, know I am not alone in how I feel about the birdies. Quite often, what has already been written is what I am having issues with, experiencing etc. Which is why I may not post much but I do check nearly everyday.

Love hearing you posting (Just ask Roger)!

Thanks Roz! She's right though, we love to hear from everyone!

patdbunny wrote:

Sheesh. I dunno. For me I guess it's a spare cage available at all times for musical birds - injury, aggression, etc. About a month ago I had more babies old enough for cages at one time than I had anticipated. I evicted Xavier out of his cage and he lived on a playpen in my room for two weeks while I got more caging squared away.

How did he do cagefree?

KayLayUh wrote:

patdbunny wrote:

Sheesh. I dunno. For me I guess it's a spare cage available at all times for musical birds - injury, aggression, etc. About a month ago I had more babies old enough for cages at one time than I had anticipated. I evicted Xavier out of his cage and he lived on a playpen in my room for two weeks while I got more caging squared away.

How did he do cagefree?

He did fine. Xavier's very mellow. He stays pretty much where you put him. He doesn't flutter to the floor. Don't take that as he doesn't explore. He does. He knows "the rule" - Stay on/in a cage or play pen. Right now he's in the living room with all the baby cages. It's set up pretty much semi-circular and encompasses about 1/2 of the room. I open his cage door and he goes to the top and then hops around the room from cage top to cage top to play pen to play pen and back again. He just knows not to hit the ground.

But for safety reasons I don't leave him cage free. When he was cage free that 2 weeks he was in my room so I could lock out the cats and dogs. My cats and dogs are bird safe, but you never know.

Technically, EC keeps her birds "cage-free". They have a cage, but the door's open pretty much 24/7 unless we're out of the house all day. Right now Erik's still learning "the rule" so the cage gets closed more often (this is really pissing Ducky off).

patdbunny wrote:

He did fine. Xavier's very mellow. He stays pretty much where you put him. He doesn't flutter to the floor. Don't take that as he doesn't explore. He does. He knows "the rule" - Stay on/in a cage or play pen.

Piper doesn't get that concept, but I think it's more because he's still young and his flight feathers are growing in. He's testing his wings, I guess.

I would love to be cagefree eventually, but Bobby's cats will make that all but impossible unless we set up a bird room with a double door entry similar to a dark room entry.

A mini vac dust buster deal!!

Poop-off wipes and rope perches. Both birds love the rope perches and I find myself much more likely to do a quick daily wipedown of the cages with a wipe than if i have to dig out cloths and spray bottles. Oh and I quite like my Easy Sprout. Sure I cold make something pretty much identical for nearly free, but for $10 it makes the sprouting process trivial by encouraging good ventilation and drainage.

I gotta comment on the vinegar thing, I can't help myself... Vinegar DOES kill germs, but I don't think it is much more effective than soap and water. It's fine to use as a cleaning agent, but don't trust it if you really need to sanitize a surface... it is MUCH less effective that chlorine bleach or a commercial cage disinfectant. And DON'T do what I am seeing recommended periodically on the internet and mix it with chlorine bleach! Don't mix anything but water with chlorine bleach unless you really know what you are doing!

I'm surprised more people don't turn to hydrogen peroxide as a disinfecting agent. It's pretty effective and the residue is water and oxygen.

ScooterNScotty wrote:

I'm surprised more people don't turn to hydrogen peroxide as a disinfecting agent. It's pretty effective and the residue is water and oxygen.

I've been using peroxide for some bird things and rinsing and drying well. I ran out of vinegar and had nothing else to use.

For cleaning - shop vac, hand vac, baby wipes, sonic scrubber, vinegar, GSE, garden hose & a big bucket of clean rags

In cage - aside from various wooden perches, everyone gets rope perches too, & boings/bouncers/swings

foraging toys, foot toy buckets/bowls, wood/shreddable toys based on species, extra toys to rotate in weekly

Something new again: Poop Off cage cleaner
I heard about it first time, so I gone and check what's that. Is that really good as they put in adds?
I'm with SnS about cleaning. Hot/very warm water + soap will work for everything. I use vinegar sometimes too.

And now, to answer for a main question: Birds room.
They have they home, when they can escape, I can work on my computer late at night, or watch TV or even spend time with my boyfriend and not hear begging for attention at night - trio: Mango, Chico and Lucky
They sleep better and not wake up with humors, they can chew whatever they want(well, maybe except AC) in their own room

For the big guys, chew toys, wood mostly. The little guys... rope perches.

I finally figured out what my necessities were....

Ice cube trays and Non-stick cooking spray!

Who knew?