Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Avian Staycation

Molting time is the time when I provide lots of play options to my young birds.

They love to swing and play on the canary ferris wheel.
 This swing is close enough that it can swing and grab a bite of millet.

The Canary Ferris Wheel will fold flat so you can easily get it in the cage. It has four perches and rotates whenever a bird lands on it.

This border did a touch landing. Landing and flying on immediately before the wheel rotated.

This border has landed on the top bar and his weight made the wheel rotate a quarter of a turn. Hard to photograph as the canary ferris wheel moves as soon as he lands. At times the play tag and another will land while one is perched on the wheel. With practice they will stay on nearly a full rotation.

Too many choices? The border on the perch can't decide whether to play in the show cage or try to get a spot in the millet swing. I hang border cages on all the young birds cages regardless of the kind of bird. It is easier to start them first in a wire border cage before later training them in a box type cage.
Provide lots of different perching options. A single short perch is very popular and I watch the birds and place them around the cage to discourage hanging on the wire and damaging its tail. It also provides foot exercise when they perch on different size and shape perches. Last post I showed how an empty nest is good for foot gripping.



Not pictured is plastic or wooden clothes hangers which are also popular options in some of my cages.

No comments: