Bedroom for uncaged CAG?

[MnGuy]

EDIT: Title should say "uncaged" CAG. Dang autocorrect.


I've been contemplating turning my spare bedroom into a birdroom where my CAG could roam cage-free all day with her cage and a few play stands as perching stations.

Has anyone done this with a larger bird? I've seen a lot of great posts and videos of birdrooms for smaller birds.

I'm worried about my CAG getting onto the floor and chewing the trim and doors and getting into the light switch panel. Also, how would I keep using my air filter without her accessing it, the cord and the outlet?

Ideally, this would be a room my CAG could use while I'm at work, not just while I'm at home and could supervise.

Her cage is currently in this room, and I take her out in the mornings and after work to hang out on a few stands in the bathroom or dining room.

Debating whether this bird room is doable, or, whether I should just take the plunge and buy her a Kings Cage corner cage.


Thanks!

 

[Atomiklan]

My very first encounter with a bird since the start of my research was with a couple that did this. They have a Cockatoo named Furgie that has a room all to himself. They've setup a pretty large play stand and lots of PVC to climb on. I am sure they probably spent some time trying to bird proof the room, but I never asked them. I have never seen the room in person, only via webcam. They keep a live stream Raspberry Pi camera in there all the time. I think they said they let him watch TV during the day. He apparently loves reruns that they keep on a loop for him. I know this doesn't necessarily answer your questions and I am absolutely not an expert here, but I do know you're not alone concerning this concept. Seems like others have been successful too.

 

[nu2birds]

I've seen a lot of pictures of bird rooms on these forums with ropes and branches and ladders and toys everywhere. Saroj12 is someone that comes to mind. Her bird room is the best I've ever seen. The only thing I will say is, it seems like most people don't feel safe leaving their birds out of their cages when they are not home to supervise. But, I'm sure others will give you their opinions and experiences with bird rooms.

 

[KimKim]

I would love to have a bird room, we actually have talked about turning the office into one.. Anyway, I know Ive read members using 1x2's, 2x2's and or 2x4's to trim the door windows and ledges, to keep them from chewing the good stuff, since its easy to replace. Also read about puting cords in some kind of tube, but not sure about the outlets

 

[MnGuy]

Thank you all for the great input and feedback. I'll continue to look around and brainstorm, but I may be leaning a little more towards just upgrading her cage. I'm not interested in turning it completely into a bird room unless she can have free reign 24/7, since I know she'll want to be out in the living and dining rooms with me when I'm home anyway, and I'm already set up to have her out there.

Thanks much!

 

[ode.to.parrots]

I've been researching this too... I'm apartment hunting at the moment and would LOVE to have a two bed room apartment so that one room could be a cage free space for my tiels.

There are those plastic toddler-proof caps that can be screwed on over outlets to cover them. NOT those flimsy little things, more like a box. Looks like this: Prime-Line Products S 4555 In-Use Plug Outlet Cover, White, (Pack of 2) - Outlet Plates - Amazon.com

My current struggle is that the best apartment that I have found thus far for this cage-free day dream has a heating system that kinda looks like this: https://i.stack.imgur.com/YfHNs.jpg

So I am thinking that I may have to build some sort of barrier to keep the tiels away from the heater, though I am not sure of the best way to do that.

I have been actively avoiding apartments that have this type of heating unit:
http://dashboard.localvox.com/sites.../Housing partners-heating and cooling (2).jpg

I've also been unsure of what to do about the air filter... I sort of imagined having it just outside of the room during the day and then moving it into the room when you are there to supervise. Not ideal, but perhaps better than nothing?

I'll be following this thread, since you basically asked all of the same questions that I've been contemplating over the past few months! Great minds think alike, right?

 

[MnGuy]

I've been researching this too... I'm apartment hunting at the moment and would LOVE to have a two bed room apartment so that one room could be a cage free space for my tiels.

There are those plastic toddler-proof caps that can be screwed on over outlets to cover them. NOT those flimsy little things, more like a box. Looks like this: Prime-Line Products S 4555 In-Use Plug Outlet Cover, White, (Pack of 2) - Outlet Plates - Amazon.com

My current struggle is that the best apartment that I have found thus far for this cage-free day dream has a heating system that kinda looks like this: https://i.stack.imgur.com/YfHNs.jpg

So I am thinking that I may have to build some sort of barrier to keep the tiels away from the heater, though I am not sure of the best way to do that.

I have been actively avoiding apartments that have this type of heating unit:
http://dashboard.localvox.com/sites/default/files/inline_images/Housing partners-heating and cooling (2).jpg

I've also been unsure of what to do about the air filter... I sort of imagined having it just outside of the room during the day and then moving it into the room when you are there to supervise. Not ideal, but perhaps better than nothing?

I'll be following this thread, since you basically asked all of the same questions that I've been contemplating over the past few months! Great minds think alike, right?

Good luck!

 

[ode.to.parrots]

Good luck!

Thanks! I realize that it is kind of a long shot at this point in my life, but I figured it is worth at least looking into and doing the research and hearing different perspectives.

I'm glad you started this conversation! Best of luck to you as well!

 

[Begone]

Has anyone done this with a larger bird? I've seen a lot of great posts and videos of birdrooms for smaller birds.

Bartleby has: January 2016 Feathered Estates Highlight - Bartleby | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
And also @saroj12

The only concern I have if I would really make a bird room if I had just one bird. I do believe they get more lonely in a bird room, so perhaps you should consider that.
When I had just one he was with me all the time, and to put him in a room all by himself would have make him very sad.

 

[DQTimnehs]

I would cover the walls with Plexiglas or Lexan to protect them. Remove the trim first. You can replace it later or use 2 x 4's or 1 x 6's, etc to replace trim and have it chewable. There is hard ridged plastic or metal tubing you can put over electrical cords to prevent chewing.

 

[saroj12]

Thanks for the speciaL mention. My birds are caged while I'm out. When I'm home they are out in a fairly bird proofed room. I have to supervise though, because there are uncovered cables and also because I have six birds.

 

[saroj12]

We had the carpenter install untreated pine above the doors and windows

 

[MnGuy]

We had the carpenter install untreated pine above the doors and windows
View attachment 252656

Beautiful setup!

 

[MnGuy]

Bartleby has: January 2016 Feathered Estates Highlight - Bartleby | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
And also @saroj12

The only concern I have if I would really make a bird room if I had just one bird. I do believe they get more lonely in a bird room, so perhaps you should consider that.
When I had just one he was with me all the time, and to put him in a room all by himself would have make him very sad.

Like I said, the room would be used when I'm at work. She would still come out into the rest of the house when I'm home.

But it looks like free roaming in a room unsupervised looks less and less wise.

Thanks, all.

 

[saroj12]

Beautiful setup!

Thank you

 

[jmfleish]

I have two Amazons that I leave out on a permanent basis because they aren't big wanderers and they aren't very destructive, Amarillo DYHA and Iris BFA. Amarillo has been going through some health issues over the last few months and we finally have her home, so I do have her caged and Iris is also caged at the moment because I have to medicate Amarillo and it's darn near impossible to do when Iris is out and about because Iris is so attached to Ams. We also took in another BFA, Cisco who is not a wanderer at all, so he is not caged but has access to the cage that Ams and Iris used to have access to before we caged them. I also have two CAGs, Smokey and Clancy, who we let wander from time to time who aren't super destructive. I'd say over the last several months, Clancy has pretty much had open access to his cage and has been really good for the most part. We don't let Smokey roam as much because he likes to go after me but is good about stepping up on a stick. The thing I don't like about the greys having open access to the house is that they like to be on the floor and we have a French Bulldog who lives on the second floor but has to come downstairs to go outside and we have to be careful about knowing where the greys are when we bring him downstairs...that makes me a bit nervous. All of our birds are on the first floor and it's mostly cages and their stuff down there, so not much for them to get into if they aren't wanderers and they aren't destructive. I did have an escape of my bonded Galah pair a while back and thought I would give them a try knowing full well they would do some damage to the room they are in. It's a room that's an addition to our house that we will be tearing down at some point, so some damage wasn't a big deal and I'm trying to gain their trust, so I didn't want to towel them to put them back in their cage. The amount of damage they ended up doing to that room was too much for me to bear and I ended up putting them back in their cage! I'm really hoping that we will eventually build a bird room, but I'm thinking that I will have to wait until next summer for that one and after seeing the kind of damage my Galah pair can inflict, I'm going to have to be very careful about the materials we choose!

 

[MnGuy]

I have two Amazons that I leave out on a permanent basis because they aren't big wanderers and they aren't very destructive, Amarillo DYHA and Iris BFA. Amarillo has been going through some health issues over the last few months and we finally have her home, so I do have her caged and Iris is also caged at the moment because I have to medicate Amarillo and it's darn near impossible to do when Iris is out and about because Iris is so attached to Ams. We also took in another BFA, Cisco who is not a wanderer at all, so he is not caged but has access to the cage that Ams and Iris used to have access to before we caged them. I also have two CAGs, Smokey and Clancy, who we let wander from time to time who aren't super destructive. I'd say over the last several months, Clancy has pretty much had open access to his cage and has been really good for the most part. We don't let Smokey roam as much because he likes to go after me but is good about stepping up on a stick. The thing I don't like about the greys having open access to the house is that they like to be on the floor and we have a French Bulldog who lives on the second floor but has to come downstairs to go outside and we have to be careful about knowing where the greys are when we bring him downstairs...that makes me a bit nervous. All of our birds are on the first floor and it's mostly cages and their stuff down there, so not much for them to get into if they aren't wanderers and they aren't destructive. I did have an escape of my bonded Galah pair a while back and thought I would give them a try knowing full well they would do some damage to the room they are in. It's a room that's an addition to our house that we will be tearing down at some point, so some damage wasn't a big deal and I'm trying to gain their trust, so I didn't want to towel them to put them back in their cage. The amount of damage they ended up doing to that room was too much for me to bear and I ended up putting them back in their cage! I'm really hoping that we will eventually build a bird room, but I'm thinking that I will have to wait until next summer for that one and after seeing the kind of damage my Galah pair can inflict, I'm going to have to be very careful about the materials we choose!

Thank you for sharing your experiences with me! My grey is also a big wanderer and ground explorer, which are concerns for me. I'm thinking it's not doable in the room I have to spare.

 

[jmfleish]

Thank you for sharing your experiences with me! My grey is also a big wanderer and ground explorer, which are concerns for me. I'm thinking it's not doable in the room I have to spare.

CAGs are ground wanderers by nature because they forage on the ground in nature...HA! That sounded funny! I think it's going to come down to how destructive your little guy is. My Clancy isn't much of a chewer. He'd never put a hole in the wall or even chew on our molding. Leave a cardboard box alone or a bag of food and he'd chew through that! LOL! You can experiment by watching what he does when left out while you are around. I know some CAGs can be very destructive. I think my other grey, Smokey might be a bit more destructive but he tends to stay on his cage more and I don't let him wander as much! LOL! You can make changes to the room based on what your grey shows interest in or maybe just decide it's not possible if you don't think you can make the room safe for him. I know Clancy is really happy being able to come and go as he pleases and to be honest with you, he spends most of his time on top of his cage or in it rather than walking around, but he does like to have a bit of freedom and we can provide that. I'm looking forward to the day that we have a big room where more of the birds can get out and do the same but we definitely have birds that we can't do that with at the moment!

 

[rocky'smom]

for cords on the floor try PVC pipe with elbows to turn it up to the outlet. you can tack with to the wall with pipe C's. you do not have glue them together with PVC glue, but just white glue will hold it together. a friend had ferret and had to do this to protect her cords.