Advice Needed, Do I Keep Her as His Cage Mate?

[AussieBird]

So I plan to give LJ Snow and Obsidian's cage, set up to better accommodate his needs. If anyone remembers he is starting to have trouble with his feet and was developing pressure sores despite have natural perches. I plan to have it set up with platforms, rope and fleece padded perches.
Now the issue. I hate keeping him by himself (which he currently is, though he can see and gets to interacts regularly with the rest of his flock), once I swap the cages over I want to give him a cage mate. And by his choice that's Sunbeam... except Sunbeam is extremely destructive and I stopped giving her rope perches after one attempt. I don't know whether she will be compatible with what he needs.
I am kinda planning to try it while giving her heaps of toys to distract her from the soft materials.
My other options are try Snowflake as a cage mate (she is not bonded to Obsidian), or leave him by himself (which I obviously don't want to do)
I am also trying to plan this around what my future plans are. I am in the process of building the budgies an aviary, they will all live in it except LJ (and probably any potential cage mate). I plan to put him in the aviary whenever the weather allows, but he won't be in there permanently.
Basically I am asking if anyone can see other options or ways to work around the issues?
Apologises if anything is not very clear.

 

[Ripshod]

It's a hard place to be. I don't envy you that.
I'd go with his choice of Sunbeam first to see how things go. The distraction for her is also a good idea. But at the end of the day it should be easy enough to change things around to find a way to make this work for all of you, so long as no-one gets left alone.

 

[Sparkles99]

I’d say Sunbeam or solo.

 

[AussieBird]

Time to see how it goes





I will be adding leaves for more distraction too.
Also the plate is temporary cause Sunbeam’s feeders don’t work with this cage.

 

[Zara]

I´m glad you went with Sunbeam as his friend. Nice to keep the bonded birds together.

You know, my Adelie needed a special set up when she was younger, she has a closed foot and couldn´t get around so well, she´s good at that now but still needs softer things. And she is the destructive one. Complete pain in the backside, I moved her into a flight cage as she grew confidence in moving around the cage, and within 5 minutes she´d shredded a brand new cotton boing
I found that making my own cotton perches really has helped a heap!!! I even make them for my other girly birds to avoid them shredding those store bought cotton ones.
I even made a platform swing with cotton so it´s nice and soft for her, and she hangs out on it everyday and never has made any dmage to it

 

[AussieBird]

I´m glad you went with Sunbeam as his friend. Nice to keep the bonded birds together.

You know, my Adelie needed a special set up when she was younger, she has a closed foot and couldn´t get around so well, she´s good at that now but still needs softer things. And she is the destructive one. Complete pain in the backside, I moved her into a flight cage as she grew confidence in moving around the cage, and within 5 minutes she´d shredded a brand new cotton boing
I found that making my own cotton perches really has helped a heap!!! I even make them for my other girly birds to avoid them shredding those store bought cotton ones.
I even made a platform swing with cotton so it´s nice and soft for her, and she hangs out on it everyday and never has made any dmage to it

I may try that! I am also going to add platforms at some point.
So far the perches have lasted but I can’t speak for the paper lining...

 

[Zara]

I am also going to add platforms at some point.

When Adelie was younger, I made her platforms out of cardboard. She would chew them a little and poop on them, then I would bin them and cut out a new one and replace it. I would cut the cardboard the depth of the cage and then put in two of those plastic (awful) perches on the side of the cage at the same height, then sit the cardboard on top, then clip it in place. The plastic perches hold it up, and the clip stops it from sliding or moving around.
There´s some pictures over on her thread.

 

[AussieBird]

There´s some pictures over on her thread.

Will have a read a little later!

 

[Zara]

Maybe you could start a thread over there (special needs forum) going into details of trials and tribulations of cage set up for specific needs. There´s always folks looking for ideas, including myself

 

[TikiMyn]

Do you have some pointers of how you made the cotton platform swing? @Zara

 

[Zara]

Do you have some pointers of how you made the cotton platform swing? @Zara

I made a square shape by bending SS wire. Then macramed the cotton base. You could use crochet (I think this would be better than how I did it) or maybe knitting, another option is to sew some non pilling fleece or cotton onto a structure. There will be many ways to make a platform swing with plush base.

My mum is arriving tonight, I think one night while she´s here I will make another SS square, and ask if she can crochet a base, and I´ll see how it turns out and ask her how she did it.