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Build an indoor aviary

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JLcribber

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The spacing on the panels I use is 1.5 inches so this only works for large parrots. Another great thing about the aviaries is that it provides a secure floor area. TOOs are natural ground foragers and they spend a lot of time down there.

Pictures --> My Indoor Aviaries

Both of our cockatoos have all their wing feathers. Neither one can fly. A lot of people have trouble making their birds stay put on their play stands while they do things. You will notice in "Tikas' Corner" that there are lots of places to climb or hang out but there is no way to climb down to the floor. They must jump or fly to get down which they dont do....... Yet.

You absolutely DO NOT need to be a carpenter to build a simple aviary. If you have a room with smooth finished walls, 3 of the walls and ceiling are done. Cover anything on the wall that the bird should not chew with plexi-glass.

I will tell you how simple it is to make. I use the pet exercise pens as raw material. Like these:

81+UhsWxqzL.jpg 16-039-0__03793.jpg
I separate the panels or use them in a line all linked together. Depends what i need to do. The panels are great to make all kinds of enclosures, shelves, gates, whatever. I've used them for years now and all medical tests have come back clean for metal toxicity. They don't chew the bars because there's no need to. Too much other stuff to do.

All you need is some lengths of "L" shaped steel angle with some holes in it. This can be purchased at any "Home Depot" or similar store. Some screws to anchor the steel angle to the ceiling and some steel tie wire with pliers to connect everything together. Use short lengths of wire like you would tie a wire around the top of a bag to hook panels together. It will even work like a hinge if needed.

The ceiling height in most homes are around 8 ft. So I use the 48 inch high play pens to get the biggest panels. Each pen has 8 panels. Each panel is 2ft x 4 ft. Stretched out in a straight line they form a wall 4 ft high and 16 ft long. I used 2 pens. 1 hangs from the steel angle on the ceiling and the other sits on the floor. They meet and overlap slightly in the middle. Tie them together every foot or so with the wire. The pens even come with good opening and locking doors built in. I don't attach anything to the floor.

After the cage wall was up I noticed it was rather wiggly and noisy as a result. I bought some cheep 3/4 inch conduit pipe. I wired them onto the cage from ceiling to floor at the panel edges to act as stiffeners for the wall.

Wide is the name of the game.

When building an aviary remember "Wide" is the name of the game. Birds do not live in a vertical world. They do go up and down of course but they live in a horizontal world. An aviary need only be 3ft or 4 ft high but very wide say 14 ft. They can actually fly in it. Another reason not to chew the bars.

Theoretically you could build your aviary from the ceiling down and have the bottom still 5 ft above the floor if you really had no space. You dont really lose floor space for storage or whatever and you can make the aviary larger than you would have also.

A cage that is 6 ft high and 2 ft wide is a 2 ft cage to a bird. A cage that is 2ft high and 6 ft wide is a 6 ft cage to a bird. That would be like you living in a 6 room house but all the rooms are stacked on top of each other. The only way to get to another room is to climb up or down. We all hate stairs right? It's way easier to just walk into the next room. That would be a hop and a flap if I was a bird.

Quick Easy Outdoor Aviary

A tip for quick outdoor aviaries for all you NON-CARPENTERS. Everyone seems to have those steel gazebos in a kit from places like Costco. A steel structure with a sloped roof covered in canvas or vinyl. Some have mosquito netting and curtains for walls.

Well thats a ready made, engineered to stay standing in the wind and the rain structure. The roof is done. Provides good protection from sun and rain. Wire the pet panels around all the sides and its done. 2 people can easily pick it up and move it around since it is free standing. Mine is 12ft x 12ft. The bottom is open to the ground so they can actually play in the dirt.



The largest cage in the world is still just a prison

It is my opinion that anyone who owns a cockatoo MUST make this kind of space for their bird. The longer you have your bird, the more you will realize this is a "must have". As well as a small secure sleep cage in a dark quiet spot in another area.

I have sacrificed a lot of "my" personal space so that the birds can have what i consider to be the minimum and necessary space to maintain a reasonably happy bird (as happy as possible anyway). If it means no workshop, or no garage for the car, or 1 less bedroom (the biggest 1 with the biggest window of course) so be it. IT IS NECESSARY.

You can't keep a child in a cage. A parrot is no different.
 
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atvchick95

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That sounds great - I haven't looked at the pics yet but wanted to comment on the doggy pens you use by Midwest metal - they don't use toxic metal :) , they are actually right here in my town about 2 blocks or so away from my house

Almost every cage in my house is from them,except for my smaller cages and Kaycee's Cage.

but before long Every cage in my house will be from them (just waiting on my lovebirds to get along so i can house them all together when they're not breeding )


now i'm off to look at the pictures you've got posted
 

Angelicarboreals

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Very good info. The house that we live in now, the bird room is in the basement and was basically stolen from part of the garage and finished. There is another whole room sized area on the other side of the wall from the bird room (if that makes sense) I am slowly but surely talking my boyfriend into us finishing out that space as a large aviary for the birds, or even separating the birds and having a big bird room and small bird room, and if we do that I am so going to use the idea of the pet pens.
 

Carol S.

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:omg:John! The pictures of your walls chewed to bits not to mention your laptop! My only other question is how do you keep them warm enough down there. My basement is not finished (no heat) so wouldn't it be too cold for my fids? There is some talk about doing our basement over and I was thinking of saving a corner just for the birds with this style aviary.
 

JLcribber

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My basement is just as warm as the rest of the house. The furnace is down there and has the same duct work as the rest of the house. In winter it's actually warmer down there than upstairs because the basement is in the ground and the thermostat is upstairs. By keeping the upstairs comfortable (which is exposedto the cold air outside) it stays nice and comfy down there.

You must have a furnace with ducts already. Just branch a few more lines to the area you want.

I made the walls wood on purpose so it was easy to screw large wood blocks and wooden shelving etc. to it. When Amanda destroys all that she starts working on the wall so I just have make sure there is lots of stuff screwed to the wall. Every so often she gets the itch to make a hole anyway. Plexiglas is my friend. I know him well. :D
 

Shadera

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You've solved a dilemma I had, JL. Thank you! Question.. What are you using in the pictures for the ceiling? Is that a 4x8 plywood type panel with the self adhesive tiles?
 

Angelicarboreals

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My basement is just as warm as the rest of the house. The furnace is down there and has the same duct work as the rest of the house. In winter it's actually warmer down there than upstairs because the basement is in the ground and the thermostat is upstairs. By keeping the upstairs comfortable (which is exposedto the cold air outside) it stays nice and comfy down there.

You must have a furnace with ducts already. Just branch a few more lines to the area you want

I made the walls wood on purpose so it was easy to screw large wood blocks and wooden shelving etc. to it. When Amanda destroys all that she starts working on the wall so I just have make sure there is lots of stuff screwed to the wall. Every so often she gets the itch to make a hole anyway. Plexiglas is my friend. I know him well. :D
That answers the question as to why in the summertime the bird room is five degrees color upstairs and why when we got up one morning this week before the heat was turned on it was 58 degrees upstairs and still in the 70s in the bird room! :laughing12:
 

PerfectlyParrot

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Those are the exact same thing as my ferrets playpen, still have the pen, but not the ferrets, I was wondering what I could use it for. We have also been racking our brains on an outside aviary (we're even getting rid of the pool to make room!) We already have an awning, one of those fold open types that we take to the sand dunes with us, guess we will just have to get another one or two because that's a great idea! Thanks John.

What about the rope tops that Midwest makes for the cages, I cannot hang anything from my ceiling so how do you think those would hold up?
 

JLcribber

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What about the rope tops that Midwest makes for the cages, I cannot hang anything from my ceiling so how do you think those would hold up?
I am not familiar with that product.
 

Janie

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I have a really large bedroom in the basement I'm just about ready to do this to. I would much prefer to turn a room on the 1st floor into their whole space but that one will be a little more difficult to get the okay for.
 

Hendryx

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I did build an indoor aviary...it's called our house!!..great ideas Jl..if people do this for their babies they will have some happy little birdies..:highfive:
 

Besta3

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Wow, that is an awesome cage! I only wish I had a basement.
 

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KimKimWilliamson

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Hahah, the monitor/security cam is the same as the ones we use here at Chasin' Tails to monitor the dogs from all over the facility. You can even talk into a microphone on the monitor, and it comes out of a speaker on the camera. Always freaks the dogs out! LOL
 

yvette

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What a great job John!
I have a congo grey and want to build an aviary for him as well. What type of air filter do you use? Also.... Do you make your own rope hanging perch or buy them? I like Tika's corner. Looks really nice comfy! She is spoiled:)
yvette

P.s Looking back... would you do anything different??
 

JLcribber

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Thank you. I use a Honeywell Hepa filter but I'm thinking of upgrading to a more commercial type product because my wife has allergies and I don't want them to get worse.

This is the model I use now.
Honeywell - Permanent True HEPA Round Air Purifier with Germ Reduction - 50250-N - Home Depot Canada

This is the product I'm thinking of getting.
PRED600 Mini-Predator Portable Air Scrubber | HEPA Air Purifier for Birds and Parrots

I make all my own rope highways using large diameter Hemp rope. It's been a while since I ordered it. I've heard others say it's hard to get from the place I ordered mine. I buy full spools of rope so I don't need to order it very often.

Looking back I would probably have made them bigger but that is still an option. They work pretty well so I'm pretty happy with them.
 

jake&kiwi'smom

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The spacing on the panels I use is 1.5 inches so this only works for large parrots. Another great thing about the aviaries is that it provides a secure floor area. TOOs are natural ground foragers and they spend a lot of time down there.

Pictures --> My Indoor Aviaries

Both of our cockatoos have all their wing feathers. Neither one can fly. A lot of people have trouble making their birds stay put on their play stands while they do things. You will notice in "Tikas' Corner" that there are lots of places to climb or hang out but there is no way to climb down to the floor. They must jump or fly to get down which they dont do....... Yet.

You absolutely DO NOT need to be a carpenter to build a simple aviary. If you have a room with smooth finished walls, 3 of the walls and ceiling are done. Cover anything on the wall that the bird should not chew with plexi-glass.

I will tell you how simple it is to make. I use the pet exercise pens as raw material. Like these: http://www.mightypets.com/midwest/Mi...cise-Pens.html I separate the panels or use them in a line all linked together. Depends what i need to do. The panels are great to make all kinds of enclosures, shelves, gates, whatever. I've used them for years now and all medical tests have come back clean for metal toxicity. They don't chew the bars because there's no need to. Too much other stuff to do.

All you need is some lengths of "L" shaped steel angle with some holes in it. This can be purchased at any "Home Depot" or similar store. Some screws to anchor the steel angle to the ceiling and some steel tie wire with pliers to connect everything together. Use short lengths of wire like you would tie a wire around the top of a bag to hook panels together. It will even work like a hinge if needed.

The ceiling height in most homes are around 8 ft. So I use the 48 inch high play pens to get the biggest panels. Each pen has 8 panels. Each panel is 2ft x 4 ft. Stretched out in a straight line they form a wall 4 ft high and 16 ft long. I used 2 pens. 1 hangs from the steel angle on the ceiling and the other sits on the floor. They meet and overlap slightly in the middle. Tie them together every foot or so with the wire. The pens even come with good opening and locking doors built in. I don't attach anything to the floor.

After the cage wall was up I noticed it was rather wiggly and noisy as a result. I bought some cheep 3/4 inch conduit pipe. I wired them onto the cage from ceiling to floor at the panel edges to act as stiffeners for the wall.

Wide is the name of the game.

When building an aviary remember "Wide" is the name of the game. Birds do not live in a vertical world. They do go up and down of course but they live in a horizontal world. An aviary need only be 3ft or 4 ft high but very wide say 14 ft. They can actually fly in it. Another reason not to chew the bars.

Theoretically you could build your aviary from the ceiling down and have the bottom still 5 ft above the floor if you really had no space. You dont really lose floor space for storage or whatever and you can make the aviary larger than you would have also.

A cage that is 6 ft high and 2 ft wide is a 2 ft cage to a bird. A cage that is 2ft high and 6 ft wide is a 6 ft cage to a bird. That would be like you living in a 6 room house but all the rooms are stacked on top of each other. The only way to get to another room is to climb up or down. We all hate stairs right? It's way easier to just walk into the next room. That would be a hop and a flap if I was a bird.

Quick Easy Outdoor Aviary

A tip for quick outdoor aviaries for all you NON-CARPENTERS. Everyone seems to have those steel gazebos in a kit from places like Costco. A steel structure with a sloped roof covered in canvas or vinyl. Some have mosquito netting and curtains for walls.

Well thats a ready made, engineered to stay standing in the wind and the rain structure. The roof is done. Provides good protection from sun and rain. Wire the pet panels around all the sides and its done. 2 people can easily pick it up and move it around since it is free standing. Mine is 12ft x 12ft. The bottom is open to the ground so they can actually play in the dirt.



The largest cage in the world is still just a prison

It is my opinion that anyone who owns a cockatoo MUST make this kind of space for their bird. The longer you have your bird, the more you will realize this is a "must have". As well as a small secure sleep cage in a dark quiet spot in another area.

I have sacrificed a lot of "my" personal space so that the birds can have what i consider to be the minimum and necessary space to maintain a reasonably happy bird (as happy as possible anyway). If it means no workshop, or no garage for the car, or 1 less bedroom (the biggest 1 with the biggest window of course) so be it. IT IS NECESSARY.

You can't keep a child in a cage. A parrot is no different.

Hello!
Question.... I was looking at your photo's and the site you posted. By the way your creation is awesome! Any ways what is the ZINC they are talking about in the dog pens????Or did you use the coated one? I would like to make one in a few months.:D Thanks a Bunch!!
 
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