New Additions 2022

[BrianB]

We've made a lot of progress with Sandy recently. There is one young lady in particular that Sandy absolutely hates. She has hated her from the first moment she saw her and over the past year or more it hasn't changed. I normally have to get Sandy off of her tree and move her away before they can get her food or water dishes. There are two other women that Sandy doesn't care for, but she's not as aggressive with them. I figured out that Sandy's bride currency is corn and cashews. She will do just about anything for them. This past Saturday I had Sandy with me at the front and one of the young ladies came up and I gave her some cashews. She offered one to Sandy and she took it, then made her happy bird sound. After that, she stepped over to her arm and sat nicely while she ate the cashew. I offered another one but made it clear she had to step up to another person to get it. She did just that and let the girl give her the cashew. Then we got to Sandy's sworn enemy. She offered her arm and Sandy stepped up for her. Sandy looks very put out, but she sat there for a few minutes and didn't try to kill her. Sandy wouldn't take cashew, but she had just had 2 of them and doesn't normally take more than that. The young lady says she must have offended Sandy in a previous life and she's never forgiven her. You can almost see the thought bubble above her head as she plots her revenge.

 

[BirdyDarby]

Glad to see Sandy is on the uprise! Plucked birds look incredibly silly to me despite the horrible reasonings behind it. My eclectus was very particular with the people she’d accept, took to me quite quickly but always avoided my father; he must’ve looked in her general direction wrong! I knew one macaw who despised people with curly hair. Perhaps Sandy and her sworn enemy will become enemies to lovers someday.

 

[BrianB]

I hope that with time we can get Sandy to be a little more socialized with everyone that works there. We each seem to have species that we individually do very well with, and some that we avoid. I give Amazons a wide berth because almost every one of them I've come across despises me. Most African Greys either hate me or tolerate me. I've yet to come across one that was genuinely affectionate with me. The young lady in question has some sort of magic with amazons and some of the macaws who have the reputation of being a little rough around the edges. We had a blue-throated macaw in the store, and he was a piece of work. He had been owned by a family for 10 years and no one in the family was able to form any kind of relationship with him. Instead of figuring this out early and finding a better home for him, they just gave him a tree and a cage and let him do what he wanted. He had no manners and only the very basics of training like stepping up. He would lunge at people and scream. Eventually, we figured out that he was used to bullying people because then they would leave him alone. When I made it clear to him that I wasn't going to be intimidated, he became a little more compliant and willing to do what I wanted. Sometimes he would test me and I would reinforce that I wasn't scared of him. With this one young lady, he was like a puppy. Very eager to please her and really sweet and playful with her. She could roll him onto his back in her arms, and he would get on her shoulder and hid under her long hair. He never so much as nipped her. She's got that magic and he responded to her. He would still posture and lunge at me, but I never let him get one over on me. I helped a few new employees learn to deal with him after he bit them. We eventually found him a home and he's done very well with the family. As for Sandy, she's not available for adoption due to her age and her health. About 2 years ago she almost died because the family that had adopted her burned something in a Teflon pan. She had been out of the store for less than 24 hours and came back to us on the verge of death. Our amazing vet saved her, and we decided that she would live the rest of her life at the store. She has a very consistent routine and has thrived on it - she's just hateful to a few people. I think the progress that we've made with her is a good sign that we can overcome whatever she doesn't like about them. In the long run, it's better for her to form bonds with others. She's still going to be demanding and grouchy, but that's her personality. If I can figure out how to get away with screaming at and biting people when I'm 66, I'm probably going to do it.

 

[BrianB]

Chewie has turned into a wood chipper. Since he's been with us, he's destroyed 5 manzanita perches. He chews the end off where it connects to the side of the cage, then he chews the other end off. Once it's laying on the bottom of the cage he starts at one end and turns it into toothpicks. Does anyone have a good source for dragon wood perches? I need something harder that will take him longer to work through. I have some hanging wooden toys in his cage, but he works on those for a while and then loses interest in them. I replace them and put the old blocks on new things, but he is living up to his name. Maybe I should call him Wood Chuck instead.

 

[howdymjm]

Chewie has turned into a wood chipper. Since he's been with us, he's destroyed 5 manzanita perches. He chews the end off where it connects to the side of the cage, then he chews the other end off. Once it's laying on the bottom of the cage he starts at one end and turns it into toothpicks. Does anyone have a good source for dragon wood perches? I need something harder that will take him longer to work through. I have some hanging wooden toys in his cage, but he works on those for a while and then loses interest in them. I replace them and put the old blocks on new things, but he is living up to his name. Maybe I should call him Wood Chuck instead.

find they tend to chew the ends. if ends are somewhat regularly round, I find the smallest PVC connector to slide over the perch and use putty epoxy to stick it on that end. some people may not like it.
also could cut off end and use something like this to make a new insert.

Amazon.com

 

[aooratrix]

I think Sarah, @Macawnutz, has them. She can do custom lengths, and I'm pretty sure the hardware is ss.

 

[BrianB]

find they tend to chew the ends. if ends are somewhat regularly round, I find the smallest PVC connector to slide over the perch and use putty epoxy to stick it on that end. some people may not like it.
also could cut off end and use something like this to make a new insert.

Amazon.com

One of the first perches I gave him had a small PVC cap on the end and countersunk hardware. I'm constantly bumping into the external screws and wingnuts on them so a friend made one that was sunk into the perch. It was in front of his food dish and he tore it to pieces in a matter of days. I told him that it was very rude to break the nice things I give him, but when I talk to him he just rolls his eyes and whispers... hi

 

[BrianB]

I think Sarah, @Macawnutz, has them. She can do custom lengths, and I'm pretty sure the hardware is ss.

Thanks! I'll reach out to see what she has. There is a bird mart coming to Phoenix soon and I was going to go as a vendor with a friend. No one has dragon wood, so I can always stock up on manzanita from the show, but I want to try something harder to see if it lasts longer.

 

[BirdyDarby]

Places like Etsy tend to have lots of good wood available! Many are pre-made perches and toys, but there’s also basic branches (mostly intended for decoration, but works just fine for a bird!). Very simple and easy to slap some stainless steel hardware onto a piece of hardwood to turn it into a perch/toy, only thing you have to be careful of is not to split the wood. Wood from websites like Etsy tend to be fairly cheap, too.

 

[BrianB]

This is what Chewie does to manzanita perches. A week ago this was a 36-inch perch running across his cage. This morning it looks like something I would protect myself from a vampire with. I ordered a dragon wood perch and picked a big one up from another local bird store. Let's see how long they last. Oddly enough, when I take him to the store with me, he doesn't chew on anything there, but at home, he's like a woodchuck.

 

[April]

This is what Chewie does to manzanita perches. A week ago this was a 36-inch perch running across his cage. This morning it looks like something I would protect myself from a vampire with. I ordered a dragon wood perch and picked a big one up from another local bird store. Let's see how long they last. Oddly enough, when I take him to the store with me, he doesn't chew on anything there, but at home, he's like a woodchuck.

View attachment 406043

Forget Buffy the Vampire slayer! It's Chewie the Vampire Slayer! Striking terror into the hearts of Vamps everywhere as he can form his own stake in seconds! That's seriously impressive!

 

[BirdyDarby]

At least there’s a bright side to this; that beak must stay impeccably trimmed!

 

[BrianB]

I only need to get his nails done. They go from blunt to flesh shedding daggers in just a few days.

 

[BirdyDarby]

Have you ever tried adding large platform perches in his cage? The regularly touched flat surface could help file those talons more, especially if the wood is textured/rough.

 

[BrianB]

Have you ever tried adding large platform perches in his cage? The regularly touched flat surface could help file those talons more, especially if the wood is textured/rough.

I have a hanging swing in his perch that is acrylic with a stone perch in it, but he doesn't like it and will avoid it if possible. I sometimes put him on it when I put him back into his cage, but he immediately gets down from it. The biggest issue I face is that he's in a flight cage that is 5 feet deep. I can't reach back far enough to where there is enough unobstructed space to put one. There is a tray on the side near the front where his food dishes go, but there isn't room for a flat perch between that and the door. I could move some of his toys back and maybe give enough room on the other side for a perch. That's the side he hangs out on when he and Poppy are screaming at each other. It's a great idea and if there was a door at the back of the cage that would make it easy to get access to that space.

 

[aooratrix]

If you get some from Sarah, try sugar maple. Maple is hard as heck.

 

[BrianB]

I ordered a dragonwood perch from Seriously Nutz that should arrive later this week. So far Chewie has left the new one alone, but he has continued to destroy the remnants of the last one. Now I can use it to defend myself against a very small vampire.

 

[Macawnutz]

Oh man, I think I should have read this thread before shipping it.

If the new perches you get meet the same fate message me and I can do a custom sugar maple.
My Hys and Sam are on maple perches. While it's not a permanent fix it does slow them considerably.

Just remind me of this thread and let me pick out the diameter.

 

[BrianB]

I went to say Hi to Chewie when I got home, and this is what is left of his perch. All I could do was laugh when I saw it. It looks like he's chewed up a good 3 or 4 inches of it today. It was probably 10 inches on Saturday. Now it's just a nub, and he's very proud of himself for it. I guess I could use it as a paperweight.

 

[SumitaSinh]

I love wood chewers my inca is an avid chewer, so I make chew toys from safe woods of my garden... Sometimes I think, if I need to buy an entire forest for him.... But, it means our babies are happy, isn't it?