Playstand for 2-story shared apartment

[charmedbyekkie]

So I'm still holding my breath, but it looks like we may be moving to a place that is Cairo-friendly with more space (and I just started the process of selling my baby grand piano)! However, this is not the US, which means it's a bit complicated - space is precious and expensive here to the point where almost everyone lives with their parents until they get married (in which case, they get government subsidies for housing because of decreasing population replacement rate).

So we'll be subletting a couple rooms - the common space will be shared. It is a two-story flat (this part is relevant). We'll be getting Cairo a much bigger cage (I'm so excited!!!!), so he will be ok when my partner's freelance work takes him onsite next year.

Question is:
What kind of playstand should I get Cairo? I found a couple that I like, but I don't know firsthand the realities of playstands.

• Should I get a tall, floor-based one (I can store his toys underneath), or should I get a tabletop one (I can bring up and down the stairs)?
• Should I get a metal-frame one or a java wood one?

I can find all combinations of the above options, but I just don't know what would be best for us.

 

[Squeekmouse]

We've got a two story place also, but at least for us we spend the majority of our time downstairs. Even so, it's incredibly helpful to have a playstand (and/or perch) that you can carry easily up the stairs. In an ideal world where money grows on trees and space isn't an issue, I would recommend to you that you have a nice big floor-based playgym that stays in the room you and Cairo are in the most, plus a cagetop playgym (if the cage is in a different room), plus a portable tabletop playgym you can take anywhere (including out of the house for visits to the parents/whatever), and finally a small tabletop perch.
For us, the tabletop perch is the most useful and frequently used item. It goes anywhere and everywhere and is easy to carry with one hand, even with the bird on it. This is our primary poop catcher and is just the handiest thing ever.
The next most valuable item is the playgym where you and Cairo spend the most time. We have a floor-based playgym on wheels for each of our boys. These mostly stay in one place, but are easy to roll around when I'm cleaning up or if we need to be in some other room for a while. Our boys eat on these and play on these and pretty much live on these.
Trigger's cage came with a playtop and this is super handy because his cage is in our lving room where we spend most of our time. This lets us leave his playgym in the back room most of the time. Yoda's cage doesn't have a playtop, but he's only in his cage at night to sleep, and a playtop would never get used for him. His cage is in another room that we spend very little time.

Our two mobile/floor playgyms are metal. That makes them very durable and easy to clean. The bars are less comfortable to stand on and the dowel perchs on them are only slightly nicer. I use Vet wrap to wrap around their favorite perches. This Vet Wrap is still easy enough to clean and can be replaced easily.

The tabletop perches/playgyms are wood with melamine base. The base is easy to clean but poop and stuff ends up in the corners which is impossible to clean. The wood parts are harder to clean and disinfect, but on the other hand, the birds like standing on them and chewing them. For our table top perches, I wrap the perches in shoelace and the birds love love love them most of all.

I originally wanted to get a javawood tree stand, but I read that some birds have trouble gripping them and that they end up with hard to clean areas, and wood is always hard to clean anyway. For those reasons, we chose not to get that. Instead, I got a bottlewood perch and mounted one on each of the metal playstands.

Hope some of that helps. Good luck anyway.

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Wow, thanks, Squeekmouse! This helps a LOT!!

There are so many variables (are we taking the big room or the smaller room, etc) that does weigh into where his big cage will be. So hearing the variety of considerations with the playstands is incredibly helpful!

With your metal playstands, is it possible to replace some of the perches (either metal or dowel) with natural wood perches? You just reminded me that we do have an elevator/lift between the two floors, which means I can roll his playstands around with me if we take the bigger room.

Would you be alright with sharing a picture of your tabletop playstand for Trigger? I'd imagine it'd be the same size for an ekkie. Thanks so much

 

[Squeekmouse]

With your metal playstands, is it possible to replace some of the perches (either metal or dowel) with natural wood perches? You just reminded me that we do have an elevator/lift between the two floors, which means I can roll his playstands around with me if we take the bigger room.

Would you be alright with sharing a picture of your tabletop playstand for Trigger? I'd imagine it'd be the same size for an ekkie. Thanks so much

Here is a picture of our smaller metal playgym, it's the Prevue Hendryx 3181 Small Parrot Playstand.
As you can see we added a branch perch and a concrete Pedi-Perch to the stand, we also added a rope and wood bridge swing in the back. There's a dowel perch at the top and two small dowel perches at the bottom in front of each food dish. These are all built in but could possibly be replaced with natural wood if you are really handy. I wouldn't bother doing so for the two little ones because it's rather convenient as they are to be easier to clean but still more comfortable than a metal bar. Yoda has a wide variety of surfaces to climb on and he climbs all over it. He uses every single inch of it. I love this thing, but it might be a little small for an Ekkie. On the other hand our CAG likes it too, when he can sneak his way onto it.

This is the larger of our metal playstands, Prevue Hendryx 3180. It's pretty big, almost too big in my opinion. I'm not crazy about the placement of the food bowls. Trigger hates bonking his head on his toys when he tries to eat/drink. He also ends up pooping in his dishes while playing with his toys. The swing and the ladders are mostly just poop catchers because they are awkward for him to climb down to them. I wrapped some of the metal parts in Vet Wrap, but it's possible to zip tie or glue gun some wood perches to them I think. Overall, this thing is nice but I've got some complaints about the design.

Finally, this is the tabletop wooden playgym we have. It is mostly used when we visit our parents or if I need to do stuff upstairs where I can't take the metal playstands. Trigger likes it, but Yoda is too small to climb around it easily. I don't like that there's not a lot of places to hang toys. I zip-tied a couple of hanging toys to it. Also, the playgym is bolted through the melamine base which means liquid runs down through those holes and ends up on the table/surface under the stand. My husband is going to seal that up for us so it won't leak. That's probably my biggest complaint with the design.

I hope this helps!

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Thanks a bunch, Squeekmouse!!

Especially the observation of the food bowls - hitting their heads and accidentally pooping in them. The photos helped me gauge the size as well as get inspiration on how to set up a new playstand.

We're almost thinking of building our own playstand, taking in your feedback, especially with the lack of places to hang toys (this is my biggest problem with our tripod perch) and leakage. Am bookmarking this for sure Thanks!!

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

I have the same Prevue small playstand as Squeekmouse, as well as a floor tree stand which is made of ribbon wood.

The Prevue metal playstand has a lot of places to attach toys and perches, and you can make it quite elaborate if you like. It might be a bit too small for an Ekkie, but in that case you could get the larger version (same as Squeekmouse did for Trigger). Here’s a photo of how I used mine, I chose not to use the seed guards but you can if you want. I also wrapped the top bar in sisal rope because it was a bit skinny and slippery. The only complaint I have is that the food bowls are at the bottom, which means they aren’t used much and get pooped on. Of course, I added lots of toys and perches to make it interesting for them, and they really enjoy it.

Here’s the Amazon link to the large bird version: http://a.co/d/f47wZpE

As for the tree stand, it’s a bit more expensive but for me it’s well worth the price. I got mine on Ebay and I’m really happy with it, especially since I was considering a Java wood tree. This one is made of ribbon wood and it’s not slippery at all, it has chewable bark, the branches are easy to climb, and overall I absolutely love it. My birds fly to it all the time and climb all over it, play with the toys, and have a great time on it. The one I got is made for small birds, but there are larger versions available from the seller. The only thing to consider is that the wood is much softer than Java wood, so if Cairo is a big chewer it may not work out for you.

Here’s a link to a similar stand made for larger birds:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Funky-Curv...665303?hash=item3b2169ff97:g:takAAOSwHt1b3dqc

In addition to the 2 playstands, I also have a hanging cargo net and tabletop perch. Kermit especially loves the cargo net, he hangs upside down from it, climbs all over it and plays with the hanging toys. It hangs from my ceiling and they have to fly up to it, so it may not be a good choice if Cairo doesn’t fly. The tabletop perch gets mostly unused, as my birds have no interest in sitting still when they could be with me or flying around and playing actively. Some people use the tabletop perches all the time, but it wasn’t the right fit for my flock. The two playstands both have wheels, but they stay in the bird room, which is where the birds spend the most time. If you don’t have a dedicated bird room, I can see you wanting a portable perch that you can carry with you everywhere, which could work great if Cairo is content sitting still.