What is this gaming you speak of?

Almost. The old aviary was dismantled years ago. They used to come in through a window, which I opened whenever they were out there or wanted to go out.

I shall experiment and see if they can use it. Polycarbonate (extra strong transparent plastic used in posh catflaps) with a home made indestructible hinge might work.

Commercial flaps are not designed to handle chewing, as cats don't do that. Although the cheap ones do shatter when two cats try to use it at once.

They're going from a shed or the house to an enclosed area surrounded by welded mesh. How on earth would an animal get into that? Many people have their birds in such aviaries (without the flap) without problems. I couldn't get into the welded mesh enclosure myself without some pliers!

That was what I wasn't sure on-- I couldn't picture the setup. I was not sure if they had to leave an enclosed space to get in, or if there was space enough for rats/cats etc to possibly enter. Just wasn't sure what you were planning.

If cats can get in, birds can get out! So obviously the holes are smaller than parrots.

Yes, correct, but I couldn't picture your setup and some people free-fly their parrots, so I didn't know if you were into that, which is why I asked about the setup.

Free-fly! God no. If they had clipped wings perhaps, and I was watching. But I don't want to clip their wings, it's cruel.

I know a guy with Scarlet Macaws that actually carries them by hand to an aviary that isn't joined to the house! And they have full wings! Far too risky.

Yeah- not a fan of free-flying either (due to the risk) but some people do it, which is why I was asking. I also prefer to avoid wing clipping..I know in some scenarios, people believe it to be necessary for safety etc, so I'm not always against it 100% but definitely believe that it should be avoided to the greatest extent possible...Even a clipped bird can still fly outdoors, given the proper wind, height or fear-- lots of people don't know that.



I DO sometimes take Noodles outside for like 5 minutes on my porch while holding her toes, but she is a lazy flier and she doesn't mind me holding them...That having been said, even that is definitely not risk-free (as you stated) and if I could get her to wear a harness, I would do that instead.



I can't imagine trusting the environment well enough to just let her fly outside...There's no way. Even if she was trained to fly back, I would still have to worry about everything else out there, like hawks, cars, cats, people, storms etc.

When we lived at our old house (which was even tinier than the one we live in now), there wasn't space for the Beaks to live indoors. Their cage was situated beside the back door (double glass).

My husband cut a round hole in the kitchen wall and the outside cladding. Then, he inserted a coffee tin which had had its bottom removed. This made a nice little 'porthole' through which the Beaks could come. It was easy enough to cut a hole in the cage and fit an acrylic 'blast gate' (sort of like a drawbridge) to the hole.

The idea was that the sticking-out end of the coffee tin fitted into the circular blast gate and all I had to do was to take the lid off the coffee tin and pull a string to raise the gate. The Beaks learned in, like five minutes how to negotiate the coffee tin and gain access to the kitchen. It took a little longer to get them to go back the other way, but really it was only a few tries. I just put some dried paw-paw in the coffee tin and their greed did the rest.

This system was *perfect* for us! I could just leave the gate open all day, since it was sealed to any other animal (or person) and the Beaks could come and go as they liked. Sadly, in our new house it's not possible to do the same thing, since the cages can't fit closely enough to the back wall to make a similar arrangement. (Although I have wondered whether some arrangement could be made with a bit of air-conditioning duct.)

The photo shows the gate disengaged from its coffee tin with Barney modelling (isn't he gorgeous?).

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I've had bloods done and there's virtually no zinc, nothing like the toxic level. And they don't even lick it, they just climb occasionally. If zinc was such a problem there wouldn't be 90% of aviary panels made of it, I think it depends if it's coated or properly galvanised.

Yeah. Same. About 99% of bird cages in our local shops are galvanised. There is literally no choice. Yet I hear no tales of all the local caged birds dropping like flies. I suppose it's a calculated risk, like allowing children to play outdoors. The likelihood of something terrible happening is not zero, but if the kid is to grow and thrive it's a risk that has to be taken. Y'know?

The only problem I have is getting enough calcium into them, I cannot get any bird of any species to take any calcium medication unless I administer it by dropper! They won't touch any food that I've added it to. And since they have huge water containers that they also bathe in and dunk their biscuits in (which is really cool to watch), putting calcium in there would make me bankrupt.

Have you tried offering them salmon bones? Whenever I open a tin of salmon, the first thing I do is give the soft salmon vertebrae to my birds. They love chewing them and swallow most of what they chew. Since this is a good source of calcium for people, I reasoned it's a decent source for birdies as well.

Wow, you worry too much. I dread to think what rules you have for your kids. I bet you do the wash your hands before eating routine.

One can indeed worry too much. It's not good for the digestion and certainly not great for the birds in our care.

Did you say you're in the UK? I wouldn't be worrying too much about disease and parasites there. Again, using the analogy of children: they have to experience some exposure to pathogens in order to gain any kind of immunity. You can't (and shouldn't) keep them in cottonwool!

I live in Australia, where the skies are thick with wild parrots, many of whom are vectors for PBFD. It's a real threat here and I have to make sure my cages are not accessible to wild visitors. So far, we've had just one occasion where two wild corellas decided they'd respond to Rosetta's yodelling and came to visit. They nommed up a bit of spilled seed, shrieked at Rosetta for a while and then left. While it was lovely for 'Setta to have visitors, I hope it doesn't happen too often!