psitticine
Member
- Dec 23, 2022
- 58
- 77
- Parrots
-
Chichi (2021 - 2022)
Rainy (current)
I brought my Quaker home knowing their reputation for being little escape artists. She just turned one at the beginning of July, and she is definitely coming into her own... meaning she is pursuing her destined career as an escape artist. I don't think the problem is that I'm not letting her out enough because 1. she gets to fly around and play outside of the cage for a couple hours every day, and 2. half the time when she's actively doing this, I wait a bit after she stops, try to let her out, and she's not interested at all. She just wants the satisfaction of doing it herself!
We've tried several types of latches and I'm looking at some that will be more failsafe than the others. I think I have some promising prospects, recommended to me from a friend who is a long time bird owner, who has also had this problem. So I think these are some promising options.
My question for you all: do you have a bird who has also taken to this kind of behavior, and more specifically, are there any toys that might mimic the activity of trying to break out? I know that part of it is the fact that the latches are shiny, and she likes to frolic about while carrying the bigger ones. She already has little shiny toys that she can do the same with, so she may be getting confused, BUT... it's also not lost on me that this behavior is appealing to her because she knows she's not supposed to be doing it. So maybe a new toy won't help, but it's worth a try!
Currently she has a rope toy, two puzzle toys that I swap for each other often, a ladder, a hanging coconut bowl that I put her food in, a chain with beads, a big foraging toy (her hatch day gift, which is her current fixation), and a few little trinket type toys like beads, spiky rubber balls, and wooden blocks from one of her puzzle toys. Any ideas for enrichment to help quell her escapee behavior would be much appreciated!
We've tried several types of latches and I'm looking at some that will be more failsafe than the others. I think I have some promising prospects, recommended to me from a friend who is a long time bird owner, who has also had this problem. So I think these are some promising options.
My question for you all: do you have a bird who has also taken to this kind of behavior, and more specifically, are there any toys that might mimic the activity of trying to break out? I know that part of it is the fact that the latches are shiny, and she likes to frolic about while carrying the bigger ones. She already has little shiny toys that she can do the same with, so she may be getting confused, BUT... it's also not lost on me that this behavior is appealing to her because she knows she's not supposed to be doing it. So maybe a new toy won't help, but it's worth a try!
Currently she has a rope toy, two puzzle toys that I swap for each other often, a ladder, a hanging coconut bowl that I put her food in, a chain with beads, a big foraging toy (her hatch day gift, which is her current fixation), and a few little trinket type toys like beads, spiky rubber balls, and wooden blocks from one of her puzzle toys. Any ideas for enrichment to help quell her escapee behavior would be much appreciated!
