Advice on aviary setup

[Talven]

Looking for pointers on setting up my aviary for my budgies. Without thinking too much I thought I could hang some feeders from the mesh. I reaslied this morning that they would get filled with rain. Just wondering if anyone could put up some pictures of how they have food and water setup in their budgie aviary so I can steal their ideas

 

[SailBoat]

Outside Aviary's present many challenges, especially when assure food and water remain healthy and out of the elements. I have never built or owned one, but have several friends who have.

For the safety of the Parrots a covered area is a must. With the aviaries I have seen, the covered areas are large enough to provide cover from both the Sun and weather from early morning to late evening. They also provide the food and water in those areas.
Changing the food and water often is even more important outside then it is inside.
Easy and often, clean-up is very important as the last thing one wants is to attack 'other' creatures!

 

[EllenD]

I've not ever built an outside-Aviary, but my 8 English/American Budgie Hybrids live in a walk-in Aviary that I built in my house, and they come out each day for 3-4 hours in the house with me and to fly around. Mine is built-into a wall in the walk-out floor of my house (3-story split-level house with the walk-out level being under the house and opens to garage)...This is a lot different than building one outside, but there are some things you need to make sure of BEFORE you do this...

First of all, as Sailboat already mentioned, there MUST BE an area of any outdoor Aviary that is covered for the safety and the health of your birds. And this covered-area of the Aviary is where you should put ALL food and water dishes, so that it doesn't get wet, no rain-water gets into their fresh drinking water, etc. You simply cannot allow their food to get wet because it immediately starts growing Bacteria, Fungi (yeast), etc. Plus it will get dirt and all kinds of other things in it if it's not under a covered area...Most-importantly though is ensuring that you have a large enough section of the Aviary covered that ALL BIRDS inside of the Aviary can get shelter/coverage at the same time if need-be. I know you live in Australia so you don't have to worry about the cold-weather, and that's great, and it's great that you are allowing your Budgies to get fresh air and Sunshine, but that doesn't at all mean that you don't have to have a large section of your Aviary that is covered...

***Many people here in the US who live in States that are warm/hot all year round and have no winter, such as Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Southern California, etc. keep their pet birds/parrots in outdoor-Aviaries full-time, and are living in very similar climates as you are in Australia (specifically areas of Florida). i actually know a few people who live in the Fort Lauderdale/Deerfield Beach/Miami area who have hand-raised, tame Macaws and one who has an Umbrella Cockatoo and who built outdoor-Aviaries for their birds, and that's where they live year-round (though they bring them inside of their houses often and usually they sleep in a cage inside of their houses because of the fear of predatory animals/birds getting to them at night, such as Raccoons, Opossums, Owls, Snakes, Lizards, etc. which are nocturnal and get after birds all the time)...What all of their Aviaries have in-common is that they all have a very large section that is covered; I have seen 2 of these in-person, both for Macaws, and they are actually both COmPLETELY COVERED ON TOP...Their Macaws stay inside of these outdoor Aviaries during the daytime while they're at work, and then they bring them inside when they get home, and put them back in the Aviaries in the morning before they leave. Their birds still get plenty of sunshine, but they never get rained on and they can always get out of the sun totally whenever they want to, which is absolutely mandatory for an outdoor aviary, because if your Budgies don't always have the capability to get out of the Sun completely at any time they want to/need to, you are going to end-up with Budgies who are suffering from Heat-Exhaustion, Heat-Stroke, and death. Plus, they are going to be eating food and drinking water that is contaminated and unhealthy. So if you don't already have a large area of the Aviary that is completely covered with a "Roof" of some kind and where you need to locate all of the food and water dishes/containers, then you need to fix this immediately (it doesn't sound like your Budgies have any covered area of their Aviary at all, if they do then I apologize, and that's where you need to put their food and water, all of it)...

****The other thing that you need to make sure of is that the "Mesh" you used, if some kind of Fabric/Plastic/Resin material, is something that not only your Budgies cannot chew through, but more-likely and more-importantly that no wild, predatory animals and/or birds can chew through it...AND if it's some type of Metal mesh or "Hardware Cloth", that it's 100% Stainless rather than Galvonized, because not only will it rust if it's not Stainless, but if your Budgies chew on it (and they will), it will cause them to suffer from Heavy-Metal Poisoning, which is fatal without going through a long, expensive Chelation-Therapy...

 

[Talven]

As budgies are naturally ground foragers it made things much easier. I cut the side out of a storage container and put in some small poultry feeder/water dishes. Keeps a lot of the droppings out as it has a lid and being on the ground works for all the aviary inhabitants.
While budgies will eat on the perch quite happily and never be miss eating at ground level this worked out best for my situation.

 

[EllenD]

That's fine, though Budgies will obviously thrive whether eating from the ground or a perch, but that doesn't solve the issue of you not having proper cover, as a little plastic storage container that they can get inside of that is not under cover itself will only serve as a sauna that will quickly heat-up and kill your birds if they are inside of it...Same principle as putting a reptile outside in a glass or plastic tank/container, it happens here all the time (and it's not nearly as hot or as humid in Pennsylvania in the summertime as it is in Australia)...People put their Bearded Dragons, Blue-Tongues, etc. out inside of a plastic or glass tank/container, sometimes even half in the sun and half out of the sun, and they come back an hour later and they're dead, dying of heat-stroke because the container/tank wasn't totally out of the sun and under cover itself, and their lizards obviously wanting to bask, don't move to the shaded portion, and even if they did it wouldn't matter because those containers heat-up like a closed-car in the sun...Budgies will die quickly inside of it, and you can't just assume that they will move out of the container when it gets too hot, especially since it's always going to be in the sun since it has no cover, and because their food/water will be inside of it, which is a big no-no...It's also going to be a breeding-ground for bacteria and Fungi due to the high heat and humidity, their water is going to be hot, etc...So you still need to make sure the Aviary itself has a portion covered, and that the storage-container you have their food in is always under the covered portion...And then I'll state it again, if you used a metal mesh/hardware-cloth that is anything but "Stainless Steel", you're Budgies are eventually going to suffer from heavy-metal poisoning from simply chewing on it...And if it's plastic/resin mesh, it needs to be extremely strong and predator-proof...And most hardware-cloth is "Galvonized" because it's rust-resistant, but it's toxic to all birds...

 

[Talven]

The aviary is completely covered with the front being 2/3 mesh. The sides are also 2/3 mesh but for roughly 2/3 of their length, the rest being solid panels. I have sunk mouse proof mesh below it so nothing can dig in. It only gets morning sun and is shaded in the afternoon. I have also hung a covered "canary" cage with the bottom removed to give them a further place to go to get out of the elements and away from prying eyes.

Most of the predators are kept away by my dogs. We only have small raptors in the area with plenty of feral rabbits available. Pretty sure they will go for easier prey than birds in an aviary. Cats and foxes have no way in and they are the largest predators in the area.

I am very aware of heat issues here with animals. Growing up in Australia you learn to appreciate the dangers of our hot sun at a young age. Too many times you see on the news dead children because someone has left them in the car or hear of dead dogs because someone has done the same with their dog.

Sadly the aviary has galvanized mesh as it was a prefab. Without paying thousands for a custom aviary (Even these more often than not come galvanized) it is the standard here in Australia and I would assume many other countries. The panels are riveted together so a reasonably major remodel needed. I have done as much as is possible to keep them from the mesh but I know that they will still chew it. As soon as I am able I will replace the mesh with stainless or find some way to coat it with a safer product. It may mean I have to re-home my budgies to safer lodgings or with other people until I can do something about the galvanized mesh.

I do the best I can to research as much as is possible before I get an animal as I am on a pension and don't have the money to throw away. I come to forums with other enthusiasts such as this one to tweak my knowledge or clarify contradicting information so I can be a little focused on the specific information I am after. In this case food and water setup. Hopefully this covers the rest of the points mentioned rather than my narrow focus.