Cage Rotation!

[jugoya]

My budgies unlike Porter are not very tame, One was store bought as a companion for an older bird I had that was rescued from my youngest sister. He'd never been tamed and nothing I could do would change his mind about people... so In an attempt to make him a little more social I brought Daffy home.

Aka? Love at first sight.

Sadly that older bird is now gone; And we brought Blue home from the petstore as she had been a return; and was up for adoption; also not socialized.

All three got along well for the longest time until the older bird died.

Now I had a series of cages for my budgies; an entire wall covered in smaller cages because at the time I couldn't afford a large one; so I gave the run of a bird safe room; nailed cages into the wall and let them go at it; fencing in the entire back corner of the room with a mesh netting.

I still have rotating cages though we needed to turn the bird room into a guest room for visitors.

Now tey have a large cage and three other smaller cages.

One is the 'outside cage' where we hang them on a nail and let them chitter away to the world (Supervised of course).

Another is for easy moving around the house as my husband works nights, and sleeps during the day.

Another is the Travel cage- and the last one is a 20 x 20 x 24 tall cage that is the mainstay in the backroom.

All of the cages are various sizes but they never say in any one save for the large one for longer than a few hours.

Stimulated budgies are entertaining budgies! And while all these cages take up space.. its still fun to see the reactions they have when they go about their business.

I do much the same thing with Porter though he only has two cages and his play stand.

One is the travel cage, an adapted cat carrier with a mesh top; and a (now) Bird safe door that doubles as a sleep cage.

I take him outside in this cage when he isn't in his harness.

The play stand goes wherever we want it to and his main cage is stationary.

Does anyone else use a cage rotation during the day?

I've found its not only good for taming and bonding... but it stimulates them.. much in the same way foraging for food does as everything is in different places each time.

 

[MonicaMc]

Not typically, but I have done it.... but not as frequent as you've done! I only do as a temporary or permanent thing... if temporary, then it's because I'm cleaning the main cage outside.

 

[jugoya]

I enjoy the delight they have in finding new treats and new toys when I move them from cage to cage. They are so used to it now.. that its just another adventure. Though they are little more than finger trained, they are very happy little budgies =D

 

[Peeker]

I do it more like Monica. I have a spare cage I use when I am cleaning theirs. I will rotate toys from bird to bird starting with the lightest chewers and moving to the most destructive.

 

[jugoya]

Thats a good way to do it!

When I started I only had the smaller cages so... to keep things interesting I kept rotating. Now?

If I don't rotate my budgies will just starrre at me until I do; or start chirping loudly at me until I do. Its quite funny really we call it the birdie chorus... and they dont' stop until they are in the other cage.

Its three times a day now. From the night time cage into the 'breakfast cage' where they get apple; and lettuce all hung in random places.

Then round noon its the outside cage- where they sing to the Grackles and eat millet and other seeds.


Then round sixish.. before bedtime its the smaller inside cage where they eat pellets and birdie bread.

Then back to bedtime for an hour of playtime and then bed.

I trained them back then... now they have me very well trained.

If I miss by a half an hour or more.. its Birdie Chorus time... I don't think I could change their lifestyle now if I wanted too... lols.