My Budgies are being Bad

[DonnaBudgie]

My budgies are so lucky I let them free fly in my living room all day unsupervised and have had this privilege for about 18 months. Everybody's happy, but I just discovered they ate being bad.

My beloved Rocky and her boyfriend Beau have been landing on the wooden ceiling fan blades about 10 feet up and CHEWING ON THE BLADES!
This is a 72 inch very expensive ceiling fan! What can I do short of imprisoning them when we're not in the room? They've never done this before. Rocky is a beaver and she will destroy the blades quickly if I don't do something to stop her.
Should I trim their wings just enough so they can't fly that high? I'll give them more toys and pieces of untreated wood to chew on.
I can't turn the fan on the lowest setting to prevent it because they might get hurt.

 

[Corkscr.ew]

SCANDALOUS

I wouldn't clip their wings, but maybe you can put down some spikes to keep them from landing on the blades. Not the sharp ones, but the bendy ones--it'll keep them from perching but won't hurt them. This would probably be very inconvenient for you though, so hopefully someone has a better solution.

 

[GivemeSeedsorgivemeFlesh]

Naughty birdies!! Maybe you could cover the blades with t-shirts? Or get a weight sensitive apparatus equipped with a foghorn that makes a loud toot when they land to scare them off... do they make those?

 

[clark_conure]

Last time my budgies tried to have babies and I moved them to a spare bedroom it also had a fan and they loved perching there. And....neglecting the babies that didn't make it. I'm assuming you don't use the fan because it would hit them. Can you just unscrew the blades for now, all they can sit on is the metal yoke that holds the blades?

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I use the fan at night when they are all locked in their cages. I need it for circulation and its very nice looking. It's a focal point of the room.

Naughty birdies!! Maybe you could cover the blades with t-shirts? Or get a weight sensitive apparatus equipped with a foghorn that makes a loud toot when they land to scare them off... do they make those?

A fog horn! What a brilliant idea! I wonder where I could get one. . . But It might cause all the budgies in the room to panic and fly into windows when it goes off. Either that or they will totally ignore it. Nothing seems to faze them. Maybe an electric dig fence wire to shock them if they dare land there. Or a sprinkler goes off when they land. They would probably like that and do it on purpose flooding my living room while they all took turns taking showers.

Whatever I do is going to be difficult because the bottom of the blades are 10+ feet off the floor. It's mounted in a coupla 16 feet high.

I think I can trim the tips off Rocky's wings to keep her from flying that high but not prevent flight. I'm really mad at her for this. I can't let her destroy the fan blades and I really can't see putting t-shirts on the blades. Maybe plain fabric sleeves that won't look like my laundry blew up.

 

[clark_conure]

What about a scarecrow? in this case a fake plastic Halloween snake that deters them from getting close. Might get accustomed to it eventually, but in the short term.....

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I don't think it would scare them. I put a long black vacuum hose into their cages a few times a week to clean up their messes and they don't even blink. I have a pretty fearless bunch of hoodlums.
I wish I could set it up so it started moving slowly if they land and stop when they flew off but I don't think it's possible because they weigh so little. No sensor would be that sensitive.

 

[clark_conure]

There are photo eyes, they shoot out Infra red light and if it's blocked or bounces back they activate. That could in turn... turn on a relay that slowly turns on the fan. But that would be expensive. What your talking about...I could design it....but each photo eye is like 80 bucks minimum even for cheap ones. Trust me I'm going to be thinking about this all night.....If there is a solution....I mean I can DO IT. But so far everything is super expensive thinking of a way to do it that would work and be cost effective.

I owe you so much so I'm actually thinking of Ideas on this.

 

[clark_conure]

Oh at some stores like walmart they have like the small fleece blankets. They run like five-ten bucks. What if you cut up one blanket, and wrap enough to cover the fan blade and duct tape the blanket on, as fan blades get wider they would insulate the wood from chewing and not fly off. It would work fine at night, and you can take it off for a party.

I use these throws under the outside cage perches to catch poop so it doesn't go on carpet.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Keep your thinking cap on. If it can save my fan and work I may do it. Its a very big fan with 5 blades. It's remote controlled.

 

[nkrbkr]

I’ve seen some people recommend attaching balloons to the fan to keep them off.

 

[clark_conure]

I’ve seen some people recommend attaching balloons to the fan to keep them off.

that sounds actually good. But she does use them at night so I dunno maybe? Maybe attach to the frame? they will dance around but not be ripped off.

 

[nkrbkr]

that sounds actually good. But she does use them at night so I dunno maybe? Maybe attach to the frame? they will dance around but not be ripped off.

That’s what I was thinking might work. Attach them to the center, not the blades, and see if it keeps the little stinkers off of it.