Set up improvement for non-flighted bird?

[Cottonoid]

Have any of you had experience with birds that can't fly but are otherwise fully mobile? I've been trying to think of ways to improve Cotton's setup. I was planning to hang branches from the ceiling but am questioning the overall safety of my ideas.

He LOVES to explore and climb and this week has been climbing on top of the ring by the window and beaking the side to swing around. The problem is that his balance changes as his feathers comes and go, so he's fallen a couple of times.

The table by the window has a few layers of blanket and towels, and he has a ladder that he goes right up when he does fall. The floor is an area rug over hardwood, with towels under his areas.

Falling itself doesn't worry me as much as what he might hit on the way down, although both always panic me in the moment - I'd really love to turn that corner into a bunch of crisscrossing branches at different angles, but he has ping ponged his way down the front of his cage once when he was first molting

Ideas I'm considering -
Hanging fabric underneath the areas he's more likely to fall, like against the window, and waist height in the corner. It would minimize injury from bouncing off the window frame. I'd have to figure out how he then could climb back up.

Building a table height "deck" in the corner and padding it. This would be way easier to clean too, haha.

Hang swinging perches in places with padding underneath that's not obstructed somehow? I'm thinking maybe like Salty's food setup? Or like the bird feeder platters under the feeder? Would need to check the chains are safe to chew/climb or I could easily augment them with leather strips from my parrot store. Cotton can easily climb paper rope and leather rope with knots.

I know I'm overthinking this but I also know once I put hardware in my ceilings and walls I'm not as likely to have the time to reconfigure things for a while. Plus I am guessing a lot of you have awesome setups I haven't thought of! And most importantly I'm hoping you'll have ideas of what I am NOT thinking of safety-wise!!

 

[LeeC]

Cotton is fortunate to have such a nice setup and caring keeper—a very nice setup indeed.

I had a blind Sun Conure for a year. (He died of heart disease.) Peaches was a highly-functioning blind parrot! He had two long-term keepers before me and a stay at the local parrot rescue. Nobody ever figured out that he was blind! I picked up on something immediately: he never held perfectly still.

Anyway, I accommodated him with long, bark-on branches and rope perches, as well as two connected cages. I was sure to let him keep his untrimmed, sharp nails for grip, too! Even my avian vet commented on that, advising I never trim his nails. (I never trim any nails, but she and I were new to each other at the time.)

After he died, I had a Conure-shaped hole in my heart, and along came a severely plucked and self-mutilating Peach-fronted Conure at my local rescue. He was in a hard-plastic Elizabethan collar. His tail feathers were all completely broken off from falling. It was heart-wrenching to see him fall. I worked with an avian behavior specialist and my avian vet to get him out of that collar in under two weeks. He still could not fly for a while.

To mitigate Cotton's falls, perhaps netting, waist-high for you, would be better. Droppings would go right through it, too. You could "launder" it for any droppings that stick to it.

I use this to block my foyer, to prevent free-roaming parrots from flying out the door.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZN6JRYL/

Of course, they could chew through it easily, but they don't. It just hangs there like a loose curtain.

I suppose there is a risk Cotton could get a wing or foot caught in the mesh in a fall. Everything poses some hazard, huh?

 

[wrench13]

THis is a tough nut to crack for sure. All parrots, even flighted one, fall, if not often then regularly. Leaving the nails sharp is a great idea, Cotton no doubt depends on them more than others might. I like the rope cargo netting idea, under areas where he likes to play and fight with his toys, and any feeding stations. THey look like they have some 'give' to them in case he does fall, and easy to recover from when he does. But they get points taken off for ease of cleaning, but with sturdy knots on the ends of the 'weft and 'weave' one could use clips to make it easier to remove and reinstall. Just dont make it too far of a drop from one to the other... like you saw, ping ponging from surface to surface is better then one long drop (32 feet per second/ per second and all). Mad props on you for putting the thought into this, bro !!

 

[HeatherG]

since birds are so light, falling isn’t as great a risk for a bird as a human. But I would consider that foam that you can put on top of a mattress. Maybe you could get some of that and put it under the perching areas and protect it from droppings with a sheet.

 

[Littleredbeak]

I used a toddler mattress, comforters and pillows for Anne (IRN) when she could not fly and tried so hard to fly (would often hit the ground including her cage). The cushions all helped immensely. She other wised did not fall ... only when she'd leap or set off to fly.

 

[LeeC]

Please note that mattresses, in the U.S., contain chemical flame retardants, which off-gas VOCs.

Do Mattresses Contain Flame Retardants?

They seem to make their way into everything once brought into the home.

From a 2003 study:

High levels of a common flame retardant used in furniture, computers and cars have been found in the breast milk of a sample of women across the United States, according to a study by an environmental advocacy group published Tuesday.

The report by the Environmental Working Group found that the average level of the bromine-based fire retardant in American women’s breast milk was 75 times higher than the average found in recent European studies.

— https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flame-retardant-found-breast-milk-flna1C9478551​

There are safe alternatives.

Safe alternatives to mattresses without chemical flame retardants exist. These materials include organic wool and cotton, plant-based memory foam, and natural latex. Unfortunately, it may be difficult and frustrating to detect and discover what materials are used in the production of mattresses and what kind of toxic gasses and chemicals are released in response. In an effort to address this issue, some websites and resources promote the use and purchase of mattresses made of organic and natural materials, such as “The Good Trade.”

— https://policy-perspectives.org/2021/04/12/flame-retardants-whats-in-your-mattress/​

 

[Cottonoid]

Thank you ALL - there are so many good ideas here!

Luckily I do have foam from XL dog beds my deaf/blind dog used after he was 20 so no new offgassing - I kind of forgot about them stashed away since my current dog just digs holes in the covers.

Cotton unfortunately keeps his nails as short as his feathers, and has one toe that doesn't grip as well, so anything I can do to help him explore more safely is helpful to learn!