Orbit arrived!
Last week, a very large box from the US arrived for me, containing one Jumbo Orbit from Mother Pluckin’ Bird Toys. We have two of their atoms (a large and a jumbo, if I recall), and they’re absolutely awesome. The orbit is pretty cool too.
All of these toys are quite heavy, and all of them include a swivel, which implies that there will be a certain amount of force on them. We’ve hung them up (all three) by first finding the stud in the ceiling, and then screwing them directly to the stud, and not had any issues. YMMV. :)
We’re now up to six general play areas in the main area of our house upstairs (plus all the play areas downstairs), which is awesome. The nice thing is also that we can transform our main house area from Parrot Crazy to Normal People by simply removing the swings and putting the stands in a different room (plus sweeping, but that’s eternal).
The big question is always ‘how did the parrots feel about it?’
Cin’s working on guaranteeing the stereotype of the extremely neophobic grey parrot who refuses to go near anything new. Can’t you tell?
Close up and personal greys are kind of creepy looking.
Yeah, he’s traumatized. (I couldn’t manage to catch him hanging upside down to chew on the toy, as much as I tried.)
Keela is happier with her bucket - she’s not nearly as interested in the hanging perches as the other parrots at this point in time, likely due to lack of familiarity with the joys of up high.
Ky says ‘Yeah, this is okay.’
Pause for a typical view in my house. One bloodthirsty cat, ready to pounce and eat the parrot. One dog, dying to play ‘birds and retrievers’. One completely terrified parrot. (FYI, this actually does require quite a bit of training and behavioural knowledge. Don’t try this otherwise, or you may seriously regret it.)
The #1 fan of the orbit though? She’s red.
TOY! Quite a change from the parrot who just sat there and didn’t destroy anything.
A week later, that toy is essentially emptied, and I’ll be refilling it shortly.
She gets more exercise these days too. For a parrot who does not fly and almost certainly did not fledge, she’s extremely bold about going onto new things. We will teach her to fly once she’s got enough primaries to make it worth while, though.
The nicest thing about having all the play areas upstairs is that we can easily have the parrots out with us, without them needing to be on us, and they (as all of my parrots save the macaws fly) can choose where they’d rather be.
The downside is that we occasionally have to deal with scuffles where two parrots decree they want the same stand, but even that works out pretty easily with flight.
Originally published at Rational Parrot Blog. You can comment here or there.