The Pro's And Con's Of A Free Flight Bird Room

[lovezebs]

Babs

Good morning girlie,

I think that would be my favorite moment of all...
Opening those doors, and watching the brave ones venture out first, to be followed by the more cautious ones, followed by the timid and the nervous .

Then sitting back and watching them explore...

[Babs _Owner]

lovezebs

Yes it would be amazing. Is it built yet?? Hurry up! Hahaha. We both know I have no patience.

[lovezebs]

Babs

Patience is a virtue sweetie...

This is all still in the thinking stage, nothing has been decided yet, and so....

Check out some of these nifty ideas:

[Babs _Owner]

lovezebs

I love the wall perches and the hanging block with the branches! So many ideas to try out. The tree would be awesome ! Going to be fun hunting in the woods for neat trees and branches.

Gonna take a bit of time to sanitize them all in a light bleach solution, but sooo worth it.

[MisterGribs]

My birds are free-flying in my bedroom! But they are almost constantly supervised, as I work in here. They have four major playing areas, and everything is arranged that they don't perch anywhere they aren't supposed to. The seed hulls get EVERYWHERE, although I rarely find poo anywhere it's not expected.

I find that having them fly around in the same room as I am in, with the option of returning to their cage at any time has made them all quite a bit tamer. Plus it's absolutely magical in here.

I'll post some pictures here when I get a chance to take some good ones!

[Babs _Owner]

MisterGribs

It would be great to see your setup!

[MisterGribs]

Babs I wish it was anywhere near as majestic as you guys' habitats! Everything I have has been cobbled together from stuff lying around the room, and is kind of in transit, as I make room for the quails.

Also, one of my finches is disabled and for some reason cannot fly without spinning out so it's extra tricky to make sure she can get back if she falls onto the floor. I put in a tiny suspension bridge for her yesterday, made from cardboard and braided bubble wrap strips lol.

[Dave]

MisterGribs, I also find that my free-flying birds go back to their own cages. The male Canary there doesn't sing when outside the cage, only when he's in it. That is a territory matter, I presume.

[MisterGribs]

Dave Could be, also the females always go in there when they get scared. Maaybe they feel safer having us on the other side of it, lol.

It took my younger birds almost two weeks before they would even land on the entrance, and nearly a month for them to fly out.

[Barbara]

lovezebs knees can be a bit challenging on some days one healed great the other one not so much,but will NEVER go thru that again.I know that when you have a avairy or bird room cleaning is not done as you do with cages,but I know me and I would be in there every day siting and watching and have to scrub.

On the plastic I have bought shower curtains with trees and flowers designs and just thumb tack it up the wall,but I am going to use a clear plastic that you can buy at walmart it's in the fabric section on those big rolls they measure out.I think it was $1.49 yard and up,so very cheap they have 3 different thickness.

[lovezebs]

Barbara

My knees, are constantly under threat from the doctors (whom I swear, are sitting there with a wet stone sharpening their scalpels, while eying their fat bank acounts at the same time... ). I however am not ready to give in yet

Regarding the plastic for the walls....
In the past, I had tried the shower curtains thing, but found them to be too flighty and flimsy.
The clear plastic however, is a good thought, but sadly all of our Walmarts here have closed their fabric departments many years ago (don't know why). So I'll have to look in Canadian Tire, or some Home Hardware stores. I certainly wouldn't mind the thick stuff, that you can spray with some vinegar/water solution and either wipe or squeegee off.

[MisterGribs]

It might be worth having another try of it if you secure the plastic to the wall with double sided tape, so it won't flutter around.

Weirdly, the birds still choose to spend almost all their time around the cage or on top of it. There is a window swing above another cage that has newspaper and whatnot. All the other areas get newspaper, such as under the face of the cage where they hop in and out and sometimes dally, and on top of a shelf that only holds their play perch and a lamp. The play perch itself is nailed to the inside of a wooden box that i can easily take to the sink and scrub clean!

The one thing the birds do that annoys me to no end is magically poop on the window. They somehow manage to poop midair while suddenly stopping at the window perch, and the poop just keeps on going. I do have to wipe poop off the window at least every other day, I can't even stand the poop from the wild birds that my birds have attracted there, and it's tough to clean on the outside of the 4th floor window!

Once in a great while, I will find a stray poop in a strange place, but it rarely happens. The room is kind of divided diagonally, with the birds on one side and Heta and myself on the other.

[Barbara]

lovezebs your right wiping that down is great and you know the walmart closest to me shut down there fabric section years ago but the past month I have avoided going in because they are doing the inside all over,I ran in just by chance for a few quick things and they opened there fabric section again ,maybe your walmart will too if not do you have any fabric stores that may have it.I remember when I was little my mom use to buy the different color plastic the same way and used for a table cloth memories love those memories

[lovezebs]

Barbara

That would be nice if they opened the fabric section again, but I doubt it.

There used to be a fabric shop close to where I used to live, but that too has closed down, or moved elsewhere.

I'm pretty sure that if I decide to go for it, I can find rolls in the home hardware stores.

I remember Mom buying clear plastic to protect her white tablecloths, lol. Now days, hardly anyone uses tablecloths anymore, myself included, except on special occasions.

It was a different world, of doilies, and embroidery, knitting, sewing, crocheting, starching and ironing things like bedding.....

[MisterGribs]

lovezebs Starched bedding?? Yikes

It never occured to me to use a tablecloth! We have one in our kitchen at all times, because...

... our table is ugly.