My Living Design (How I came across my Aviary)

[MissEdie]

I do deliveries to nursing homes. They now have Aviaries and I always stop and look =)

My husband had to go into one ,because of diabetes(he is doing fine now).

I knew of the birds and ask if they had one. They said they had the aviary ,but it had been sitting empty for a year now. They changed the room it was in and didn't want the birds anymore.
They wanted to get rid of it. In comes me =)

They have to buy the aviary to have the bird contract thru MyLivingDesign.com .

My Living Designs is a company that services aviaries in nursing homes all over the country.

Like some companies do fish tanks, they do birds.

They supply food for 3months, because they come out every 3 months.

When they come out they totally clean and sanitize the whole aviary. They take any extra birds(babies). To keep it from over crowding. All you have to do is feed and water the birds, and rake the bottom ( they use corn cob bedding) to help keep it clean and looking nice. That's all you have to do,but I treat them as I would my own and give them treats and bath water and a nite light etc... =)

I learned of the company by a plaque that is on the aviary. I search the web and found them.

I signed up with them(temporarily) to watch and learn about Finches. They take care of 2,000 finches everyday, plus the ones in nursing homes across the country.

This next part is from their website: http://www.mylivingdesign.com/index.php ... e&Itemid=1

"WHO IS LIVING DESIGN?

Since 1980, Living Design has studied the health, welfare and breeding of Passerines in captivity. While other work was being focused on Psittacines (parrots), little or no attention was being paid to small seedeaters.

Living Design has gained a respected reputation for its work in avian research, genetics and disease control. We continue to evolve into a world class Passerine research facility. On staff are consulting veterinarians, biologists, vet techs and vet attendants. Our in-house staff works with several thousand birds on a daily basis in our stations.

Our 50+ species provide a good representation of the birds being studied. Breeding and research focuses on controlling disease, nutrition, environmental conditions and the human health implications of keeping passerines. Our flock is the primary research facility for a large number of studies. Some notable achievements include establishing baseline blood work for passerines, work on identifying various protozoa's and advancement in developing techniques to draw blood from these tiny birds. Much of our research has been presented at veterinary and aviculture conferences. Yet, for all that has been accomplished, there is still much more to do.

Living Design is a participant in the Model Aviculture Program, ensuring that we employ the very best and healthiest living conditions for our birds. Our consulting veterinarians and full time veterinarian technicians constantly monitor our flock. More than that, they monitor air and water conditions of selected aviaries. This assures that the conditions inside our aviaries are always healthy for our birds; and outside the aviaries, healthy for the people watching them. Living Design is the largest breeder of finches in America. You see a few of the birds raised in your aviary. However, birds that won’t breed in that setting come from our breeding facility. Seven aviary attendants care for and assist in raising the species of birds that delight bird watchers among us.

As the world’s population increases, habitat for many birds is lost. Birds compete with humans, not just for space, but for food as well. A farmer’s fields can easily be decimated by a flock of birds. They may eat all of the grain that the farmers need to feed their families. Living Design works with these problems in many ways. We oppose the mass importation of wild caught birds. Yet in cases where birds damage crops and are likely to be killed or displaced, we think a better alternative is to let them live out their lives in our aviaries. We hope we can give local people an incentive to save these birds and not kill them.

Conserving birds in the wild is equally important to us. Living Design has contributed thousands of dollars to preserving habitat in the wild. None of us can save our natural world alone. At Living Design, we do everything we can to help our own little specialty of passerines.

Your continued support of, and interest in our work allows us to continue our efforts to provide for the conservation and welfare of birds and wildlife in general.

Thank you!"

[debbie276]

Could you please supply the link so I could go to their site.
thanks

[MissEdie]

Sure
My Living Design

[debbie276]

Thanks! They have some very nice aviary designs.

[MissEdie]

Your welcome =)

[Sally]

This is the same company that maintains the aviary in the lobby of a local hospital. That aviary is a walk-around, glass on all sides, so that the birds can be viewed from every angle. With all that openness and all that traffic in a hospital lobby, those little buggers still breed like crazy! They are expensive, but if I could afford one, I'd love to have one in my home--maybe I should leave my name and number with the local hospital?