Adding Fake Foliage to the cage

[lovezebs]

Hi. If you have hookbills, than you have a chance of them chewing on plants wood perches etc. The canaries and finches though dont seem to have the same chewing strenght ( for lack of better word) to manage that. I always check ahead of time if there are any tiny bits that they can pull off and ingest and remove them. As for rust or exposed wires and so on... If anything becomes unsafe in any way, you remove the piece and replace it.

[lovezebs]

Hi Sally, if you are still there, reg your cage that you posted in this post a couple of days ago, what sort of cage is it? I really love it and wondering where could get one.

[Colt]

lovezebs - Here's me quoting myself in another post about Nolvasan:

I'm not sure if anyone here on the board has used this product, but at the pet store we used a product called Nolvasan that we got through the veterinarian who saw all our animals.

http://www.revivalanimal.com/Nolvasan-Solution.html

It is effective against a wide array of bacteria, fungus, virusus, and even yeast.

We diluted it so that we could use it in spray bottles to practically clean anything the animals came into contact with. The vet stated in its diluted form it was safe to actually spray into the finch and parakeet cages in order to scrub the wire and perches as it's not always feasible to move the birds each day without inevitably turning them loose in the store. We never had any problems using it.

I'd imagine it would be even more effective/potent if we hadn't been diluting it.

Regarding your question about Cindy and her cage I believe it is two of these bad boys:

http://www.birdscomfort.com/flight_bird_cage.html

put together. I have one of those and if I ever find a second one it'll be one.

[TheWhiteFinchAviary]

Fake plants are great for Finches! They help them feel more at home in their cages and create plenty of cover. They can also help break flight patterns for the more panic prone or add new places to perch. And they just look nice.

If you keep your Finches' nails short then you won't have to worry about tangling of any kind. I've never seen or heard of a Finch eating fake plants like a parrot species would, but they will shred them to use as nesting materials which can look as if they're eating them. This causes the fraying or silk strings many will refer to. If you notice this happening at length then you can trim the strings so none of your birds get caught. I've never experienced my birds getting caught in their fake plants personally.

One thing to look out for is the small pieces that may be edible or easy to pick apart and swallow. These parts are easily removed. For example, the last time I went plant shopping I noticed a few tips that resembled anthers covered in pollen. The arrangement was beautiful so I bought a few and removed the tips before sanitizing & putting them inside of cages.

[cindy]

Colt, I did the same thing with two cages... the two connected are perfect for a small colony of parrot finches or a pair of Scarlets and a few java sparrows.

Regarding the Nolvasan, one of my avian vets said not to trust it for sanitizing hand feeding tools, those get done in a new solution of bleach ad water with each feeding. Some chemicals loose potency/effectiveness if diluted in water after a certain amount of time, bleach is less effective after 24 hours if mixed in water.

[TheWhiteFinchAviary]

On the topic of connecting 2 cages, I also used this idea for my juvenile aviary. I used the 30x18x36 version and secured it to the wall with a couple of decorated hooks. It works great!

[cindy]

Another idea if you do not have the length space for a long flight but the depth you can also take the backs off the cages and connect them together that way. Allow enough space to service/maintain (trays) either sides. Or join the trays together so you can pull both through the one side. You can do this with both 30x18x36high and the 30x18x18high cages, even the 24x16x16high cage.

single story (18" high) lengths of 4 ft and 5ft lengths are great to if you so not have the height to work with....any extra flight space is great.

2-8-2011 shaftail and bourke cages.jpg (27.94 KiB) Viewed 782 times

The 36 high, 5 ft extended cages can also be stacked.

Scarlet chest 5ftx18x18 3 flight stack.....excuse the wires, needed more zip ties.

I have two extra long cages that are 5 ft x 3ft x 18 inches deep and have thought about joining the two back to back to make a 3 ft highx 5 ft long x 3 ft deep flight.

[Colt]

So envious of your set up Cindy. It's gorgeous. You may have said it before, but what lights do you use on your bird cages? I like how compact, but bright they are.

[cindy]

We are trying the round LED lights. I also use full spectrum or sun sticks/daylight bulbs also The window the 3 black stack cages are in front of....the panels all slide open and on nice days the scarlets enjoy the sun.

[Colt]

Well it looks lovely.

[Colt]

Cindy - I've looked online and didn't see any like yours. Do you have an online source for them?

[cindy]

Home Depot has a 3 pack of the LED and the under the cabinets...WalMart is cheaper though.

[Colt]

Thanks cindy. I'll look there.