Monday, November 01, 2021

For the birds

 

Episode One

Camas, WA - We inherited Sunny Jewel & Ocean Blue from our eight-year old twins who thought they wanted a couple of parakeets as pets.  Turns out they wanted two live toys to pull their feathers.  When that was not possible, they quickly lost interest. 

When we bought them, we knew nothing about what it took to take care of parakeets - their diet, how to bathe them, keep them warm during cold nights, how to keep them entertained and so on 

Giant mirror added to perch:  Before and After - One day
We quickly found out that they prefer my hand-made toys, over the manufactured ones, including repurposed door jingles & a home made swing.  This last combination  Sunny uses to play a mean game of bird basketball. 

They like to make square perches round, and some round perches, really small. 

By accident I got three inch thick bark planks and built and out a 3 X 4 platform inside their cage - they immediately got busy and transformed the piece of bark into bird sculpture.

Bird Artwork - carved from Giant Pine Tree Bark
I replaced the fist plank with a second one.  They spend a good part of their day pecking at the plank, but not as hard as the first one.

The dust they generate from pecking at the plank can be messy and perhaps anti- hygienic, so I got them an air filter and a nylon skirt. for the cage - the nylon skirt works well to contain the debris, not sure the air filter makes any difference




Home made swing - being reshaped



Home made bird bath - needs water change after one day


Home made warming nest - next to warming perch




Sunny Jewel engaged in a mean game of solo parakeet basketball







Stay tuned


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