Craft Idea: Newspaper Swing

A customer of mine sent me this link. What an economical and interesting way to entertain your bird! I think with a little creativity, a larger version could be made for medium size birds too. Such a great idea, I had to share. Here's the link: http://www.lineolatedparakeet.net/uncategorized/parrotlet-newspaper-swing_410?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LineolatedParakeetBlog+%28Lineolated+Parakeet+Blog%29

We have a variety of green cheek conures available as well as senegals and parrotlets. If you would like more information on what we have available, contact me or check out my website at http://www.almostangelsaviary.com/

Our first caique egg of this clutch is due to hatch on Saturday! I'll keep everyone posted.

Parrot Skewers

I know I have mentioned these before, but they are worth mentioning again! I feel every parrot owner should have a few of these! These handy little skewers are great for hanging chunks of fruits and vegetables and for stringing up leftover toy parts to make a new toy!

My red flanked lory, Munchkin got into the habit of taking a bath on his fruit. He would rub his body all over the fruit (similar to the "leaf bathing" that caiques do) and would turn himself into a sticky mess. Finally, I got tired of it and started stringing his fruit up on a skewer. He loves it! No more mess for me and a great new toy for Munchkin! Here is a picture of his skewer from the other day. His breakfast consisted of a piece of hardboiled egg, a chunk of apple and a chunk of orange.

How to make a play basket

I've been getting questions lately about how to make my famous play baskets LOL! They are not hard to make. All you need is a few supplies and some time. These baskets work great for small to medium birds. I find that birds prefer these over the store bought dowel type playstands. You can put two or three baskets together of varying sizes to make an interesting play area. That is what I do here. My birds hang out on their play baskets for hours! When my young birds are ready to rest, they will just go down into the basket and take a nap.

Supplies:

NATURAL wicker basket. No paint, varnish, stain, etc. I buy my baskets at Michaels when they go on sale at 40% off.

Hot Glue Gun. I think everybody has one of these! If not, you can pick one up at the craft store when you buy your basket.

Sissel Rope. You can get this at any hardware store. It is grass rope. The one I buy comes in a package. Be sure the kind you get is natural, and not treated with anything.

Zip Ties. You can find these in the electrical section at the hardware store.

Baby Links. You can get these at Walmart in the baby section.

Basically, you want to wrap the handle of the basket with the sissel rope. This makes a grippable, climbable perch for your bird. Put a little hot glue on the basket, and wrap a few strands of rope. Then proceed this way until the entire handle is wrapped. You may have to hold the rope for a minute or so to make sure the glue sets it in place.

After the handle is wrapped, take a couple of zip ties and attach one on the middle of the handle, and maybe one or two off to the side. Leave just enough room where you can get a quick link through, but your bird cannot get his head or leg caught. This is where you are going to hang your toys. You can also use baby links for this. I find the zip ties are easier though.

Place some paper toweling or a towel in the bottom of the basket and put some bowls down there for food and water. I like to scatter food in the bottom so my birds can "forage".

Hang some interesting toys, and your done! The entire basket is a bird stand/chew toy! When your basket gets worn out, just toss it and make a new one (you will have plenty of supplies for a few baskets). Get creative with toys, etc. I recently helped a customer who lives nearby with a play basket for her parrotlet. We poked several chinese finger traps in the bottom and hung a few toys. She loves her basket and spends lots of time out on it! Here are a couple of pictures of Zoe enjoying her basket.

My cup runneth over!!

Look at these little blue cuties!! I still have one baby available. If you are interested, please contact me.

I guess I should title this blog, my nursery runneth over LOL!! We are having quite the season! It's great that my birds are happy and healthy and producing lots of babies. But wow, I am one busy woman at the moment! My friends and family call once in a while to make sure I didn't fall off the face of the earth! I told my husband that I just can't get everything done and keep one hand on the phone too. Maybe I will get one of those blue tooth type headsets. I see people wearing them in the stores all the time. Does anybody have one of those? How do you like it? Let me know.

I just pulled three senegals for handfeeding. I am very excited about this because normally the parents will only hatch two eggs. They are getting better! We also have a variety of green cheek conures available (normal, turquoise and pineapple), and parrotlets. One of our blue quaker pairs are on eggs as well as our black headed caiques. If you want to know about what babies we have available, be sure to bookmark our site and check back often. I keep it current. http://www.almostangelsaviary.com/

Being in Texas, it is really hot here right now. A friend of mine has birds on her screened porch and had a great idea for keeping them cool. She puts an ice pack (a baggie filled with water and allowed to freeze -NOT one of those chemical packs). She then has a fan to keep a nice breeze blowing. The coolness from the ice pack and the fan keeps the birds very comfortable. While I was there the other day, the birds were at the top of the cage licking the water that was dripping off the pack. They were enjoying those cool droplets!

Bird Toy Review: Stanley's Bird Creations Birdie Dreds Small

My red flanked lory, Munchkin and parrotlet, Avocado love this toy! It consists of many strands of natural rope which are filled with straw pieces and tiny beads. Munchkin and Avocado both have one in their cage and I also have one on the communal play area. Birds such as linnies and parrotlets like to chew on the straws and hide in the strands. Avocado, likes to cuddle with his toy with a few strands thrown over his back. I've noticed my young quakers, senegals and caiques also love this toy but I would not recommend it for those birds unless they are closely supervised (such as on a play area). 

This toy is moderately priced at around $6.95 and seems to last a while (with my birds anyway). It is economical as well as fun.

When the straws are chewed off one of the strands, I recommend cutting that strand to keep it from becoming entangled around your bird's neck or foot. For this reason, I would recommend this toy be used on a play area or only in a cage if the cage location is in a well supervised location (such as a family room). This toy as long as it is trimmed as I mentioned above, is a neat toy for small birds.

Paulie the movie

The movie Paulie has been running on the movie channels this month. If you are a parrot lover, this movie is a must see! Really cute, it stars a blue crown conure who gets seperated from his owner and is trying to find his way back to her. Paulie runs into quite a few adventures along the way! There are other conures in this movie as well, a cherry head, nanday and jenday. I saw a "behind the scenes" show about this movie a while back and it was amazing watching the trainers working with these birds. Without giving too much away, there is a scene where all the conures are performing a dance scene. The little jenday was even wearing a tiny fruit hat! LOL! No computer hocus pocus there, the parrots were actually doing the steps. All you bird lovers will truly appreciate the training that went into that scene. A great movie for the entire family, it stars Cheech Marin, Jay Mohr (the voice of Paulie and one of the minor characters), Tony Shalhoub, Gena Rowlands and a few other stars you will recognize. Here is a link for more information:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125454/