Cage placement for my Quaker

[sherylb]

I have a question about cage placement? I work in my home. I have a bedroom turned into an office. I have been rolling his cage into the office when I work and then back into the living area after work. My kitchen/living area are one big room. Should I just leave his cage in one room and get maybe some standing perches for the other rooms? He’s brand new, I just brought him home, he’s 9 weeks and right now he only wants his cage. I have a glass door in my kitchen and he likes it there, i have hummingbirds and he seems to love watching them.

 

[EllenD]

That's exactly what I would do, and is actually what I do, lol...You want his cage (main cage) in the "main" room of your home, or the room "where the action is", where you spend the most time, where you relax, watch TV, read, etc.; usually this is the living room, family room, den, TV room, etc. This will ensure that when you're at home and you're in the place you spend most of your free-time that he can both hear you and see you, and where the others in your home usually are, or where visitor to your house come and spend time. He'll get the most human interaction and experience there, and he'll be much more likely to entertain himself with his toys and such inside his cage by just having his cage in that room with you/other people...But when you work from home out of an office, where you can't focus on him at all during the day, you still want him in the room you're in working, even if you're not directly interacting with him, because typically when they can hear you and know that you're home but they can't see you and aren't with you, that's when they get upset, don't entertain themselves, and start screaming (especially Quakers, they absolutely love to make loud noise, lol)..

Wheeling his cage back and forth is a fine way of doing this, but it gets old and tedious after a while...So the best thing you can do is either buy or build him a T-Stand/Play-Stand, either a wooden one, like the Manzanita or Javawood ones, or you can make one out of PVC piping and fittings from Lowes very cheaply as well...Just make sure that whatever type of stand you get, it has the hooks to hang some toys from it, such as some big wooden ones or some "kabob" toys, as Quakers love to chew on anything and everything, those beaks are always moving for one reason or another, and since you are going to be busy working when you're in the office, you want him to be busy working while he's in the office as well.

He should learn pretty quickly that when you're both in the office and you're "working",
that this means that you are not going to be paying him direct attention and he needs to keep himself busy with his toys, food, etc. until you're done working and he gets moved from the office to another room (and I would literally tell him "Mommy's working now" or used whatever phrase you want to choose, stick to that phrase, and then ignore him; as long as he has toys to entertain himself and you ignore him and just do your work, he'll learn pretty quickly)...

 

[MonicaMc]

Yes, you can get playgyms and perches, even a separate cage for other rooms, although right now if he isn't comfortable leaving his cage, I would not recommend forcing him away from the cage. Give him time to settle in and learn to trust you and his environment. Allow him to get used to the new gyms/cages before taking him away from his cage.

 

[sherylb]

well, my bird has had quite the turnaround today!! He's kissed me willingly, he got on my hand to come out of the cage, he did fly off the cage but used his ladder to get back on and he just took a bath....he was trying to bathe in his water dish so I got a bigger bowl with water and he came right out on it! my heart is happy!