Finished Building a Tree Stand

[MaraWentz]

Finished building a tree stand to replace Erin's cage! Just have to add her toys and finish sanding it! She even uses the ladder. This only took a day and half to do and we cut down all the branches ourselves! It was fun and easy, and its pretty safe! Erin loves it. Also she is starting to talk! She is trying to say up up and hello. She gives kisses too! Big changes!

 

[wenz2712]

Lovely Stand.. Great Job

 

[MaraWentz]

Thanks! Besides the fancy woods manufacturers use for the tree stands, I do not have any idea how they can charge $1000 for a tree stand built for a macaw. It cost me $10-15 plus 1.5 days of labor. Glad we looked into building our own stand!

 

[luvmytooo]

Good for you , it's beautiful !! You could probably make a buck or two making those , seriously ! I would look into that if I were you and had the time to do it.
Priced reasonable , you could cover all your birdie expenses and then some !
Just a though

Erin is stunning ! She is such a good looking bird , her colors are awesome.
I think I said that before , but oh well , lolol. I can't say it enough abut her.
She seems to have ompletely excepted you guys as her flock now.
Enjoy her

 

[MaraWentz]

Thanks! We are actually selling them custom made and I believe my first customer needs one for his Caique! Very excited about that. Erin has defiently come along with me now and actually seeks my attention. My husband doesn't fool with her too much so she's a bit reluctant with her. We're working on it though!

 

[luvmytooo]

Because of Erin , I have put her o. The top of my macaw list , lol.
My husband loves her .
I have a similar stand , but it's a table top . My Goffin is petrified of it ? He absolutely hates that stand. I dont even try anymore , it's not worth it. They all have their preferences I guess. But Rosie will go on it no problem , go figure !

I need to get more stands for other parts of the house. I just dont know what kind to get.
I dont want to waste money buying one Yoshi won't go on again.
I do use natural perches in their cage , so it's not that he isn't used to them.

BTW, I love the pic of Erin on top of your head , lolol.

 

[MaraWentz]

lol thanks! She just climbed right on top. I'm leery of that though. My goffin cockatoo used to sit on my head all the time, until out of the blue she climbed up there and pooped She was never on my head again lol. My suggestion is to do what I did and go cut down your own limbs off of some saplings like poplar,oak, or maple and screw them together. We built the tree in front of Erin so she wasn't scared of it in the end.

 

[luvmytooo]

That is a good idea , to build it in front the them ! Never though of that , lol.
I would sit on it if it would hold me , just to get him to like it !!!!!! Lololol.

 

[MaraWentz]

lol The only down fall is the loud noise from any table saws or drills. However, my hubby was in the garage working on it already when I came out with Erin, so she could only hear a muffled noise that just slowly got louder as we approached, so she wasn't really scared at all.

 

[luvmytooo]

Your really doing a great job with her . Se is going to be a well adjusted bird , that's for sure . How's the weather there ? It's cold and rainy here. Even my goats are happy to be inside , lol. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is 7-4 !
Between some of the dogs , and the goats , and my birds , it should be a real party
They go absolutely crazy here with fireworks....

Sorry i changed the subject , but since we were on behavior , lol.

 

[MaraWentz]

lol its fine. Erin is doing great, shockingly. i thought she'd be a bit more difficult. However, she takes such pride in her training and it seems she gleems when she does a trick like waving correctly. After i prise and giver her a treat she starts squaking and dancing lol The weather has been rainy and cold. The day we built the stand was cold and rainy. We were outside in the woods and bamboo forest all day and by about 9 we could see our breath. well worth it. i forgot about july 4th! Uh oh.... My one yippy has never been here for the fireworks and i have no idea how Erin will be! Probably will do a whole lotta yelling... Last year we took my oldest dog to the local boardwalk and had a blast, so we'll probably take the whole gang up this year and see how it goes.

 

[Cliffordsmom]

Yay!! you have ispired me Mara! The electric company came over and chopped up our trees the other day and left all the branches in the yard. I was mad at first because of the mess i have to clean up, but with all the BIG branches they left I could probably make 6 or 7 playstands. There are some of the branches that naturally branch off and have multiple perches on them. Only bolting I would actually have to do is bolting them to a base Thanks for sharing the pics!!

 

[MaraWentz]

No problem! Just make sure the bark and wood is safe! It's real easy so have fun!

 

[cdog]

Great job, I didn't have to build a stand I found drift wood that was in a perfect shape for a stand. Erin is beauitful.

 

[Joeyx]

looks perfect! kudos.

 

[Mare Miller]

Love the tree stand! Looks like your bird does too, good job! I'm making manzanita perches and stands and so far have a small market for them. My youngest son will be home from school this weekend and has promised me that he will help me post some photos, I'm so illiterate when it comes to computers, ugh.

 

[goalerjones]

that stand is beautiful, but I'm not handy like that so I bought a full manzanita branch from a local supplier and simply put it in a christmas tree stand...then I place it next to his table stand so he can get his food from there.

For toys I cut up the local junk mail into squares and place it all over the tree for him to seek and destroy. For extra fun I take food he likes and impale it onto the ends of the sticks, then he forages and I clean it off afterwards.

 

[MaraWentz]

You have to believe me this does not take skill! I can't believe people charge hundreds and thousands for these you cut down some safe wood, pre drill a hole and then drill a screw that's long enough through the whole. Then you take you base board, predrill a hole, then drill a thick long screw into it and presto! Done in a day. Well, you might have to take of the bark and little twigs and scrub the wood down, but still! It is so simple. I'm kinda mad I haven't thought of this before.

 

[Clueless]

Okay, read my name first. . . . . Do we have to sterilize the branches somehow before letting the birds on them? Is there any way that bugs or something could be in there? I thought I had read that we had to put fresh wood in the oven to kill bugs . . . . . Again, I know NOTHING about birds-just the volumes of magazines & articles that I've read since adopting 6 months ago.

Would dearly LOVE to create a gym for my guys.

 

[luvmytooo]

Clueless , your funny . Lolol.