Little miss destruction

[s_car_go]

Are there any better choices of perch material for a bird that does this to manzanita?

[ame="https://youtu.be/Rv87LCkOEMc"]https://youtu.be/Rv87LCkOEMc[/ame]

 

[Anansi]

Titanium, perhaps? Hahaha!

That's a beautiful Hy you have, there! I honestly don't see any wood standing up to THAT beak. Maybe you could try one of the concrete pedi-perches that are smooth on top to protect the foot pads? That should hold up. (Though I stand by my titanium suggestion! Lol)

 

[ToMang07]

Could always try (capped) PVC.

Beautiful bird.

 

[thekarens]

Stainless steel ☺

 

[Scott]

For a Hyacinth, your best bet is Duranium, Tritanium, or Neutronium. The only difficulty is they were featured on Star Trek, and are not available in our present time!

 

[Christinenc2000]

I think you should keep using manzanita. He is having so much fun with it lol

 

[SailBoat]

As I am sure you are aware, the third reason we want to use natural wood branches is so they can chew them to pieces.

Our DYH Amazon takes a bit longer to cause a branch of manizanita to fall into pieces. If the costs are getting out of hand, switch to native hardwoods in your area. Before gathering, check the safe wood's lists for the hardwoods in your specific area. Winter is the best time to collect branches as most all insects are gone. I choose to remove the bark since that is where any remaining inspects or chemicals may still exist.

The action of turning wood branches into pieces is one of the self entertainment tools parrots use to keep themselves busy. Moving to metals or very heavy walled plastics will only assure that your parrot may likely move her interests on to far more expensive options like: furniture, electronics, books, or even the house itself.

 

[Anansi]

...The action of turning wood branches into pieces is one of the self entertainment tools parrots use to keep themselves busy. Moving to metals or very heavy walled plastics will only assure that your parrot may likely move her interests on to far more expensive options like: furniture, electronics, books, or even the house itself.

I agree with this, in principle. But I identify with the OP in that I'd rather not have my bird chew through perches at a ridiculous pace. So, to provide that entertainment you're talking about I just make sure to provide an abundance of wood chew toys. With mine, it's usually when they run through most of their toys that they turn on the perches.

 

[JerseyWendy]

ROFLMAO! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Yup, you're right.... 'LITTLE' Miss Destruction. :54: Gosh, Harley is stunning!!! SWOOOOON!!! :heart:

Now I'm gonna beg: Please share her with us more often? Pretty pretty please, with Harley on top? :21:

I can't comment on the wood, unfortunately. My GW is my resident beaver. :30: Hardware stores know me by my first name, that's how often I get 2X4 planks to cut into chunks for him. But despite all his wooden toys, he STILL 'nibbles' on his perches. :52:

That video put a PERMA-SMILE on my face!!

 

[JerseyWendy]

Sorry for the double post...I was having a brain fart.

If you want to stick with wooden perches, I highly recommend getting a hold of our henpecked. He has THE best dragonwood perches - EVER. He can cut them to any size you like. They're pretty hard. Not as hard as Manzanita perhaps, but hard. They hold up very well with my beaver.

Here's an example of one. This is my Sam on Niko's (my B&G) perch.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuGmXyEv0co"]Sammy 02 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Allee]

I have to agree, keep supplying Harley with a variety of chew toys, I mean perches and please keep sharing videoes, she's truly stunning. We wouldn't complain if you shared pics of the other members of your lovely flock.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Gorgeous bird you truly have your hands full keeping Harley busy.

 

[SailBoat]

...The action of turning wood branches into pieces is one of the self entertainment tools parrots use to keep themselves busy. Moving to metals or very heavy walled plastics will only assure that your parrot may likely move her interests on to far more expensive options like: furniture, electronics, books, or even the house itself.

I agree with this, in principle. But I identify with the OP in that I'd rather not have my bird chew through perches at a ridiculous pace. So, to provide that entertainment you're talking about I just make sure to provide an abundance of wood chew toys. With mine, it's usually when they run through most of their toys that they turn on the perches.

Well of course that would include an abundance of wood chew toys! And, mine likes both the piles of wood chew toys and the perches. Even to a point that he hauls a couple of wood chew toys up on to a perch and works on all of them - at the same time.

FYI: The resulting wood chips make a great fire starting material for the outside fire place.

 

[s_car_go]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions. I did not divulge the entire story. I keep my birds at my place of business. I checked with the boss and he is OK with that. (I own the business) My flock is out of the cages all day except for lunch hour. Better than at home where there is nobody. At least one of them is on my shoulder all day long. My assistant also owns birds and her shoulders are also occupied through out the day. The birds get plenty of attention all day long.

I have a full machine and wood shop in our warehouse and I have a good inventory of wood, foam, cardboard and stainless steel stock that I use to construct chew toys. It went into high gear when I acquired Harley. She has a bit of beaver and puppy dog all rolled into a bird body with the inquisitiveness and attention span of a 2 year old child.

I am constantly refilling and building new chew toys for her since she devours them in short order. Like a $45 dollar large chew toy (chunks of 2X4) purchased from the local bird store she can destroy in an afternoon. So part of my routine is building stuff for her to chew.

Shipping pallets are a great source of wood. I harvest them since there is a never ending supply out back. Nice new clean ones to boot. Large cardboard tubes cut into industrial sized "bagels". Pieces of extra thick cardboard. Cardboard corner shields. The cardboard actually lasts longer than the wood. which is pine and splits rather easily. High density foam provides great chewing enthusiasm for dis-assembly. Stainless rods, chains cable clamps and pipes to make bells and other noise makers. Latches, couplers, rope, SS wire are all used and replaced at an amazing rate. Every week I spend a part of a day cutting, shaping, drilling, threading, screwing, clamping and re-filling and inventing new chew toys for her. When I give her a new toy she has never seen before she wont leave alone until its on the floor of the cage.

When she is not chewing on her toys she is chewing on my fingers. She likes to wrestle and play like a puppy dog. I think she has an identity crisis at times. She does know how hard is too hard with her beak. We constantly set and push those limits.

What I was hoping for was to find a material for the perches that would last. I generally use Crepe Myrtle which I harvest locally. Crepe Myrtle is actually better than Manzanita because it does not split as easily. Manzanita is hard but splits so easily.

I will not use a metal perch ever. I guess I will have to just keep my saws sharp and the chew toys ever changing.

Thanks to everyone.