"Natural" Cage Environment

[SharlenaSharlena]

Hiya everyone I hope everyone is well today!
I was just wondering if anyone who owns small-medium-large parrots has done or thought about doing natural cage environment? It was suggested to me by another parrot owner I met a while back; basically its like turning your cage into a little jungle. My 2 babes love it! They have been going through a growth spurt lately and have been tearing through toys now that they know how to, and their projectile poo's are a pain when it comes to changing bedding so I opted for this instead.
(Oh and that piece of cardboard at the bottom of the cage is to hold the soil in and is now covered up by dirt since I added some yesterday so don't panic the birds don't even know its there!)

What I used:
Large EZ Care bow front acrylic cage
1 bag of organic garden soil
1 Yucca plant
1 Snake plant
2 Aloe Vera Plants
1 very battered Petunia
(I also have a Spider Plant that I am letting recover, the birds had way to much fun tearing it up)

My Hubs loving on the babes!



The cage set up!




So far it's been a week and they love it! The don't sleep in the cage, it's in their sun room now so they play in it and nap in it. But it's been a good alternative emotionally for the bird, they seem much happier jumping and climbing up the plants than they did the toys. Also they seem to like pooing in the dirt and will purposely fly down to do so, which I prefer 100x over them pooing everywhere else! Next week I am adding Wandering Jew plant and a few flowering plants for them to give them some variety. But I am curious if anyone else has any natural set ups and what types of plants, toys, fountains, etc do you guys add to the environment to make it more enjoyable? Thanks everyone and have a great day!

 

[DallyTsuka]

the cage is awesome, i love what you did! only, i am concerned with the soil, as soil can be a source of aspergillosis in parrots. i would try to find another safer alternative. i think it's pretty awesome though!

 

[SharlenaSharlena]

Thanks DallyTsuka!
Thanks for telling me that! I am going to see what else would be good as a bedding for the cage, maybe something like peat moss maybe? I am researching. As of right now I keep the soil aired out by tilling it around a bit daily. But I am going to do some googling tonight to see what else I could do!

 

[U2gal]

I'm not sure how I feel about this. It looks great! But very unsafe.

Dirt has mold and bugs in it and also attracts some bad bacteria and even flees.

I personally wouldn't recommend this.

It'll also be harder to clean.

 

[DallyTsuka]

what about aspen shavings? unscented, dust free aspen shavings. it wont look as natural as the soil, but it is safer, and wont grow mold or bacteria if you change it out completely daily. but, it may also be seen as nesting material...


i use blankets in my cages (except one, as a nest-deterrent) and that is another option for you. i use fleece blankets, i'm sure you can find some natural coloured ones so they help with the theme, but are safer than soil. you will have to do a lot more laundry though i am afraid

 

[MarciaLove]

I love that but I have heard dirt is dangerous :/ I wonder could I do something like that for my lorikeet but instead of him being able to access the dirt have it in the pan under his wire bottom grate he wouldnt be able to reach it??

 

[Featheredsamurai]

It's beautiful, but that dirt is dangerous because of mold growth, or spores.

 

[JDlugosz]

I also think that the poo load would be too high for such a small patch of soil. Put the plants in little pots and cover the main bottom with bedding that can be replaced. Use a screen on top of that, with the plants growing right through it! You don't want the birds to access the soiled bedding. It would take some imagination to make the stuff easy to change.

 

[MikeyTN]

I'm concerned with the dirt yes but they have dirt out in the wild so it's nothing unusual for them. But if it was on the ground in a flight aviary situation, that would be better! Especially when you have them contained in a cage such as the acrylic cage, it's rather unsafe. Especially for them being nectar eaters, yeast would be a concern as well in the dirt which promotes mold and such. But I do like what you trying to accomplish for your birds and I do think it's pretty neat.