Upgrading Mango's Set-up

[MeganMango]

I wanted to buy a play-top cage for my Red Belly, but I couldn't stomach spending the money when I already have three cages (Dave discouraged it, otherwise I would have made an impulse buy). I decided to buy some stuff to build a play top on one of my cages. I looked into it, and the pre-made Java play-top attachments are at least $500. Dave and I searched and we managed to find a lovely little piece of java, and we built our own play top for Mango. All in the whole thing cost us under $75! Mango loves it! The java is really slippery and too big for Mango's feet, so we (Dave) wrapped it with sisal rope so he can grip. I used old parts from a toy he destroyed, and made him a veg and fruit toy that he is playing with/eating in the pictures. We also bought some untreated pine dowel and built an entire play gym also for under $75. The colorful caterpillar toy in the middle on the right side is the toy Mango is afraid of. He no longer screams and runs away, but he still ignores it. He touches it, but he still gives it dirty looks. Im just going to leave it there and see if he learns its a toy.

 

[Shade]

Nicely done

 

[MeganMango]

Thanks! Hes so cute! Hopefully this keeps him entertained for a while

 

[Zuzu]

He def looks like he's enjoying himself, we can't let Zuzu out for too long, cause eventually he gets bored and climbs down from cage and wants to wander the floor, which we wouldn't mind, but got 5 cats and 4 dogs, the dogs could care less bout him, but one of the cats looks at him all the time like he's a snack, of course i think the cat learned his lesson, the one day Zuzu was asleep on his food dish like always, and that one cat (odin) (siberian-siamese mix) loves to normally just sit and watch him in the cage, well he seen Zuzu was asleep decided to stick his paw in the cage to swat him, well Zuzu woke up real quick, grab that paw with his beak and latched on. we laughed so hard at him, its kinda like when u catch a child with hand in cookie jar. He hasn't done it since, instead just watches from a distant now.

 

[aliray]

Nice job. Where did you get the java or did you buy it somewhere

 

[Agapornis]

I love it! How did you anchor the java to the top of the cage?

Lorinda

 

[MeganMango]

We bought the java from a small local pet shop, it was under $30. The funny thing is that the branches in the bird section were huge-way too big for Mango, and they were all at least 150-200, but when we were looking at fish stuff for our guppy tank we saw they had really cheap smaller pieces in the reptile section. It was the exact same thing only cheap
We anchored it with a long, thin stainless steel screw and a huge washer. We just drilled the appropriate sized hole and now we can move it anywhere we want. For his play-gym we used L-brackets to support the branches since a screw in the bottom wouldnt hold it, and would probably crack it. We wrapped it all in sisal so he wouldnt be chewing the aluminum pieces. It ended up providing good grip anyways.

Zuzu,
Mango also likes to jump off his cage, and we dont let him wander either. We do change his toys lots though, and the cardboard on part of the cage is so that I can leave him lots of fruits and veg up there and he can eat it without it falling through the bars. We move him from his play gym to his cage (both have food and water), and play with him/work on training when he seems bored. Mango is very food motivated!