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Playstand

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Playstand

Postby JessiMuse » Sat Jan 23, 2016 9:40 pm

Just recently ordered a playstand from this one website.
https://bonkabirdtoys.com/sale-items/ac ... lay-stand/

It's a little colorful for my liking, but it's what I've been looking for in a stand: something I can hang a lot of toys on, and looks to be small enough to carry from room to room. It's also adjustable, so I can set it up any way I like, from what I understand. It's a pretty good price for its quality, especially since it's on sale right now.

I guess I should explain, that out of all the cockatiels I've had in the past, absolutely none of them hold a candle to the mischievousness and playfulness that is Lucy. She's practically on par with buddies regarding energy. The world is literally her toy! She can make a toy out of anything she could get her beak on, even her food (she loves to shred the heck out of broccoli). So I've been looking for a good stand or gym that can keep her occupied.
I'm hoping it can keep Alex occupied too. While he's still not nearly as busy as Lucy (surprisingly enough, since he's younger), he tends to want to be on me while I'm busy. I'm hoping he could at least learn to play independently more often. Then maybe he can stay out of my hair (literally).

I know it may sound like I'm getting tired of my birds, but it's quite the opposite. They're hilarious and make life exciting, but when you're trying to do homework on your laptop while trying to shoo one bird off your keyboard, and another is trying to hide in your hair, it makes it hard to concentrate. :lol:

I was trying to look for a more natural looking tree stand, but table top tree stands are more expensive, and sometimes they don't even have enough branches to hang toys on. I thought this would be a good option.

So what do you guys think? I guess it might be too late to ask if I made a good choice, since it's already been ordered. Still, opinions are welcome, and it would be nice to know whether or not my judgement was too off. :lol: I'm hoping you guys think it's as nice as I think it is.
JessiMuse
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 241
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Pionus, Cockatiel, dove, mannikin finch
Flight: Yes

Re: Playstand

Postby Wolf » Sun Jan 24, 2016 9:34 am

I see what you mean about the colors. Oh well the colors are there to hopefully attract the birds attention, I just hope that it doesn't scare the poop out of them. I don't care for the material that it is made of but cockatiels are not likely to damage it and it does make it easy to change its configuration and the price is reasonable enough.

No, it does not sound to me as if you are tiring of your birds. I can't work on my computer with my birds out as I not only have a Senegal and a CAG vying with me for the computer keys, I also have the Cag trying to attack the Senegal to run her off of me, It just doesn't work well at all. There are just some activities that don't work well with birds on you.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
Number of Birds Owned: 6
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: Playstand

Postby Pajarita » Sun Jan 24, 2016 11:49 am

It's actually quite pretty but I don't know how useful it will be... The reason why is say this is because people have given me playstands in the past and none of my birds ever took to them. They would much rather climb up a branch and chew on the bark than play on them. Have you considered making one out of a tree branch? It's actually quite easy because you don't really have to use any tools as you can tie it with untreated sisal rope (and, if you leave the ends a bit long and loose and fray them a bit, they will chew on them, too). And you can hang all kinds of stuff they can use as toys to it...
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Playstand

Postby JessiMuse » Sun Jan 24, 2016 3:35 pm

That was my concern too, wolf. A lot of bird toy makers use color to attract a bird, but I've seen it scare birds more than attract them. Lucy might be the first exception I've seen. She loves colorful things, and ESPECIALLY shiny things.

I actually had my dad order it, because he owed me $60, and I told him he can pay me back by covering $60 dollars of the cost, and I could pay him back the extra $10. He was kind of wary at first, because acrylic is supposedly a heavy plastic, and the website did not give the weight, nor the dimensions of the base. However, the adjustable pieces made up for the lack of information.

I thought about using a tree branch, yes, but most of the trees here wouldn't be very good to use. I live in a desert, and most of the native plants are thorny, and designed to keep animals from eating from them, and that includes the trees. Not only that, but what is safe for native birds, I wouldn't know it to be safe for non-native species.
Though a population of feral lovebirds have been able to successfully nest in the cacti.
Image

is Eucalyptus safe for cockatiels? I heard its toxic for birds, but in Australia, you see the cockatoos eating from them quite often, from what I've heard. I read an article about using them for Australian native parrots, and it said that captive birds might not always have the same immune system as their wild counterparts.

I would like to at least give this playstand a chance though. Alex is satisfied just being on me, but Lucy is the kind where she is almost always doing something, and a lot of the time, that something is usually driving me crazy. :lol: There are times where she will just simply hang out, but they're pretty rare. Otherwise, she's shredding this or chewing on that, chasing a tiny ball here or relocating something small there, dropping either toys or food off the table or trying to steal something from Alex. She is by far, the busiest cockatiel I've ever owned. Most cockatiels I've owned would just be satisfied being in a high up area like Dudley's perch stand on top of his cage, Bu t not Lucy. No, Lucy has to chew on the plaque on the wall that she can reach from Joey and the finch's cage, or try to stick her head through the bars of Dudley's cage and eat his food (in which I hate to get her away from before Dudley takes her crest off).

Can you see why I've been looking for something like a play stand that I can hang a lot of toys on? :lol: When it comes to playing and causing destruction, the only difference between her and a larger bird is the size. If she were the size of say, large cockatoo like a Moluccan or Major Mitchell's, the house would be destroyed!

... Ok that last part might have been an exaggeration, but I think you get my point. :lol: She may be easily entertained, but she often gets entertained by things she shouldn't play with. :roll:
JessiMuse
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 241
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Pionus, Cockatiel, dove, mannikin finch
Flight: Yes

Re: Playstand

Postby Wolf » Sun Jan 24, 2016 8:34 pm

Of course the forbidden is always the most interesting, isn't it? I also don't think you realize just how much damage on of the larger cockatoos can do, so excuse me when I say that I don't think there was as much exaggeration as you think there was in your statement
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
Number of Birds Owned: 6
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: Playstand

Postby JessiMuse » Mon Jan 25, 2016 1:05 am

True. I once saw a video of a moluccan cockatoo spinning a table umbrella with it's beak. Talk about strong! :shock: It was on facebook, so sharing here would be somewhat difficult. I'll see if I can find it on youtube, when my laptop battery is not on the verge of death. :D

Last I checked, the order was still awaiting confirmation. Geez, how long does it take for some of these things take to process? I didn't go with the flat fee and chose free shipping, so chances are it's gonna take a little longer. It is coming all the way from Florida, after all.
JessiMuse
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 241
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Pionus, Cockatiel, dove, mannikin finch
Flight: Yes

Re: Playstand

Postby JessiMuse » Mon Jan 25, 2016 9:55 am

I just now noticed that there's a toys and accessories section separate from housing. Oops. :lol:

You know how to move posts to their correct section, Wolf? Unfortunately, that's probably one of the only things I haven't learned to do while being a mod on a different site. :lol:
JessiMuse
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 241
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Pionus, Cockatiel, dove, mannikin finch
Flight: Yes

Re: Playstand

Postby Pajarita » Mon Jan 25, 2016 1:35 pm

Cockatoos are incredibly destructive! And their beaks are so strong that they are also very fast. My two umbrellas decided one day that they wanted to nest in the wall of the birdroom and made a hole with a diameter of almost a yard and ate half the beams behind the wall in one single afternoon! We had to call a contractor to reinforce the beams before we replaced the sheetrock and then had to 'line' all the walls with fiberglass panels to prevent them from chewing it again (because, that's another thing, if they do it once, they will continue doing it forever!).
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Playstand

Postby Chantilly » Mon Jan 25, 2016 8:52 pm

Even though I do like a natural look, this looks very entertaining, I think! (I wish I was a bird even more now! :lol: ).
Pajarita wrote:Cockatoos are incredibly destructive! And their beaks are so strong that they are also very fast. My two umbrellas decided one day that they wanted to nest in the wall of the birdroom and made a hole with a diameter of almost a yard and ate half the beams behind the wall in one single afternoon! We had to call a contractor to reinforce the beams before we replaced the sheetrock and then had to 'line' all the walls with fiberglass panels to prevent them from chewing it again (because, that's another thing, if they do it once, they will continue doing it forever!).
Woah! In Austrailia Sulfurs are considered pests because they destroy roofs of houses and pretty much shred everything they see!
And anthough she be little, she is fierce ~Shakespeare
- Tilly & Shrek
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Chantilly
Amazon
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Types of Birds Owned: Cinnamon green cheek conure & Yellow Scaly x Rainbow lorikeet, Chickens & Ducks
Flight: Yes

Re: Playstand

Postby JessiMuse » Mon Jan 25, 2016 9:41 pm

:lol: Oh my gosh. How do picnic tables survive there? I saw a picture of some sulfers on one, and thought: "I bet they like to chew that to pieces".

The order status changed to "completed" today, which means it's on it's way. It's being shipped via FedEx, but for whatever reason, I can't track it on the FedEx website via the number they gave me. I hope it gets here. :?
JessiMuse
Conure
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 241
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Pionus, Cockatiel, dove, mannikin finch
Flight: Yes

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