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What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

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What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby Michael » Thu Oct 01, 2009 3:08 pm

I previously wrote about my escape artist parrot and how I solved her cage escapes by putting an extra clip on the food bowl doors to make it significantly harder to open it from inside.

http://www.birdtricks.com/blog/the-grea ... se-closed/

One person mentioned to me that they thought those kinds of clips can be dangerous and that the parrot can potentially get a tongue or toe caught in it from playing with it. Does anyone have any better solutions to keeping a cage securely closed but with minimum additional trouble for the human having to access those food dishes several times per day?
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Re: What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby TheNzJessie » Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:58 am

my rainbow lorikeet was a master at escaping, there not like budgies where u can just use a twisty tie.... for my lori i went to the dollar store and brought a pack for 4 mini padlocks, to put on all the 4 food doors as the main door already had a secure lock. i made sure the metals on the padlocks were not any harmful metals like led, just make sure you read the package before buying them =]
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Re: What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby bmsweb » Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:13 am

Our Cockatiel has the same kind of food doors on his cage and so do our Conures now . . hope this doesn't become an issue. I might be after a solution if any of my birds get out. I know the Cockatiel has been taking parts of his cage apart, which is a pain because I have to secure the clips he takes off each and every day. It drives me nuts. The good thing is he only does this when he is outside the cage.
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Re: What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby issy » Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:35 am

Sheldon is also very good at escaping, must be a Lorikeet thing XD

He used to love swinging on the side doors, opening them while clinging on and then swinging back until they clicked shut, but now I tied them shut with those plastic tie things XD
Image

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Also another amusing thing when his cage was outside. He was bobbing up and down on his perch in front of one of his food doors and decided to lift the bottom of the door with him as I watched in horror. XD

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Image- Sheldon

Image- Evey
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Re: What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby bmsweb » Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:51 am

Lock ties! What a great idea Issy! I will use black ones so it matches Jazz's cage. This will stop him from taking it apart :)
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Re: What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby Michael » Thu Apr 08, 2010 9:09 am

Just wanted to mention that I've been using those spring lock clips for over 6 months now and she has never gotten out. After about the 3rd day she completely lost interest in them and doesn't even try to play with them.

Image

They are great because they are very quick to release and reconnect from the outside but close to impossible from the inside. I'm not saying that with enough work the parrot couldn't get them, but the likelihood of breaking the clip AND getting the cage open is really slim. I've never been able to confirm if she really got herself out or if I forgot to lock the food door but I can say that since I've used the clips, she has never gotten out once. So either the clips keep her in or at least they remind me to lock the door every time.
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Re: What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby lzver » Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:50 pm

Michael,

Did you get the clips at your local hardware store? I have to find something similar for Jessie. I came home today and he had loosened his food bowl, pushed it out and was hanging out on top of my step-son's school bag when I got home. My step-son is scared of both the birds and was too afraid to try and put him back in his cage.

I know he was out of his cage for potentially half an hour unsupervised. He's not the best flyer in the world - has always been pretty clumsly. I'm keeping a close eye on him tonight just to make sure he's ok, but as soon as I picked him up he started laughing and asked for 'scratches'. He seems ok, but I want to make sure he eats some dinner and keeps acting like himself tonight.

I'm off work tomorrow, so I'll be out looking for something to secure his food dishes so he can't escape.

Thanks,
Laura
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Re: What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby Michael » Thu Apr 08, 2010 3:54 pm

I got the clips at a hardware store but they were just being sold as keychains. I removed the key rings and just use the clip which is supposed to go on your belt or something. These clips work better than others because they sit tight. They have just enough to get around the bars of the door and cage and no slack. So even if the food bowl isn't locked, it still cannot be opened. Looser clips could allow the door to open enough to get a foot caught in. So make sure you find a clip that doesn't allow for slack between the cage and door.

This is why, besides the extra hassle, I don't like luggage locks because they will let the door swing open a little bit and the bird could get stuck in that.
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Re: What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby lzver » Fri Apr 09, 2010 6:27 am

I'm going to have to do some more shopping this weekend ... I wasn't happy with what the local hardware store had.

For now, I'm using a piece of rope to tie it shut. I can see he's already started to chew on it, but it should stop him from escaping for now.

I hate worrying about them so much. He certainly had a tour of the main floor yesterday ... followed the bird poop and I was worried he got into something or hurt himself. I watched him like a hawk last night and got up early to check on him this morning. He was eating, playing and drinking water without a problem last night. I think he was just tired when he finally got back into his cage after his adventure. Right now he's peeking from under his blanket and whispering peekabo.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laura's Bird World Blog - http://laurasbirdworld.blogspot.com/
Jessie - Senegal
Lucy - Red Bellied
Kylie - Meyers
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Re: What do you do to keep the little escape artist in?

Postby TheNzJessie » Sun Apr 25, 2010 2:26 am

haha yea izzy its a lori thing, i would love another rainbow but it wouldn't be fair considering im full time uni student next year getting my degree in captive wild animals, i guess i can adopt the 150 odd rainbow lorikeets at the zoo after that haha
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