PatrickAlan wrote:I own a Senegal Parrot. She is in a spacious cage, however, I would really like to have a play gym available for her so she can spend more 'out-of-the-cage' time during the day. My only fear is that she is not going to remain on the play gym - instead, she is going to climb down and want to be on me, or she will fly down to be on me. So I'm wondering if a play gym is worth purchasing at all. Do any members here have play gyms for their Sennies or other parrots ?
I make, use, and sell NU Perch parrot trees and stands because I think it's one of the best things for parrots. A huge mistake people make is not providing enough suitable places for the birds to go so they just go everywhere, make a mess, and frustrate the owner. My birds almost exclusively roam between their bird stands and people in my home. They almost never land on furniture or any place that isn't specifically intended for them.
It's a combination of things to accomplish this. It takes a time, effort, and money or ingenuity to do. You can't just buy expensive bird stands and expect the bird to stay put on them but neither can you spend a lot of effort but not have the right stands either. You have to actively train, play with, and encourage the bird to be on bird stands. Make it REALLY AWESOME for the bird to be on the bird places and just ordinary being anywhere else. You can't punish them for landing on those places because then the bird will just get scared of you or become a generally phobic bird. But if you make it way better to be on bird stands and neutral everywhere else, the bird will fly to the stands themselves.
It takes more effort to teach a bird to go on a bunch of different looking places and distinguish them from unapproved places. This is where my NU Perch line of bird stands comes in. I make the same kind of perches for the cage, training perch, tabletop perch, tree stand, window perch, and scale. No matter where your bird goes, it recognizes the NU Perches as being a safe comfortable place to go. Since it starts with the cage NU Perches, the bird is already familiar and not scared when you add each new stand from the line.
Using Parrot Training Perches gets the bird to be rewarded and happy being on the perch on a regular basis. While the bird might not necessarily be trained on other stands, because it has a good experience on a similar kind of wood, it will be more interested in spending time on other similar perches. So even when entering a different room with some different kinds of perches, the birds immediately know they can go there. Like for example a Window NU Perch or a tabletop.
After developing these habits with effort over time, now we can have the birds out for hours and they don't go anywhere that isn't meant for them. They have the freedom and ability to move about as they wish, but they have been guided to prefer the bird stands that make my life easier. So even when the birds are sitting on us, we'll send them back to a stand or they'll fly back on their own to poop. Really helps with minimizing the mess because they know only to poop on their stands.
My tree is more than just a big perch stand, it's a platform for customizing your own parrot's experience. The perches twist in and can be arranged in different ways most suited to your parrot. If it always poops on a certain perch, just take it out and put it somewhere else. There are abundant places to hang toys and even swings. My Senegal loves all shapes of rope swings so the tree stand allows me to hang her swings without making holes in the ceiling or having mess on the floor.
By having similar perches (although vastly different stands that hold them) in different rooms, we can take the birds around the house and they always know where they should go. My wife spends hours with them while folding laundry or doing whatever and they can stay on their perch just hanging out and not bother her.
The perches are a big part of it but it's also about the overall method for keeping parrots as pets. The schedule, feeding, routine, training, and lifestyle in general also play a major role. Having the right bird stands just helps make it all work as planned!
Anyone interested can browse my collection of NU Perch Trees and Tabletop Stands:
http://ParrotWizard.com/TreesTraining Perch Stands:
http://parrotwizard.com/Training_PerchesNU Perches for Cage:
http://ParrotWizard.com/PerchesBook:
http://ParrotWizard.com/Book