Post by santinoandmondo on Feb 17, 2014 22:00:54 GMT
Our budgies Santino and Mondo were doing a little too much nibbling on my window sashes much to my dismay. So I bought some tension rods this weekend and put them just above the sash. They'd be more likely to land on the tension rods rather than the sashes because they are up a little higher - maybe 3 inches. Initially, when they landed on the rods, there is a metallic bouncing sound and the birds take off again. I think they are getting used to the sound and stopped looking so surprised!
While at the hardware store, I picked up some wooden dowels and decided to configure a "gym". In an attempt to show my 11 year old daughter how math is used on a daily basis, I had her help me sketch out the design, measure, and help calculate how many pieces I could get out of each dowel. Gym pieces were multiples of 12" except for the two longest horizontal dowels which I left uncut. It was a good exercise
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The gym was to be built like a 3-D shallow rectangle to stick out from one of the windows. I wanted to incorporate a ladder we had and the corners had to tied with sisal, no glue or nails. The original plan was to suspend the gym from a couple of removable "hooks" but I didn't have enough dowels so I had to improvise by shortening the overall length of the gym on 2 horizontal pieces closest to the window and use a wooden bird ladder as one of the vertical sides. (One of the vertical pieces next to the window does rest on the sash.) I decided to move the tension rod up higher and hung the gym to it using 2 lengths of sisal. To keep the entire thing from dropping (just a little too heavy to hang from the tension rod without the rod slipping off), I added a piece of sisal to the center of the outermost dowel and hung it from a hook which is stuck to the window frame. There are a couple of cross pieces that rest on the glass and I put little felt circles on the ends of the dowels to keep my window from getting scratched.
(The clear hooks can hold .5 pound and are made by 3M so they can be easily removed by pulling on a tab. The hooks cannot be attached to glass but work fine on smooth walls or wood. You can't see the hook in the photo but you can see the sisal.)
Here is a photo of the gym with some toys attached. I'm actually happier with the installation of the gym as a result of the adjustments. No drilling required. Newspaper sits underneath the gym to catch accidents. More importantly, the birds seem to enjoy it.
While at the hardware store, I picked up some wooden dowels and decided to configure a "gym". In an attempt to show my 11 year old daughter how math is used on a daily basis, I had her help me sketch out the design, measure, and help calculate how many pieces I could get out of each dowel. Gym pieces were multiples of 12" except for the two longest horizontal dowels which I left uncut. It was a good exercise
.The gym was to be built like a 3-D shallow rectangle to stick out from one of the windows. I wanted to incorporate a ladder we had and the corners had to tied with sisal, no glue or nails. The original plan was to suspend the gym from a couple of removable "hooks" but I didn't have enough dowels so I had to improvise by shortening the overall length of the gym on 2 horizontal pieces closest to the window and use a wooden bird ladder as one of the vertical sides. (One of the vertical pieces next to the window does rest on the sash.) I decided to move the tension rod up higher and hung the gym to it using 2 lengths of sisal. To keep the entire thing from dropping (just a little too heavy to hang from the tension rod without the rod slipping off), I added a piece of sisal to the center of the outermost dowel and hung it from a hook which is stuck to the window frame. There are a couple of cross pieces that rest on the glass and I put little felt circles on the ends of the dowels to keep my window from getting scratched.
(The clear hooks can hold .5 pound and are made by 3M so they can be easily removed by pulling on a tab. The hooks cannot be attached to glass but work fine on smooth walls or wood. You can't see the hook in the photo but you can see the sisal.)
Here is a photo of the gym with some toys attached. I'm actually happier with the installation of the gym as a result of the adjustments. No drilling required
. Newspaper sits underneath the gym to catch accidents. More importantly, the birds seem to enjoy it.Attachments:
and the more advanced, the more you wont have any clue when you'll be using the stuff you're learning.