[jdcarter]

I'm mostly able to work from home, so I have a medium-size cage in the room where I work. I attach a cardboard box inside her cage and she burrows into it. She'll destroy a small-ish (say 4x6x12") box in a day.

Then, upstairs our master bathroom is basically the parrot's room. I built a large stand from tree branches and hang some toys and a rope ring from it. She loves playing in front of the bathroom mirror.

Having a flighted bird can be annoying at times--mine loves to play "chase me around the house" at times--but I think it's essential to the bird's state of mind. Caged birds that never fly can literally go insane. My vet (author of the book "Holistic Care for Birds") is a strong supporter of letting your bird fly, despite the possible hazards that entails.

Honestly, my bird would like more social attention than she gets, but there's only so much of me to go around. My wife and daughter don't handle her for fear of getting bitten.

One recommendation: there's a DVD called "Captive Foraging" which has a lot of ideas for giving parrots foraging-type problems to solve. Even buying shelled nuts (unsalted of course) gives them something interesting to do.

[gozur88]

> Honestly, my bird would like more social attention than she gets, but there's only so much of me to go around. My wife and daughter don't handle her for fear of getting bitten.

I don't blame them. Getting bitten by a parrot hurts like a MF'er.

[mark_l_watson]

Thanks for the recommendation: I just ordered the DVD.

When our bird was young my wife used to make food puzzles that he would play with to get treats. I need to start doing that again, hopefully the DVD will give me more ideas.