It shouldn’t have been too surprising, given how much she likes to bite everything, that Kelly turned into a cage bar biting budgie. I could almost tolerate anything better than the clanging, twanging noise of her plucking away at those cage bars.
My first concern (in addition to my sanity) was whether she was safe. I’ve checked the cage every day and she’s not removing any of the finish so I’m not too worried about her eating paint and poisoning herself. I also took stock to make sure I was meeting all of her needs. She is out of her cage for adequate time every day, and even though she can’t live with Toby and Kevin they get time to be together supervised daily as well. She always has clean water and food, and ample variety of toys and perches and enriching experiences.
The bar biting though did seem to be borne out of boredom, even if it was the unwarranted boredom of being in her cage for more than five minutes, or settling down to sleep every night. So, I began putting a toy or mineral block or anything she could chew anywhere she went to bite at the bars. The last problem zone was near her sleeping perch, because there wasn’t room for a toy. In that area I painstakingly wove paper strands in between the bars so there would be something to chew at.
As far of the rest of the cage, I paved one wall with sea grass mats and toys that we had generally regarded as “too big” when they first arrived.
In other places I put cuttle bones or mineral block.
The overall effect is very busy!
But, it’s working! It has now been two weeks since Kelly has ruined the household serenity by chewing on her cage bars! The last holdout was the sleep perch area, and those woven paper strands have definitely saved me.
I know those paper strands won’t hold out forever, and I’m so excited to have found this Braided Palm Leaf Rope
As far as toys that will cover a lot of bar area, I’m going to have this monster size Seagrass Foraging Wall Toy
While I can’t say with 100% certainty that this redirection will work for every bar biting budgie, putting a toy or other chew object everywhere she wants to bit the bars helped Kelly redirect her energy. If you’ve met all of your parakeets needs and she is still biting, it’s at least worth a try!
In your second paragraph you say “She is out of her cage for adequate time every day, and even though she can’t live with Toby and Kelly they get time to be together supervised daily as well”
I think you mean “she can’t live with Toby and Kevin”
🙂
Nice post as usual though.
Thank you for letting me know! It’s funny how many times I read a post and still let it post with errors!!
In this case though I feel like a mom with so many kids she just runs through the names until one sticks 🙂 I’m constantly calling them the wrong thing now.
Thank you for posting this! I have a female IRN parrot who just started doing this and it’s driving me crazy. She sometimes even knocks her water bowls out of place. I tried moving them and making sure all is in order in her home and it is so I feel that it might just be boredom. I’m going to try some of your tricks to see if they help.
Good luck! I found that my parakeet really liked chewing on mahogany pods and pieces of cork. If you google them you can find bulk suppliers and they have a hole pre-drilled, so you can string them up for hours of chewing distraction (hopefully!). Whenever my girl starts fixating on the bars I just load up a metal skewer with pieces of cork and mahogany and she redirects to that.
Best of luck!