Jasmine And What She Does In Her Cage Part II

Down in her silver bowl Jazzy, of course, loves to find her stainless steel nuts and bolts and entertains herself taking those apart.


But she also has some other hobbies and one of these is to dismantle and shred small woven baskets. These are actually sold in the pet store for small caged birds to make nests in. We take the metal fixture off them and they work perfectly for something for Jazzy to slowly crunch into tiny bits. It also makes the most satisfying sound, which is very important to Jazzers.
When she's done playing in her bowl she climbs up the front of the cage and moseys on back to the perches up above to see what's going on.


Sometimes she brings one of her carabina metal loops and pin, which you can read more about in DIY Bird, with her to undo up on the perch.

Once she has removed the pin she likes to shuffle them around in her beak, experimenting with what can be done. And when she's ready or fumbles one of them, she drops it; then she twirls the other piece for a bit. And finally she drops that one too. It makes a great clanking sound when it lands below. Fantastic toy all round. At least it seems Jazzy thinks so, because she never tires of playing with them.

She has a couple of wood toys placed on either side of her food cups, which she also likes to play with. They have the added advantage of deterring her from sitting on her cups with the wrong undercarriage position - which can otherwise often result in a sanitary mishap!

On the right in the photo the edge of Jazzy's book can just about be seen. Yes, she's a reader! Well, actually, her style of reading is a bit different. It's a children's book with thick sturdy pages, which she likes to shred. It has become a just-before-bed-time routine for her to settle down for a while to chomp on her book. She has no compunction about bending the corners of the pages.

Often we'll present her with a couple of books for her to choose the color and style she prefers at the time; she has definite preferences and it's important to give her as many choices in her life as possible.


African Greys have a tremendous number of feathers and it takes a lot of time and attention to keep those in order. So she spends some quiet time preening.
When Jazzy eats she tends to frequently flick the food off the top of her beak, sending it flying far and wide. So we constructed some very effective perspex shields with stainless steel hooks, which we place over the bars close to her food cups.



And then there are the times when it's just good to sit, look and think.





Occasionally she'll scoot along the floor to find some interesting morsel that she dropped on the floor of the cage.

And there's also exciting indoor football; for more about football you can see Jasmine Plays Football.

We place three small nylon cutting boards on the bottom of her cage to allow her space to move around without having to clamber along the bars. It's good occasionally for her to be able to have her feet spread out flat.

This does very much require that the boards be closely monitored and cleaned regularly throughout the day so that she doesn't wander around in unsavory droppings. This is very important in order to make sure she doesn't become ill as a result of uncleanliness.

The vege and fruit food cup is always a great place to be.In this photo it's possible to get a better view of her food shields, which when they're put in place we inform her "Shields up!".



This is her home and she thinks it's a great place to be. Often when she's out and about the house, she'll decide to go back into her cage and she actually pulls the door to, once she's inside.