Escape Artists

[Kathryn]

I've mentioned before about how adept a few of my lovies are at escaping their cages.
:omg: Again today, I found Midnight not only out of her cage, BUT in the cage with Sunshine and Sucre. (I don't know if I should :clap: her intelligence or be :mad: at her for frustrating me!!)

This follows my latest effort of securing the guillotine doors with fishing weights on the escaping artists's cages! :confused: Guess I'll have to increase the size of the weights.

Sunshine and Sucre don't try to get out unless I open their doors for flight/play time. So now it looks like I'll have to secure their doors against "invaders".:rofl:

In the past:
I've placed several of the screw together clips on several doors but those allow the doors to open 5/8" and that's enough for a small bird to escape with the help of its mate...in fact I think Puff helped Midnight escape!!

I've used clothespins, which they love to chew until they pop apart
I've tied string in several navy knots, which keep Puff and Snuggles busy until they untie them.
Wire works well, but Mollie has learned how to twist some of these open.

With five different cages and different types of doors on each it has been an interesting challenge to deter this latest feathered frenzy to frazzle fidma!

Do any of the rest of you have little houdini imatators?
What strategies have you tried and what stories do you have to tell on your fids?!

[jknezek]

vegetable tanned leather strips. your bird store has them or they sell it online. it's bird-safe leather strips. get it a little damp, tie it real tight, and they will never get it off. of course, you will have issues untying the knot yourself, but i find this works great on my escape artists. further, it gives them a toy to play with but it is really hard to shred or cut. eventually they will, but i just keep an eye on mine. when it gets ratty, i replace it and hang the old strip for them to finish destroying. the strips last a few months at least...

[linda040899]

3 words.....belt loop clips! I use medium size ones, as some of mine can even undo smaller ones! Thank goodness that your lovies aren't Toos. Toos can escape from almost anything! :eek:

[Janie]

I'm confused as to why a regular quick link (I think that's what they are called) like I've bought at a bird specialty store and have also seen in hardware stores, won't work? :confused: There is no way in the world a lovebird could open one of those. A larger parrot, probably but a lovie, no way. It takes human thumb pressure to open the clip and a lovies beak could not do it.

[Z28Taxman]

I'm confused as to why a regular quick link (I think that's what they are called) like I've bought at a bird specialty store and have also seen in hardware stores, won't work? :confused: There is no way in the world a lovebird could open one of those. A larger parrot, probably but a lovie, no way. It takes human thumb pressure to open the clip and a lovies beak could not do it.

I've never tried those but Ditto can open the screw type ones (they're shaped like a C and have a metal bit that is threaded onto the open part. I used to use those to keep the guillotine food doors closed on Ditto's old cage. He figured those out in no time. He even undoes the ones hanging his toys in the cage from time to time. Fortunately most of those are also spring loaded so even if he unscrews them they don't open. :rotfl:

[linda040899]

Janie,
The main reason I don't use the quick links is because they still allow a door to be lifted and I think, if placed right, the door can be lifted to an unsafe height. That would allow a bird to get a head or foot caught under the door.

[Janie]

Janie,
The main reason I don't use the quick links is because they still allow a door to be lifted and I think, if placed right, the door can be lifted to an unsafe height. That would allow a bird to get a head or foot caught under the door.


OK, that makes sense. My cage doors all have good locks that were added by the manufactures. One is a King's cage and the other one is similar but both have good locks on the doors. I use the links to lock the area on the King's cage where nest boxes could be inserted. Big Boi and Shy can't lift that area at all. Mater of fact, they've never noticed the locks there. Oliver's night cage is smaller (cheaper) and it does have four openings for seed/water bowls. I have locks on all four of those little doors. He is not a curious little bird but even if he were, the doors don't lift at all when the locks are on them.

[Tango's_Mom]

Tango can open the quick links, he does it on his toys from time to time, Luckily he can't open the cage door and he can't get out the openings for the seed and water dishes as long as the seed and water dishes are in.

[Peaches_birdie]

You guys are worrying me... Peaches has never tried to escape and his cage doors don't have locks or anything on them. Should I worry that one day he will escape?

[linda040899]

Should I worry that one day he will escape?
Some birdies are good escape artists, while others never even give this a thought. If I have a cage outside, I always secure everything, including the bottom of the cage. Inside, I tend to be a bit more lenient, although my birds have surprised me when I least expect it. I find it best to remove as many potential dangers (water left in the kitchen sink, toilet tops always left in a down position, etc.) so that an escape poses as little real danger as possible.

[Janie]

Jenna, we are not talking about the same kind of links. I've never bought any toy with the same kind of link I use to lock cage openings.

I agree with Linda, cage doors/openings do need to be secured. When I first adopted Oliver, I'd leave the room with him locked inside the cage and come back in a few minutes later to find him on top of his cage! I was perplexed! His former owner had twisty ties on the dish openings which I removed because of the possibility of zinc in the ties......I realized later why she had the ties on the openings and that is when I added the links that I bought at a bird specialty store! PetSmart, Petco and like stores do not sell them. Oliver is the least curious bird that I know of or have read about. He does not investigate and until I added Big Boi and Shy to my flock, I never really knew what real lovebird behavior was all about! :lol My point is that if Oliver was getting out of his cage, my guess is that most lovebirds would try.

[wilkiecoco]

janie,

do you have a link to a site that sells the "links" you are talking about? kiwi has never tried to open his cage, but l like you said, every lovebird could try. i'd like to be prepared.

[Eliza]

What about zip ties or cable ties?

-e-

[Janie]

I would not use any kind of zip tie that they could eat through and especially the ones that have the thin wire in them. I can't say on cable ties, don't know what they are.

What link site???? :confused: Tell you what I'll do, I'll take photos of my links and put them on tomorrow (if I remember).

[Eliza]

Cable ties are usually plastic... I'm not sure if they are considered bird safe, though.

Here's an example:

http://www.uline.com/Browse_Listing_3209.asp?desc=Black+UV+Cable+Ties

-e-

[ottermom]

My cage opens from the outside only. The door secures by a metal bar that you have to pull to the right and then lift up to open. The food and nest box doors have circles that stay down by gravity to keep the doors shut. I'm pretty sure lovies couldn't get out even if they truly were Houdini reincarnated.

[DebSpace]

Hi, Kathryn, happy Okie Christmas to you. I use black plastic clips on my sliders that I bought at Westlake (Ace Hardware). They are about and inch and a half long and work great to secure millet in the cage from the outside. They work similarly to the clothes pins. I did modify them by removing the orange plastic tips. This makes a small groove in the clip that fits perfectly over the cage bar. I'll take a photo if you'd like.

[Wheeliegirl]

Peachie got out of her cage once. I had purchased some clothespin-like clips from the hardware department at Sears once, to hold snacks onto her cage bars. After she escaped I started using these to keep the doors closed on her cage. Initially she chews off the soft plastic tips, but after they were gone she left them alone.