The Granola Board

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Housing a Blind Bird

This is another area where we were surprised at how few accomodations needed to be made for Luna. When she arrived, she had been housed in a cage that was somewhat on the small side, so we gave her an upgrade.

When we set up her cage, we made a point of using perches of different materials, so that if she were placed on a perch she would always know where in the cage she was placed. One side had a wood perch, the second concrete, and the third had a somewhat smaller-sized rope perch since she also happens to be missing part of two toes and it was easier for her to grasp. We made a point of placing her toys where they would be easily reached, but so that they wouldn't interfere with her movement around the cage. When we change her toys, we make sure to show her that we've made the change so that she doesn't accidentally bump into the toy.

This arrangement seems to work pretty well, though as time has gone by, she's spent less and less time in her cage. Her preference is to be cage free, so she spends most of her time on her bottlebrush gym. The gym was custom made by Wayne Gagne, and was designed with the branches to be somewhat more evenly spaced so it would be easier for her to find her way around.

When the gym first arrived, we were worried that Luna might have trouble finding her food, or her toys. However, once again our fears were unfounded. When we placed her on the gym, she growled in appreciation and immediately started chewing the wood. After a few minutes of good hard chewing, she spent some time exploring, and within a few minutes she'd memorized the layout of the gym and went back to chewing.

Since she's been on the gym, she's spent a lot of her day happily and systematically destroying her gym. Although she's only had her gym for a few months, she's managed to do more damage than my Cockatoo and my Grey have done to their gyms combined! Luna's managed to completely chew several branches down to tiny nubs! I suspect in a few months we'll need to buy a replacement set. I'm glad that Wayne makes them available at a reasonable cost!

Luna's only real peculiarity when it comes to her housing is that unlike our sighted birds, which prefer to sleep on the highest possible perch, she prefers to sleep either on the tray of her gym or on the bottom of her cage. More importantly, she wants to have a mat of some sort to sleep on. When she first arrived, we were giving her a clean cotton cloth to sleep on, but by morning she had torn it to bits. Now she receives a mat made of several layers of paper towel folded over into a small square, and she's content to sleep on that. In the morning, it doubles as a good toy that can be destroyed.

When setting up a living environment for any blind bird, I think it's important to consider that bird's preferences and abilities. Not having experience with other blind birds, I don't know if Luna's incredible ability to orient herself in a new situation and find her way is common or not. For your own bird, use common sense and your own sensitivities as a guide.