ZIP TIES - THE CONTINUING SAGA

My Feathered Fox, Malibu, ready to attack her evil nemesis:

her food bowl! (Note the stainless steel strap across and 

around the bowl holder.)

If you read my first blog entry regarding keeping acrylic bowls in their holders in my Blue and Gold's cage, you may have left the post thinking that it was "Mission accomplished!" and "All's well that ends well."  Silly you.   Actually, silly me. 

Over the last week or so since I wrote that article,  I really thought that I had resolved the issue of untwisted bowls that resulted in thrown water and food.  After my snippet-of-paper-towel fix, wedging the bowls in their acrylic holders, I watched my very determined macaw continue to work those bowls, as tightly and snuggly as they were held...and succeed in her misguided (well, in MY opinion) mission.  

Malibu has been tenacious.  The way she chooses what to use as her tools: her tongue, then her lower beak, then moving to a different side of the bowl, then both mandibles...fascinating.  She is such a problem solver that, if it weren't so frustrating to watch her twist the entire bowl and holder upside down and jet propel  the contents, I would feel a great sense of admiration (and pride!) for her determination and mental skills.    But no matter how smart she is, she still needs to be fed and have fresh water.

What has transpired over the past week has been a true lesson in observing parrot intelligence, and then outwitting that wit, for her own sake.  And, knock on wood...I think I have finally found the solution to my dilemma with this incredibly bright bird.    Oddly enough, it all goes back to my second blog about zip ties.  

I had reached a point of frustration with the use of the acrylic, twist in/out bowls.  I decided to revert back to the original bowl holders and metal bowls that came with her cage.  The problem, as I saw it, was that she had no qualms about lifting her bowls out and tossing them, and then removing the holder and giving it the ol' heave ho as well.   But, the problem was not the bowls, it was the holders.   

Now, let me say, I LOVE my Avian Adventure cages (a reason to write another blog, for sure) but there is a flaw in their system for holding bowls.   With a feisty bird, the bowl can easily be lifted up over the lip and out of the holder.   There is nothing to prevent that vertical motion.   (It could easily be resolved if Avian Adventures had welded one more bar across the top  of the holder...but they didn't!)   

And so, I dug through my zip tie stash and found two very heavy duty nylon zip ties, probably 3/8" wide and extremely strong, and wrapped them around the holders, securing the zip ties to the bottoms of the holders with smaller zip ties, snipped off.  They held the bowls in beautifully.  There was NO WAY she could wrangle the bowls out.  Did I say strong? Did I say no way?   Again, oh, silly me.   Malibu made short work of those ties: I watched the wheels start turning in her gifted bird brain.   Within 2-3 minutes of checking out the new, "indestructible" zip tie straps, she proceeded to reach down and snap the tie on her food bowl in two like it was a piece of raw spaghetti.    I thought I'd solved the problem.   I hadn't.   But it was definitely a good start.  I was not deterred from my mission.

Note the SS  zip tie beneath the bowl

attached to a bar on the side of the cage.

There are stainless steel zip ties.  And since they are metal, parrots cannot snip them in two.  I had some in my supplies - they were narrow, but worth experimenting with.  I proceeded to re-do my zip tie "fix" with metal ties, also securing the holders to  the sides of the cage below the bowl areas.  This was a step toward success.  she could not break the tie, she could NOT get the bowl out of the holder, but she DID figure out how to grab the edge of the bowl and "pop" it so that the food in the bowl took a vertical trip and then angled over the edge of the bowl...to the bottom of her cage.  I was not deterred from my mission.

I did have to resort to even stronger/wider SS zip ties, but that has stopped her from being able to "pop" the bowls in the holders.  These metal ties are expensive, (I paid $15 for a package of 5 at my local hardware store.) but I only needed 2 of the wider ones, so I have back-ups for future emergencies. For two days now, Malibu's food and water have remained in their respective bowls, unmoved, food and water available.  I do not believe, however, that the next "issue" needing resolution will  be resolving my macaw's creative food and water bowl problems.  That one, for the time being and much to Malibu's chagrin,  has been taken care of.  Case closed.