"Parrots are naturally curious and playful. Keeping them engaged will benefit them and provide you with hours of entertainment." ~ Random Parrot Blog.
Unfortunately the play "gyms" are quite pricey so, ever frugal, I looked up the DIY version. As I scoured the aisles of Home Depot, a very nice man offered to help me figure out the benefits of Y couplings vs. T valves vs. - whatever. Finally, I made my purchase, got home and enthusiastically assembled Gandalf's play gym.
What I had envisioned didn't translate to what I actually constructed (a common theme among my DIY projects). You can see that not even Mr. Frodo could work up any enthusiasm for my creation. Gandalf showed even less zeal.
Fortunately I know when it's time to change course and invest in a new strategy. Amazon Prime, once again, to the rescue. My UPS man and I are going to be on a first name basis pretty soon. (Again I make the disclaimer: buying local is best. So if anyone knows of a bird supply store in northern VT let me know.) As you can see, the finished product is pretty awesome. It's also HUGE. We're in the market for a new home and are going to have to add to the square footage requirement after this behemoth addition.
When I brought Gandalf over he was petrified. I can't blame him. Between that "harness" and this...got to make the poor boy wonder. Fortunately he feels about peanuts the way I feel about chocolate so I've been able to lure him over. It's been three days of him sitting atop the gym, screeching only occasionally, so I can't say he's curious and playful but if I count the time spent assembling the gym as "hours of entertainment" then I guess the parrot blog wasn't all wrong. Now I just need to figure out how to repurpose this PVC piping.