Play gyms from Advanced Avian Designs - Initial Impressions

[lcbrink]

My play gyms from Advanced Avian Designs arrived via UPS yesterday. I have them mostly assembled, and on the whole they're nice.

The 2' Tree stand went together very easy. All the branches had pre-drilled holes and screws imbedded in them and each branch was labelled with a number so you can match the right branch with the right hole. Took about 10 minutes to put together. Looks pretty good. The food & water cups aren't as big as I'd like, but that's a minor quibble. Now all I have to do is get Squeaky to stay on that instead of running around the floor.

The Panama Heights gym was much more involved. The directions were sparse, but not any worse than any "assemble yourself" furniture I've gotten. Think of assembly like a giant TinerToy set: no glue, and a lot of tight fitting pieces. I used a rubber mallet to put much of it together, and there's a few loose pieces that will need to be set with wood glue, but it is as big as they advertise.

One problem I'm having with the set thoug is with the ladder. They mis-assembled the joint balls that connect the lower half of the ladder to the upper half. I tried to correct the problem, but the dowel holding the balls to the lower part of the ladder were too tight and I managed to snap both of them apart. I've sent them an email detailing the problem and hopefully I'll have it fixed soon.

Some things about the play gym:

• Once built it stays built. You're not going to be able to take it apart once it's together without snapping some dowels.
• Not all pieces fit well together. There are a few places I'll need to use wood glue to keep joints together
• A rubber mallet is needed. On the flip side there were some joints that needed to be put together with a little extra force. A rubber mallet worked great for that.

I like both gyms overall. The Panama Heights Gym may be a bit big for a Green Cheek Conure or Cockatiel, but there's a lot of places to hang toys and plenty of places for your bird to motivate around. Once I have my Green Cheek I'll see how it likes it and report back then.

[mamalovesrico]

Would love to see some pictures.

[The Outlaw]

Great post. Thanks so much. I agree with Lara that photos of YOUR assembled gyms would be great. All of us would like to hear firsthand about all of the good and bad things about the stuff we buy for our fids.

[lcbrink]

As soon as I get a hold of digital camera I'll post some pics and give everyone an update.

Someday I should buy one, but there are other priorities (Like a Russel seat for the bike) that have priority before gas prices make me a hermit.