Hoop Ball + Jolly Ball :)

[nikidust]

I spent a few hours this weekend running back and forth to Lowes buying parts for a smallish hoop ball that I decided to make upon finding some smallish hula hoops at Dollar Tree on Friday. I also found some colorful poly rope at DT which is light weight, soft and the fibers easily break when you pull (so little risk of a bird dangling by a toenail in the stuff). I should have gotten the larger PVC connectors as these were a VERY tight fit with the rope. I ordered a Jolly Ball from here in the 10" size and it's going to hang in the middle of the hoop ball. I also got some plastic chain that I am thinking about stringing up around the widest part of the hoop ball, all the way around but I haven't worked it out in my head yet. That would probably mean more SS eye screws and more ss quick links and that's getting pretty expensive. We'll see what I think about it when I get the Jolly Ball in place. I still need to make a PVC ceiling guard and devise a poop/spill catcher. I'm thinking about just putting some lineoleum on the ground under where it hangs. It's about 22" diameter so it has a pretty significant footprint. This is for a Hahn's macaw (still a hatchling) that will be here in the summer. Anyway here's a picture of what I have done so far.



Any ideas for the spill catcher? I installed an eye bolt on the bottom just in case I devised a hanging spill catcher at some point.

If you have a Dollar Tree near you, check out the aisle with the car stuff. The colorful rope is there. It comes in green, red, yellow and blue and it's unlike anything I've seen before. It had a kinda weird smell at first but it is gone now after airing out a couple days. I'm still gonna scrub it down with soap in the bath tub before the bird gets home just in case.

[Monica]

Why not one of those round snow disks?

http://image.shopzilla.com/resize?sq...4447&mid=28535

[Valo's Moirana]

first of all - if this is for a Hahn's I'd add a second eye-bolt on the inner side on the bottom pvc 4way... otherwise it'll start sagging eventually (aka you have a football rather than a hoopball followed by a line ) - using the eyebolt on the top and bottom, you can add a stainless steel chain or something similar to keep the ball in shape - people often make an inner atom to help keeping the shape....

oh, you asked about the poop catcher - for our smaller version, i used those pans used for plant pots... you can get them at home depot or similar for real cheap. for larger ones, people sometimes also use plastic washing machine pans

[nikidust]

The snow disks are a nice idea, though kinda hard to come by around here this time of year, lol. As for the sagging, I actually already drilled a hole on the bottom 4 way and I have the SS hardware for it plus plastic chain and quicklinks, the whole shebang. I didn't actually consider it sagging. I guess I didnt think the weight of a hahn's would be enough, but I'll keep an eye out for it. I was also considering attaching the jolly ball on top and bottom to the hoop ball with bungi cords for some extra bounce to it, but I'm afraid he'd chew through them. (imagine a little hahn's macaw flying across the room with his beak hooked into the end of a gnawed-through bungi cord, lol)

[Copper]

Hose the rope down with vinagar and water, not soap... no residue to irritate inquiring beaks.
Easy way of removing preservatives from any cotton, nylon, sisal rope or cord, is to get a laundry bag (nylon net), stick the rope in it, put it through the gentle wash cycle of your machine with a cup of vinagar and no soap. Even leather strips do well with this.