The Hoopball...A DIY Project

[Macawlvr]

Originally Posted by Xavier

Sorry for being a little late to jump on the bandwagon
James, I see that you have a greencheek in one of those pictures. Can he/she play on the large one? Or do you have a smaller one?
Because I have a brown-headed poicephalus, which is roughly the size of a cockatiel, only stockier and a Congo African Grey. I was wondering if they could use the same hoopball? And if so, would it be regular size hula hoops?

All of my birds played on the same one...greencheeks, cockatiels, lovebirds, amazons, and the macaws. Your congo would be fine on this size, but you might want to get a smaller one for your poicephalus...my smaller birds didn't have near as much fun on it as my larger ones did.
The regular size hoops are quite a bit larger, the hoops I used were the smaller 28 inch diameter ones made for smaller children. Take a tape measure with you or grab one in the store and just measure across one from one side to the other to get the same size.

Seeya............................................. ............ James

[nisfornostalgia]

that's awesome!!!! I'm going to try to figure out out to Paulie size it!

[Miro The Macaw]

Miro saw how much fun all the others were having, so he needed one, too-



Zoe even tried it- And sort of liked it-



We found something a LOT cheaper than hula-hoops- And more adaptable-
This is the rigid tubing that they sell at Home Depot-



It is more or less the same material that the hula hoops are made of, except it comes in 100 foot coils so you can make it whatever length you want, for smaller or bigger 'orbs'. Best of all, it is only $11.00 for 100 feet! I used 1/2", but they have it in 3/4 and 1" also, so you can use bigger or smaller as needed... It worked very well...

-Andrew

[Macawlvr]

Great job Andrew!!! The longer you leave the birds on it, the more addicted to it they get.

I also have a 100 foot roll of that same utility pipe to make some more for around here. Folks just need to make sure it is the heavy wall type, they have some there that's just too soft and won't hold the shape.

Again, great job and thanks for including the pictures of yours into this post.

Seeya............................................. ............ James

[Irish]

This is Z, Irish's hubby....

Greetings,

I've made a slight modification, when using the 1" cross pieces from Home Depot, a fully wrapped hula hoop can slide into them. So, for added strength I've used eye bolts in the one pair of cross pieces and only made one cut in the hula hoops that go in the other direction. This means that each of those cross pieces has a solid hoop through part of it and the two ends of the other hoop. This should improve the structural integrity of that "ball".

I've also used a chain across from the top to the bottom cross piece to hold it in shape more when the larger macaws are climbing on it.

Z.

[Macawlvr]

Thanks Z...I see it didn't take ya long to figure out the couple of things to make it better. I have also done those mods...the chain, rope or whatever one choose's to go from top to bottom to hold it in the original shape better is a good one...otherwise, it starts to droop and looks egg shaped.

The one you made for your crew was spectacular!!!

Seeya............................................. ................. James

[PEANUT]

That is what is happing to Kramers it is now somwhat egg shaped. he is a big Macaw and really loves his hoop ball. I will have to try the rope from top to bottom to try to shape it back up.

[Maui's Mom]

Amazing play place for the birds. I have 2 left thumbs and cant build anything but with these awesome directions, i may have to give it a try , notice the word "try". I think that you have some very lucky birdies to have a dad like you who took this much time to make them something so exjoyable.

[David S]

Awesome directions, James!! My son and I just finished a biggun for Gideon. He's on it now checking things out. I'll post pics later this week. Thanks for an awesome project!!!!!!!

Pics added............

[Macawlvr]

Originally Posted by David S

Awesome directions, James!! My son and I just finished a biggun for Gideon. He's on it now checking things out. I'll post pics later this week. Thanks for an awesome project!!!!!!!

Pics added............

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond David, I just now noticed your post...I can't imagine why I didn't see it before now.
Anyway, *Spectacular job on the H/ball!!!!!!*...so glad the project worked out for ya and I hope Gideon has as much on it as all of mine do. It is by far the most popular thing here for my brats and they would live on it 24/7 if I would let them.