hi, to everyone. i have six kakarikis, and they been in a very large cage they are all about 2 months old, i now need to put them out side is a grass floor ok for them would like your expert opinion many thanks
Grass is fine, having earth is far more natural for them to dig around
The down side is damp soil is prone to intestinal worms.
There is a thread how to check your birds for worms search for microscope
A Regular worming maintance and possibly a little cider vinegar added to veggies once a week could prevent....also regular mist spraying of fight every 2 to 3 weeks with 50/50 vinegar and water
Another issue is rats/mice digging in...with grass/dirt floors this is usuallt prevented with panels of vibrolite or similar buryed about 300/400mm verticaly around the outside edges as an underground wall. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
If u are considering concret.....It is not as a dunting task as one may think
Most of our flights I have done so with the birds still in there
I dig a hole for a 20L bucket with holes in at the lowest draining piont(s) and a bit of boxing around, so the bucket can be pulled out easy.
With the dirt from the hole, gently shape the ground surface to drain to the hole(s)
Mixup mortar about 5 or 6 to 1, and add some fast set additive, carry in to flight in 20L bucket, tip out and float off, between 5 and 15mm thick.
A flight 2.8mx 1.2m is only about 1 1/2 to 2 20L buckets of mortar
(1L = 1mm per sq m)
Once set, to keep clean , we speas a couple mm of pumice sand over the floor...once a fortnight, the sand is raked with a small hand leaf type rake, debris, seed etc picked up and a few more handfulls of sand spread on the bare patches.
Time to do 12 flights (between 20 to 70 birds) plus scrub out water trays, scrape build up on edges, perches etc about 45 mins.
Total debris about 15 to 20L....
Total sand used is about 0.15 cubic M ($NZ5) 3 times per yr...
I only need to water blast/clean flights every 3 to 4 yrs. _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
We have auto water systems (work hard at being lazy)
The bucket is in the ground, mesh over it, the water trough sits over it.
Access water over flows into the bucket in the ground , that holes in and slowly drains away.
Also in a heavy storm, access water drains away, or if water blasting/cleaning, the water drains away...
helps keep floors dry, and dry out fast, reducing ground damp, preventing intesinal worm eggs from hatching, and surving.
The orginal concept was the bucket pulls up, and easy to carry away to clean out crap in the bottom...but in practice its just easier to, scoop up the crap every 6/ 9 months by hand.
Great for adding around roses, tomatos ...u may have to pay for seed /veggies etc , but dont need to buy fertalizer for your gardens
Can call it "recycleing" or just beng a miser
Then feed the rose hips back to the birds ... _________________ My Spelling is Not Incorrect...It's 'Creative'
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum