What do fellow parrot owners do to protect their funiture?

Yay for you! Surprised the parrot lived. My friends have a "bird room" that was specifically built on as an addition to their home. Not everyone can do that. I would just cover everything with throws or plastic and remove when guests arrive.

My son has a blue and gold. He is allowed to peck at his computer chair, but nothing else. Provide him a large wrought iron bird cage with lots of wood to chew on and toys to chew on. Put him in their to direct him to chew only in his cage when he chews on furniture. When my son is gone, Jayden is kept in the cage or he knows he will start attacking cords. You can teach dogs to not chew, you should be able to redirect his chewing to acceptable spots, like in a cage. We have a hybrid cat, four dogs and two birds (the other is a conure). The Conure is a rescue, but stays in his cage all the time as he bites, and would make a good chew toy for the dogs. Don't let the bird lead your life with destructive behavior. It is nice that you let him out to be free, but there is a limit to freedom with a bird in the house. They have to have limits to destructive behavior. He purchases wood at the home improvement stores that are untreated. He uses a 2x4 in his cage and so far it has lasted a couple of years. There are many chew toys out there for your African Grey. If you go to Drs. Foster and Smith online, you can see all kinds of things at decent prices. They even have things separate so you can make your own. The also have the brackets for holding pieces of wood for him to chew on. Good luck!

Our friend had an African Grey... and her cage had a playground on top of it.... make it more interesting and attractive than the furniture... and don't feed him/her away from the cage.

Your article doesn't say whether he has a cage or not but it is a good home base for a bird once you provide ample space and toys to chew/play on. I am not suggesting that he be locked in all the time, but you should provide one for him to use as he desires and have a place to eat. I had a couple of branch perches spaced around my house for my cockatiel and she flew from perch to playground to cage as she wished. It is never a good idea to let your bird chew on the furniture (toxins, couch stuffing, treated woods, etc., can be deadly) but with redirection of activity and the provision of cuttlebones and other chewables, you may be able to retrain your rescue. I commend you, your kind heart, and your efforts.

Have you tried having his beak trimmed and get him some chew toys?

obviously its not the birds fault. We humans take birds with infinite freedom in the wild, and stick them in a house or cage where they go completely bonkers. Yes, a lot of our birds now are captive raised but non the less, they are still BIRDS.,

In MY experience..and I have done avian rescue for over 40 years....Clip his wings, and buy him..or better yet build him a free standing playgym where he can't reach your furniture. Rotate toys and various interesting things constantly.

A friend of mine searched the internet for branches that were safe for his birds then proceeded to build the most AMAZING birdie habitat. When a branch is worn? He simply replaces it with another. He uses stainless steel wire and galvanized screws to attach branches It's a parrots dream. !

It is not mean to cage the parrot , their cage is their safe haven. My sun conure is 25 years old and very happy,his cage is in our kitchen, which is center of home.

Your bird is bored. Give it stuff to do..

My African grey, Merlin, has a large cage with a looped fabric/wire perch on top. Next to his cage is an open "playground". Both have toys for him to destroy at will. Because I now have no cats I leave his door open and the cages are where he can't quite reach the windowsills, hanging art or the table. Plus we have his beak trimmed twice/year.

First I want to commend you for taking in a rescue Grey. They are so intelligent and are marvelous birds. Mine died recently.

Yes - give them something to do. Yes, they can be caged. It is not cruel to do so. It is their nest. Yes, they can be trained - but they are intelligent and willful, so can test you. Yes, give them toys to destroy. I have leather furniture and my Grey was not allowed on them unless he was being held. He learned that was mine and became OK with that.

I have an African Grey whose 3 years old, her name is Sasha Liz. My husband makes toys for her out of hard plastic toys from Dollar Tree. He also uses children's unpainted building blocks for her to chew on. We have various toys hanging in her cage and on top where the playground is. She also likes bell's, mirrors and knotted rope. We also stuff treats in toilet paper rolls filled with shredded paper so she can forage. And It's true that you have to change out their toys because just like kid's, parrots get bored with their toys. We keep her wings clipped, toenails clipped but not her beak. Her cage door is always open so she can come and go as she pleases but.....she is never out of my sight or left on her own. These birds can do some incredible damage to your furniture and other things they can get their beaks on. But they can also get into a lot of dangerous trouble. I keep a sheet hanging on the back of the cage to give her a "safe " corner to go in to. Bedtime and times we're not home, she stays in the cage. She feels safe inside of the cage instead of out in the open. And at night I pull the sheet over the entire cage and Sasha Liz says"Time to go nite, nite".

We never have had his beak trimmed. But he has a huge cage full of toys and pretty chewable things. Once in awhile we do lock him in the cage, he gets bitey sometimes.

Constant supervision is the only solution!

My conure is happy in his cage with all his toys and treats. He even talks to all the birds outside. It is for his safety that he stays in his cage. our youngest puppy is not respective of birds yet and Rascal would make a real good chew toy until Sarge gets older. Even the cat goes and visits with him a couple of times a day. Jayden, the blue and gold is kept in his cage while my son is at work and at night to roost. My son lives in the basement and so he does not have anyone keeping an eye on him while he is gone. Jayden is happy with his arrangement and is a real nice bird, except to me, and I was the one who fed him when my son was in school or work. When we got him he was real young and still being hand fed. For some reason he objects to me going into my sons room since he was weaned. Rascal has not been able to be retrained not to bite and we have tried for three years, since we adopted the conure. None of our animals are treated as accessories, We think of them before we think of ourselves when we do anything. We have four dogs, a hybrid cat, two birds, and six aquariums (5, 70. 85. 90, 125, and 150 gal, tanks ). I think we know how to treat animals. We have two rescues, the bird and a dog, and both have their quirks that come from being raised by someone else and being on the street for months, both were brought back to health by us, but they will probably never get over their quirks.

We sound a lot alike. We have 10 rescue chickens and a duck. They are pets. A rescue Pitt and then two Pitt six month pups. Both our rats, both cats and our hedgehog along with Aurthor are all rescued. We also have a 90 gallon tank. Like I said in my original statement he had been kept in a laundry room with no windows for nine years when we took him. We understand he has issues. We all do. It's more important to us that he is happy than about the couch. But thru all this discussion it's obvious to me now that he needs more attention than he's getting now. Thanks for the insight.

You can see Aurthor's large cage in the picture. Beside his cage are the rats and a hedgehog.

I'm not sure about length. We have a vet who knows birds. Their beaks and claws should not get so long they have issues esting or getting around. Also a perch made out of a stone-like material helps.

There are bird rescues, and breeders that are very qualified in grooming birds without doing them any harm. Find someone in your area experience in birds that can help you. Caging a bird when you're not there to supervise it is really not a bad idea.

I don't have space to make him a separate room, but I arranged for him a small area in the living room. There he has some wood twigs and many toys to chew if he wants, but I don't allow him to chew things around the house. He adores sunflower seeds so I put small containers with them in different places, to distract him from chewing my furniture. Also, I found some bitter spray for the furniture, but I'm afraid he will still chew it sometimes and the spray and these spays are toxic so, I didn't try it yet. Overall it's not that bad but there are a few pieces that he totally destroyed. Maybe plastic or steel furniture can be a solution, we'll see.

We had a miniature parrot and we clipped his wings so he could not fly. During the day we put him in our small back yard on a bush and he was perfectly content chewing on the branches (we had a dish of water for him also). I went out and played with him now and then. At night we brought him in the house and put him in his cage. He would look at me and say "Hello, Kiko". Kiko was his name and when he said that, he wanted to be fed. He was so much fun.

I designed a large aviary for one of my clients and it was floor to ceiling, walk in, up against windows and was powder coated steel mesh panels on 2x4 framing.

It had hooks for swings, tree branches, shiny toys and of course a scrubbable floor.

You could use a kiddie pool as the floor & build a round one.

Hi Susanne, hope this helps you out

https://beakcraze.com/how-to-stop-your-parrot-from-chewing-furniture/#:~:text=to%20chew%20furniture.-,Distract%20them%20With%20Chewing%20Toys,much%20interested%20in%20the%20furniture.

i would so love to find out about that so I am following