I'm trying to decide what the better option would be...

In our new home, we'll have 2 spare rooms. I want one to be a guest room and one to be an office or bird room. Or perhaps the guest room could be an office/guest room.

My hang-ups are....

If I had the birds in the living room, where Joe and I spend most of our time, they wouldn't get to bed on normal times because we're up at all hours watching tv/movies...and we plan on getting a 60" flat screen, which I imagine will be very bright.

If we did a bird room, I'd have their stands in the living room and they could hang out on them, however Jasmine gets bored on her play stand and would prefer to search the floor for a nesting area *rolls eyes* Also, how would you hang rope Boings from a vaulted ceiling??

What are you thoughts on a bird room? They'd only be in there while we're at work, running errands, and sleeping.

I also plan on getting a LARGE used cage for out on the screened lanai so they can get their fresh air and sun.

Thanks for any insight.

I think it's a good idea to have their cages in a separate area from playstands and/or hanging gyms/boings. My guys seem to like that at least. Their cages are in our office/library, which we do frequent a lot since that room is in a main area of the house. But when they come out of their cages we generally convene in the living room and that's where all of their out-of-cage fun stuff is.

Like you, I don't think we could keep the cages in our living room due to the TV being on watching movies or playing video games. When it's time for the birds' bed time I close off their room as much as possible and they seem content.

i have sleep cages in my studio, and i love that. the birds can go to bed at a decent hour, but my husband and i can stay up without disturbing them. so yes, i think a "bird room" is a great idea.

can't help you with the vaulted ceilings, though!

a bird room sounds quite a good idea but not sure that you can leave them free and unattended.

We converted our office next to the family room, into the bird room last year. It keeps the main mess contained. We pull the big perches out in the evening for family time but they play in their room all day. If they get obnoxious, I can simply close the door. It also helped when we had all of this construction going on.I was able to close the door and put a towel under it to keep fumes out. If you only have 1 baby, Id keep in it the family room. But multiple birds are better suited in a room of their own. Especially if you're a neat freak like me.

Meany me, I make my husband and boys go to bed themselves so they won't disturb Ruby! ha!

I sure am a clean freak, but the fids still seem to make messes on their stands and flying around

Flinging fruits, pasta, and nuts all over (they have snack dishes on 2 out of 3 of their stands). I should get one of those robot vacuums as all the floors are stone tile or wood (thank God! I HATE carpet)!

So, okay...a bird room sounds like that'll be the plan! For once, our Hedgehog will possibly get some peace and quiet!
Hmm...where to put the Hedgie, though...

I guess I should not get ahead of myself here. We're putting an offer on our house tomorrow. Wish us luck please.

I read an article a few weeks ago (I think it was one Karen posted) that had me really considering my motives for having Ollie live in a bird safe room in the future. The lady who wrote the article made the statement that bird rooms are really for the people- and not in the best interest of the bird. She went on to say that birds do best living with the family, where the action is...not secluded in a part of the house where mess and noise can be contained.

I've since told Matt that probably the only way I'll now have a bird room in the future is if we get another grey. Otherwise we'll keep doing what I do now- cage and all gyms spread through the house where the action is.

I think bird rooms are a great concept as long as it doesn't turn into- okay, if you keep making that annoying noise you're going back to your room, or now that the bird has it's own room, they dont need as much human interaction, out of cage/room time, etc etc. Because then it becomes a room for the human's benefit, not the bird's. I also think that a bird who's cage is in the living room (other main room) is going to get more attention (talking back and forth with it, etc) than one who is secluded in it's own room.

I don't know, does any of that make sense? Like I said, I'm battling with this same thing, although I won't have to decide until much further into the future...

You do have a good point Camille. Recently my husband suggested turning our spare bedroom (which is the FURRY animals' room when the birds are out!) into the bird room - but I immediately nixed that idea because we never spend time in that room except to clean up. Right now the birds' cages are in a room that we're in a lot (our computer is in there) and can see from the kitchen, which we're in a lot as well. So even when the birds are caged they are getting a lot of attention and interaction with us.

Our house is pretty small and whenever we move to a larger house eventually I will have to think about these issues as well.

"Bird room" could simply mean a sleeping room to some - some people have play cages that are different than sleep cages. I can see having a room for sleep cages only eventually, but that would be as secluded as I'd want to go.

Yea, good points, Camille!

The only reason we'd have a bird room is so they can have a stable sleep schedule.

Putting them in the bird room to avoid their noise wouldn't work as all flooring is hard, no carpet...nothing will absorb the noise in our house

Thank God it's agricultural land so no one can complain and make me "get rid" of my birds