Making a Parrot enclosure from recycled satellite dish
Securing the dish for travel
What started out as a picture on the internet of someone making a screen room from a recycled sat dish I saw a few years ago, recently turned into a plan to make an outdoor atrium for our parrots. All we needed was to find a satellite dish and then the sky would be the limit!
As luck would have it, a few months ago Jon came home to tell me he found one that we could have on a piece of property that the bank he works for owns. So one misty Saturday the whole family jumped into the truck and off we went on an adventure that earned us much attention from folks as we drove our salvage home. The dish itself is 12 feet in diameter so when secured on the trailer it was quite tall riding down the road. But we made it home without incident and began to plan our enclosure.
As luck would have it, a few months ago Jon came home to tell me he found one that we could have on a piece of property that the bank he works for owns. So one misty Saturday the whole family jumped into the truck and off we went on an adventure that earned us much attention from folks as we drove our salvage home. The dish itself is 12 feet in diameter so when secured on the trailer it was quite tall riding down the road. But we made it home without incident and began to plan our enclosure.
Building the structure
Starting the build
Of course first thing we had to do was decide on where to put the enclosure. I wanted it to be kind of out of the way with some shade, some sun and in a location that I could see from the house so I could keep an eye on things. So in the end we decided on putting them up near the well behind our elemental garden. It gets equal parts sun and shade and it is a location the parrots are used to seeing from their window. Jon decided on a octagon shaped frame about a foot in from the outer edge of the dish. We initially were going to use pressure treated 4x4 posts but when we saw the cost of them we cringed. So we found landscape ties for a fraction of the cost and they worked out better then the 4x4 posts would have.
We dug holes about 30 inches deep and secured the posts by placing a support along the top, bottom and middle of the sides. The whole frame was leveled by section so that the dish would sit squarely on top and so that a door could be added to get inside that would open and close easily.
Finishing up the build
The Parrot box made from an old cage
Once the frame was made we attached stainless steel chicken wire to the structure also digging down over a foot into the ground to deter predators from digging into the enclosure. This was secured with staples and will not be easy to get in or out of. We then dismantled an old cage we had to use as an enclosure for inside the atrium. This will allow them to get out of the sun, rain, wind or just some place to feel secure. We put the food dish side towards the outside which we can access via a door. This will allow us to feed the parrots without going into the enclosure.
We also had some maple saplings that we cut down and placed into the enclosure as perches so that the parrots could navigate around inside from ground to box and also into the tub of water. I am hoping they enjoy their bath we made for them. It is much larger then their water bowl that they try to bathe in all the time now. It will all be trial an error as to what they like or dislike so I am sure we will be modifying it before too long.
So there you have it. How we took a recycled 12 foot diameter Satellite dish and converted it into an outdoor Parrot enclosure. Now lets just hope they love it!