Earlier on, I mentioned about Kiki mastered the new Cup Stacking Trick on New Year’s Day. My aunt who visited my family during New Year’s Day was really impressed with Kiki’s performance of the new trick. She’s absolutely delighted. Oh gosh! Looks like Kiki is becoming the “centre of attraction” in my family, she got all the attention she wanted. *Jealous*

Lately, I received a couple of emails from friends asking about the Youtube video clip of Kiki performing the new Cup Stacking Trick. Honestly, I’ve yet to get it uploaded to Youtube but Kiki and I are really happy by your warm response. Do stay tune on our weblog and YouTube Channel! I’m sure everyone will get to see the clip by this weekend!

On today’s posting, I will like to share on how I created my own Cup Stacking Props rather than purchasing them off shelves. To be frank, it’s pretty hard to find any parrot trick props from pet’s stores in Singapore. Even you do find one, it’s definitely going to burn a hole in your pocket! Possible problems like the size of the prop might be too big or just unsuitable for our companion parrots. Thus, I do find that making your own props will be an ideal choice. Not only it’s cheap but you also customize the right size just for your own feathered pals.

For my Cup Stacking Props Project, I barely spent above two bucks. Sounds amazing right? I’m not kidding and it’s the fact. The items I bought are just a few coins from my pocket from any neighborhood stores.

Items for the Project:
1. Small Plastic Cups (Those that hawkers used to package chilli sauce) - $1 per pack (10 Cups in a pack)
2. Colored Insulation Tape (I’ve got myself a green one!) - 50 Cents

For the Cup Stacking Trick, I require 4 Plastic Cups. 1 of it will be the primary cup and the other 3 cups are to be stacked into the primary cup. In order, to let Kiki able to differentiate the primary cup from the other 3 cups to be stacked, I sticked the green tape around the primary cup. Thus, it will look different from the other cups. It’s a fairly simple project and does not take up too much time. I believe anyone interested can make one for your feathered friends!

Related Posting:
New Tricks for New Year

I’m scheduling Kiki to learn how to play basketball. Before getting her to expose to game, I need a decent props. I had been shopping around to different pets stores and even toys retail outlets to find a suitable basketball stand and ball for Kiki, but to my disappointment I couldn’t find one suitable for Kiki’s size. Either it’s too tall or too big. This motivated me start some DIY work. Yesterday, I went to a nearby hardware store to buy the necessary materials for my DIY project.

My Shopping List:
1. Acrylic Plate
2. Wooden Stick (with diameter of around 2cm)
3. Cable Tie

I’m planning to use the cable tie to form the ring of the net. The wooden stick to be grounded on to the pre-cut acrylic plate, and the cable tie affixed to the stick forming a basketball stand just like the one show in the picture below.

It’s a fairly simple project, which it only took me around 30 minutes in the morning to complete. Most of the items that I purchased from the hardware store were pre-cut, so basically my primary task is to assemble them together. Seriously, don’t you think it look more like a Netball stand rather than a BasketBall stand. *Haha* Who cares as long there’s a ring for her to dunk the ball in.

The Ring can be easily remove from the stand, so making storage of the prop easier. Keep finger crossing, if Kiki snapped the ring. I still able to redo the ring and fix back on to the stand. Now, I’m still on a lookout for a suitable object as the ball for the game. Wish me luck! Hopefully Kiki will be able to start learning this game.