Dog Dish Nest Bowls & Coconut Fiber Nest Pads

johnnyksspeedshop · January 2, 2012

Hello fanciers, i'm sure many of you have heard about or use the plastic dog dishes as nest bowls. They can be found for just over a dollar a piece, and are very stable. I've been using these bowls for awhile along with hay as nesting material. Although the nests are nice, the loft looks very messy with the birds dragging hay all over the place. You also do not know if there are any types of bugs hiding in this type of nesting material. Anyway, i'm not fond of ordering materials over the internet and having them shipped here, and often cant wait for something to arrive because I have procrastinated too long. Well, I wanted to find a different nesting material that is a little more appealing to the eye and makes cleaning a little easier. I needed something that would provide traction to prevent splayed legs as the plastic these dog bowls are made of are slippery, but I also live in Minnesota and need something that retains heat well. While looking around my yard for ideas, I noticed that my neighbor, an avid gardener, had hanging flower baskets, and holding everything in was a fiber mat of some sort. I immediately headed down to the local garden store (Linders), and found that they sold this fiber in mat, and it was coconut fiber. So I bought a decent sized sheet of it, cut one circle so it perfectly fit the bottom of the nest bowl, and traced its outline repeatedly on the rest of the fiber mat, and cut out a whole bunch of them. Anyway, they have worked out great so far. Here are some pictures:

As you can see (dont mind the mess), the bowls are a great size because the young can easily deposite their droppings outside of the nest bowl, keeping their feathers and bottom clean.