Advice in cage setup

[Ezekiell]

Hi everyone! We’re now preparing in earnest for when our feathered baby comes home (a few weeks to go yet!).
I’ve now set up the cage and given it a good scrub with vinegar solution, and washed all the perches off with the same.

Now I’m trying to arrange his things into a suitable setup (before I wash all the toys in the dishwasher again just to be safe!). It’s not the largest cage I’d like for him but it’s the one that fits our space (and through the door) best, and he’ll only be in there whilst we’re at work during the week and to sleep.

I’ve never set up a parrot cage before and I’m having trouble figuring out the balance between enough space to move and enough stimulation. I’m wondering if anyone can let me know if my current arrangement is suitable?

The bowl on the left is going to contain his water with the bowl on the right being for his morning chop. The back bowl I’m planning to hold his cage appropriate foot toys. He also has some kabobs and a party forage ball I can slot onto a kabob, and I’m planning to put one of these in each day in different locations around the cage loaded with fresh stuff he can forage whilst we’re at work. He’s also got a little ladder I haven’t put in.

I’ve also got spare toys I plan to switch out every week to keep him stimulated (ie, I have a smaller swing that can be swapped with the big one, a pipe forage, and a few different hanging/chew toys).

Thanks a bunch!

 

[AlanW]

One thing we do with new brightly colored wooden toys is to soak them in water for an hour or so, and then set them out to dry. This will get the excess dye off of them. Better the extra dye goes down the drain than in the birds mouth.

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Oh! Let me take some photos of our latest setup.

It's really a juggle. I always keep a few things in mind:

- make sure higher perches don't overlap with lower perches ideally to avoid poop situations
- keep a high perch in a corner for them to sleep in and surround that perch with toys as foliage to hide behind
- keep an open space in the middle for them to do at least a short flighted hop across the cage
- make sure there's still space for them to comfortably open their wings

I don't know much about caiques - are they birds that like to play on the ground/bottom of the cage? If so, you might have to rework your initial approach.

My advice is to setup your cage now, but then follow your bird's lead. He'll decide where he feels comfortable sleeping, where he likes to chill out during the day, etc. And just adjust his cage slowly to help him with those wants and needs

 

[Laurasea]

Charmedbyekkie,
Gave you excellent advice! Yiubset it up then tweak so everything is used by the bird, I adjust stuff all the time.

 

[Ezekiell]

Oh! Let me take some photos of our latest setup.

It's really a juggle. I always keep a few things in mind:

- make sure higher perches don't overlap with lower perches ideally to avoid poop situations
- keep a high perch in a corner for them to sleep in and surround that perch with toys as foliage to hide behind
- keep an open space in the middle for them to do at least a short flighted hop across the cage
- make sure there's still space for them to comfortably open their wings

I don't know much about caiques - are they birds that like to play on the ground/bottom of the cage? If so, you might have to rework your initial approach.

My advice is to setup your cage now, but then follow your bird's lead. He'll decide where he feels comfortable sleeping, where he likes to chill out during the day, etc. And just adjust his cage slowly to help him with those wants and needs

Māui likes to climb everywhere. He’s not flighted currently but caiques tend to want to climb and walk/hop rather than fly.

Hmm, I have noticed when we visit him that he likes to hop onto the floor of the cage and bumble around there. I was thinking of having a small ladder from the floor leaning against the cage bars to encourage him to climb when he goes down there. And his forage buffet ball and some other forage toys I was planning to strew around the floor to amuse him during the day whilst we’re at work.

I’m not sure what his wingspan is, so I’m not sure he has enough space. Unfortunately we could only afford to have just above the minimum size cage for him due to space. It’s quite challenging to setup because of this!

Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep playing around the with locations of things and then see how Māui likes it when he comes home and go from there. Thankfully I have lots of different toys already so there are heaps of configurations I could work with

 

[Ezekiell]

One thing we do with new brightly colored wooden toys is to soak them in water for an hour or so, and then set them out to dry. This will get the excess dye off of them. Better the extra dye goes down the drain than in the birds mouth.

Thanks! I was wondering how to wash his wooden toys, so I haven’t done that yet. Luckily, the sun is coming out again after raining heaps so I’ll try and wash/dry whilst the sun lasts.

 

[KawaiiTori]

It doesn’t look like you have a “boing” in there. It’s a favorite in our house...as a matter of fact I just bought a second one today! I have to say, when I first set up Tori’s cage I way overestimated the need for perches and way underestimated the need for toys!

 

[Ezekiell]

It doesn’t look like you have a “boing” in there. It’s a favorite in our house...as a matter of fact I just bought a second one today! I have to say, when I first set up Tori’s cage I way overestimated the need for perches and way underestimated the need for toys!

I haven’t put his boing in there. It’s one of the things for regular swap outs; either the round swing, leather swing, or boing can be in there at any one time. We’re actually planning to hang his boing on one of the walls so he can play outside the cage when we’re home.

I’ve actually just made another toy order tonight and washed all his toys in vinegar/boiled water solution. He has heaps of forage toys but I’m going to progressively introduce them as he’s never foraged before; he’s starting with kabobs and the clear star hide toy.

I’ve also freed up some space for him to fly across the cage by removing the perch over the shelf, moving the java perch higher up the back to be a roosting perch, and added in a ladder from the floor up the side of the cage.