ASAP Cage upgrade suggestions please!!!

[Breeze]

Hello,

I am about to purchase my alex a new cage and was wondering if it would be worth it?

The cage he is in now is Overall Size with skirting: 178(H) x 111(W) x 89(D)cm
with a play thing on top

and the cage i was thinking of getting him is this Overall Dimension: 183 x 123 x 90cm with an arched top



Please ASAP suggestions

 

[LordTriggs]

personally I would ditch the arch top and find a flat top or even play top one so it can be somewhere fun to hang out.

Also looks for something simple that doesn't have awkward parts to clean to save you pulling your hair out!

Outside of that all I can suggest is as long as he can flap his wings in there then that's fine and of course as always the bigger the better!

 

[ChristaNL]

LOL, have some cardboard ready.

Not saying this is something that happens to every bird...

Japie arrived in a way too small cage with a playtop/ closed ceiling.
He absolutely loved the large cage here so much he wanted to spend his days in there even faster than I hoped (Yes, I let them choose where to live if at all possible) but...
he could not sleep in there!
Probably something to so with feeling safe and being used to a dark something over his head.
The moment I put some cardboard on the top, he just sat down inside, stuck his beak in his feathers and never came near the old cage again (so after a few weeks I sent it back to his previous owners, at their request).

Yes he demolishes the cardboard of course - but once it is almost finished ....drama!
('till I put some new down and he is as happy as a clam)


Not saying you should not change cages, but know what your bird wants...
.

 

[SailBoat]

See above first, excellent suggestions!!

I'm also not a big fan of arched top cages as they add to the complexity of cleaning and limit what if anything you can place on top - as the flat tops offer additional vertical Parrot space.

I target cages that have a large front cage door, with my cage of choice having a top to bottom door opening. Like above, the large door just makes cleaning easier and also moving stuff in and out of the cage, including the Parrot.

Bar spacing is very important and you should only look at cages inwhich the spacing is smaller than the eye spacing of your Parrot as you look at your parrot from the beak side of its head.

Top opening cages are a serious No-No as they have a long history of falling closed trapping and serious injuring or killing your Parrot.

Assure that the cage is Powder Coated or Stainless Steel.

I target a cage that can be easily moved though the doorway in /out of the Home or Apartment. Clearly this does not apply to the Large Mac and Too cages.

Buy extra food and water bowls when you buy the cage. Just about the time you find you need them, the manufactures have moved on to something else.

Enjoy the hunt!

 

[Breeze]

This is his current cage,



Also just a quick question would this be good for 2 caiques

 

[SailBoat]

The cage you have is about one size in all directions smaller than the one I have for our DYA Amazon. I'm an Amazon Snob, so not aware of the eye spacing of a caique, which sets the bar spacing requirements. Whether you can place two caiques in the same cage is more a question of whether they in-fact get along and are both either male or females. If the two have rarely or never been housed together, I would not recommend placing them together and hoping for the best.

As with my Friend above, our Amazon spends so little time in his cage it barely makes sense to have one. That said, it provides him 'his space' and from time to time, he perches for naps and sleeping, but little more. It is also a safe place if we have guests that for whatever reason, he is not into and is his way of saying it.

 

[Kiwibird]

Going against the grain here, but I don't prefer those play tops. Would make it very difficult to cover the cage at night with one of those I'd imagine, especially if it were loaded up with toys, dishes, after market perches etc... Also, one more large surface area to paper and clean (and being up so high, you'd possibly need a step stool to reach up there to clean).

My bird seems to like his arched cage well enough and literally uses every square inch, inside and out. Not having a tray on top makes the cage more open, allows light in (especially important where we live, since we have to use a supplemental Featherbrite lamp in the winter due to it being so dark). Also, I don't think my bird would be too happy if he couldn't hang upside down from the ceiling of his cage like a large, green bat anymore

I think there are pros and cons to both types of cages. Which your bird will prefer is something you, as this birds owner who knows him best, will have to decide

 

[Amadeo]

Also looks for something simple that doesn't have awkward parts to clean to save you pulling your hair out!

I second that.
Having a pretty cage is all well and good, but when you come to clean it can be frustrating to deal with all the little areas. Best to choose a simple, clean looking and practical cage.

 

[EllenD]

I agree, I first had a huge arch-top cage for my Senegal, and not only did I hate cleaning it, hanging toys or anything else from it, etc. (it was just a total pain in the butt), but my Senegal got his toe stuck in one of the arched-pieces of the top of the cage, where the joints came together and met with the opening top...I wasn't home at the time, luckily I was only gone for an hour tops, but by the time I got home he had literally chewed-off half of his toe to free himself, but was still stuck by the end of the bone in his toe...He obviously lost half of his toe, including the entire toenail, and I rushed him to his CAV who had to use gas-sedation, x-ray his foot to make sure there wasn't any internal damage done or any bone-chips left inside, then he cleaned the entire would out, trimmed the shredded skin/muscle/tissue and clipped the end of the bone, then made a skin-flap and stitched it over the open end of the remaining quarter-half of his toe. He was on antibiotic injections and oral pain meds for 10 days. It healed nicely, no infection, but obviously he now has a "stump" with no toenail...I call him Jerry Garcia .

So he got a new cage, flat-top with a play-top on it, similar to the cage you have now (it does not open up at the top, it's just a flat-top with a play-top similar to yours on the flat roof). He loves it, and it's much easier to clean for me. So I'll never own another arch-top cage, nor a cage with an opening top/roof. Not worth it at all.