Cage for lovebird?

[bug_n_flock]

Howdy folks.

I find myself as the proud new mommy to a "5 week" old peach faced previously lovedbird. For now she is sleeping in a small cage on a heat pad since she is so young and still being hand fed, or she is on me being socialized, warmed, fed, and loved on. She will grow out of this precious baby stage, though, and soon will need a large sturdy domain over which to rule. My local bird shop closed last year, and That's the only place I've ever bought cages from. Before I shell out the big bucks to go the route of "the best I can find at petcosmart/Drs Foster and Smith/Amazon", are there any little-known-of places online to find a lovely cage?

Cheaper is better, but I want something sturdy and large. Not interested in dinky "tabletop" style cages. Something powder coated and cat proof that stands on legs preferably on wheels and ideally with a bottom shelf and the absolutely perfect cage would have a play top.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

Here are the Amazon links to my cages. I don’t own lovebirds, but these cages will work for any type of smaller parrot such as budgies, parrotlets, lovebirds, conures, cockatiels, etc. All four of them are Prevue cages, and I haven’t had an issue with them. I know you wanted some lesser known stores but Amazon is the only place I’ve ever gotten cages. I know some people recommend birdcages4less to buy cages for a better price. I will also list the pros and cons of each cage:

Ducky’s cage - Prevue Wrought Iron Flight Cage
Link: http://a.co/cWdjXZl
Pros:
Huge!
Bottom shelf
Sturdy wrought iron
Lots of doors
Wheels
1/2 inch bar spacing (appropriate for lovebirds)
Cons:
No playtop
Was hard to assemble
No seed guard
Food cups are plastic, I replaced them because I use stainless steel cups

Kermit’s cage - Prevue Pagoda Cockatiel Cage
Link: http://a.co/0Cia9vs
Pros:
Huge!
Sturdy
Nice Pagoda top
Easy access to food bowls, the cage comes with special small doors so you can take out the food bowls without the bird coming out
Seed guard included
Wheels
Landing-style doors (so birds can sit on them like a platform)
Stainless steel food cups
Cons:
Bar spacing is 5/8 (not sure if lovebirds can get stuck in it, it’s good for tiels and conures but not budgies)
No playtop
No bottom shelf
Tall, so bird tends to stay near the top (I put my food bowls near the bottom so the bottom part gets used)

Pearl’s cage - Prevue Park Plaza Cage
Link: http://a.co/bZ8VJiV
Pros:
Nice and big
Bar spacing is 1/2
Easy access to food bowls (same as Kermit’s)
Wheels
Sturdy
w/Seed guard
Stainless steel cups
One large main door
Double locking system
Cons:
No playtop
No bottom shelf

Bluebell’s cage - Prevue Parkway Cage
This cage is very similar to Pearl’s with a few differences: the bars are thicker, it’s heavier, and it comes in white as well as black and brown (the Park Plaza Cage only comes in black or brown). They made this cage four years ago when I got Bluebell, before they came out with the Park Plaza Cage (Pearl’s cage) but I don’t know if they make it anymore. On Amazon, it says ‘currently unavailable’ and I don’t know if you can buy it somewhere else.

Some other Prevue cages I was looking at:

Prevue Dometop Cage:
http://a.co/8fcG27E

A smaller version of the Wrought Iron Flight Cage:
http://a.co/byNpAoY

Prevue Wrought Iron Select Bird Cage (this one has a playtop but has 3/4 bar spacing, which is too big for lovebirds)
http://a.co/63Kv53p

 

[bug_n_flock]

Omgosh you rock, such a write up! Thank you for the info

From phone

 

[bug_n_flock]

Ok wait now I'm concerned/confused. I just measured my cages and Fatty's bar spacing is 5/8" and it's totally fine I thought. There is absolutely no way his fat head is fitting thru that tiny space. What am I missing here? Or is it stated as too big a space so people who push it when it comes to what is written as ok will still be ok if they go past the suggestion? Or am I being stupid and overestimating Fatty's head and putting him in danger?

From phone

 

[FlyBirdiesFly]

About the bar spacing, when I was thinking about which cage to buy for Pearl (she was in a smaller cage before I got the big one) I posted on this forum asking if I could use 5/8” for a budgie or if I had to use 1/2”. I was actually looking at the dometop cage which I posted the link to, which has 5/8” spacing, but people told me to stick with 1/2”. I thought I could get away with it because Pearl often sneaks into Kermit’s cage and I couldn’t really imagine her being able to fit her head through those bars. But people told me not to go larger than 1/2” so I stuck with the Coco Brown Park Plaza cage.

 

[bug_n_flock]

Hmm. Maybe then I should buy Fatty a new cage and give his current one to the baby...

From phone