Help on cage

[jojo123]

I am buying a cage for my adopted African Grey when I get her. I want a good sturdy cage. Any suggestion on size brand style etc? I want to buy one without making a mistake. Notice there are so many. I have owned a Macaw he was no problem in his cage it was a Prevue. Never had an African Grey.

 

[jojo123]

Some cages say Wrought iron some say stainless steel.. Worried about cheap cages for African Grey

 

[VeronicaJ]

I am buying a cage for my adopted African Grey when I get her. I want a good sturdy cage. Any suggestion on size brand style etc? I want to buy one without making a mistake. Notice there are so many. I have owned a Macaw he was no problem in his cage it was a Prevue. Never had an African Grey.

Hello and welcome! You'll make the same decisions for the Grey as you did the macaw.

1. Ample room to stretch out her wings with toys and perches.
2. Do you want a play area on top or just a flat top and create from scratch? Dome top for head space and do something from the ceiling?

*Stainless Steel is the top-grade. It's usually medical-grade steel and very easy to clean and wipe off messes and scrape off what's stuck without damage. It's very rust-resistant. Also why it's the most costly.

*Powder-Coated (which is what both I and my sister have) are still steel, but coated with a powdered paint, baked and holds up for many years. But a chewer can, eventually, chip through the powder-coating. It takes several years, however. It took about 5 yrs for her Catalina to get through.

*Wrought Iron still comes out of Mexico and South America which use paints that could still contain toxic materials. As pretty as they are, powder-coating replaced those a long time ago.

Choosing the right cage can seem overwhelming! But it doesn't have to be. As long as there are enough toys in the cage and out-of-cage playtime, the powder-coating will last a long, long time for our (mine and sis') fids.

If you can do the stainless...I will be forever jealous!

 

[ChristaNL]

lol, if you still have the macawcage, that would be fine imho

I always like to house them as huge as possible- give them at least room to spread and flap their wings when they are "at home" and not just when they are outside the cage to play.


(if you go for huge and stainless, I will join VeronicaJ in being really, really jealous )

 

[slicksimon4]

I think that with any cage you get, after you live with it for a while there will be things you would do differently if you were to design it yourself. Not quite buyers remorse just well thats kinda dumb. That being said, I recently got a new cage it is a Kings cage, one of the Euro top models and while it looks cool the top, the cool part, limits where and how you can hang toys. They all slide down the curve to the cross brace. Not a deal breaker but something that didn't occur to me in the store. The powder coating is better than what is on a prevue cage I have. It WIPES clean. No scrubbing yet. The prevue always makes you scrape unless you get it while its wet. So if I had it to do over I would get a play top or at least square top. I have no experience cleaning stainless but for the money ought to include a maid.

 

[Flboy]

Welcome! No matter what cage you get, make sure you give it a very thorough cleaning! We have a member around here that almost lost her babies over a brand new cage that was contaminated with metal dust!

 

[Scott]

Welcome, great advice above! Bigger is generally better, and save some budget for toys. A variety of chew and playthings makes cage-time more rewarding and comfortable.

 

[Allee]

Welcome to you and your African Grey, Congrats. Have fun choosing a cage for your future friend. My grey is maybe the messiest member of my flock, when you are comparing cages be sure to look closely at the details, some cages, especially the huge ones no matter how pretty can be really hard to clean and rearrange toys and perches, big cages should have big doors.