No Cage?

[Marnie]

anyone keep a parrot without a cage? my IRN never ever goes in his cage. he lives entirely on the outside. his dishes are on top, he has a nice playtop and rope boing type perch that he is usually on and at night goes to sleep on a big wooden toy thing on the side.
i see no reason to keep the bird cage at all. he is just never in it.
this weekend i will be moving the cage out and replacing it with a big free standing wooden perch i made from a maple tree. there will be 3 shelves on the wall for his dishes and toys etc.
i have a couple smaller cages for him, like for camping, and one in the computer room. but he does not go in them either, just sits on top.

it only seems natural to me since thats how birds live in nature
anyone else have a "cageless" bird?

 

[vicky2200]

My birds have cages. I would recommend keeping the cage for awhile to make sure it works out.

 

[Joeyx]

it's great that he doesn't "need" his cage, and you can deal with any sort of destruction
that occurs around the house. but i think that all domestic birds need a cage as a retreat.

 

[KatherineI]

I personally would never have a bird without a cage. The damage they can do when you're not supervising them (and just like with kids, there is no possible way you can supervise them 24/7), is ridiculous. My Loki is left to his own devices, quite often being left alone in our bedroom while being on top of his cage. He does go inside to play with his toys though. We've been leaving the cage door open even while we're sleeping, but if I'm the only one home and I'm leaving the house, he goes in with the door closed.

I agree with Joey; keep the cage at least for a little while, to make sure this arrangement will work. You may find he doesn't like it, and prefers to be on his cage. I thought Loki would absolutely love a bigger cage, but I was wrong and he hated it! Your IRN may be similar.

 

[BillsBirds]

Years ago, parrots, particularly Macaws, were kept on ring stands. It was a large metal ring on a stand with a wooden perch and a food cup on each side and a pan below. Also, most of them were tethered to it by a ring around an ankle attached to a chain leash. Toys were attached to the perch or ring. Smaller birds were tethered to smaller rings, or T stands. And many of them lived long, healthy, stable lives.

 

[Joeyx]

Years ago, parrots, particularly Macaws, were kept on ring stands. It was a large metal ring on a stand with a wooden perch and a food cup on each side and a pan below. Also, most of them were tethered to it by a ring around an ankle attached to a chain leash. Toys were attached to the perch or ring. Smaller birds were tethered to smaller rings, or T stands. And many of them lived long, healthy, stable lives.

yeah i still see a lot of that going around. i actually prefer that method. minus
the chain leash though.

 

[Ash]

My Alexandrines have a cage but they are never really go in it(just to get food sometimes, although they have food bowls on top of their cage). They are very well behaved in the room they are kept in, well they do have a lot of toys and wooden toys to chew on. So they don't try to destroy the things in the room. But if they are in another room it's a different story. They love to be out of there cage and if I have to put them back into their cage, they just go.

When they sleep they usually sleep on their rope perch or this "box"(it's not really a box but kind of like a shelf with lots of tree branches coming out of it).

I love your idea of a free standing perch, I was thinking of having something similar for my Alexandrines.

 

[Remy]

I think it would be a good idea to keep the cage, even if it's just in a closet somewhere, in case you ever need to put him inside it.

Puck spends a lot of time outside his cage, but he's too destructive to leave out unsupervised. =P

 

[MaraWentz]

The leash on the ankle is very discouraged. Too many birds have tried to fly and broken their ankles on it. Plus it would be quite scary to come home and see them tangled up. As for the. Cage or cageless issue I find it up to your discretion. I have heard or a cage bound macaw that was quite aggressive, well they removed the cage and he lives on a java tree stand is now very docile and step ups, etc. But other than that I have heard no other accounts. My only concern is that you make everything parrot proof, or simply give it it's own room. I would have the paint and any wood or walls tested to see if either is toxic in case the bird should start munching. Good luck!

 

[Marnie]

here are a couple pics with the cage still in place.
you can see where he was working on my blinds. lol
the wood toy on the side is his "bed" and i will be keeping that.
i have since added some more cross pieces and will be adding more as needed. the cage will be out of there this weekend and i will update as
my project progresses.

 

[Mozzie]

My African Grey "Peppers" is the same way. She never goes in her cage. She hangs out on top of the cage all of the time. So I thought the same as you are thinking, and I put her a really cool stand in her spot for her to hang out. She was fine until bed time then she started asking to go to bed. Luckily I hadn't got rid of the cage. I had it sitting in the yard and my son was picking it up the next day. She saw it out the window and kept asking for it, so I brought it back in to her. I guess she likes it even though she doesn't like to go inside. So maybe just wait to give the cage away until you make sure your parrot will be ok without it. Maybe Peppers would of adjusted if I would of left it out longer. But maybe yours will be just fine without it. Let us know how it works out.

 

[MaraWentz]

Marnie how did it go?

 

[Molcan2]

Rome is only caged at night. During the day she has a 'cage' and goes in and out of it at her free will, shes completely loose all day mostly unsupervised. I think its terrible for them to be locked up in a cage all day. Eventually she'll have an aviary. I dont see why you couldn't get rid of the main cage, esp. since you have a few back ups. Heres a pic of Rome's set up.

 

[Lesa1211]

Marnie I really like your setup. I personally would leave the cage there. It looks fun for any bird. You never know when you might need it. If he does well out all the time now then leave him out. I just think it looks so cool and fun for him why change it.

 

[Tammy]

Since I don't work, Mr. Precious is hardly ever in his cage. I do put him inside & shut his door if I am running to the grocery store, etc. After watching him demolish the cord to the computer mouse I am terrified that I would arrive home to an electrified parrot if he wasn't caged when I go out.

He hangs with me in whatever room I'm in & sleeps on a playstand in my room. I would NEVER NEVER NEVER go 100% cageless for safety's sake. I love my little man way too much to jeopardize his health, safety & wellbeing by leaving him loose even if only for an hour.