Finding the Perfect Bird Cage

One of the most important things you need for your pet bird is a bird cage. The right cage will be your birds castle and help him to stay safe, healthy and feel secure. Choosing the right one can be a challenge, however as there are many different styles and sizes of cages.

The first thing you must consider is the type of bird that you will be adopting. Long tailed birds like parakeets and cockatiels will do best with a long cage in order for him to get the proper exercise. It’s ideal if your bird can fly from one side of the cage to the other. Lovebirds and some parrots like the Senegal parrot or any bird that is more stocky in body will get their exercise by climbing around in the cage so these types of birds prefer a cage that is taller than it is wide.

If you are getting a baby bird, you might consider starting off with a smaller cage and then having a larger one ready for when your bird “grows up”. The reason for this is that a small baby bird might feel lost inside a big cage and might have trouble finding his food and water dishes especially if he is a hand weaned baby used to special attention. Having said that, however, you do want to buy the largest cage you can for when your bird is an adult.

One thing that is critical in a bird cage is the spacing between the bars of the cage. Obviously, you wouldn’t want a cage with bars that the bird could fit between! A wire mesh cage should have holes smaller than the size of your birds head. Some birds, like cockatiels, will stick their head through one hole and then stretch their neck in a U shape and stick their head into a different hole instead of simply pulling it back out of the hole they stuck it in in the first place! Obviously you don’t want this to happen so you must consider size when buying these types of cages.

Along with size and bar spacing you want to look at the cage tray. You will be pulling this out to clean the cage so you want to make sure this will be easy and that there is something to prevent the bird from escaping through the bottom. Also, make sure the tray is deep enough – all the debris from your birds food like seed shells and discarded fruit will be down there and you want to be sure it will all come out with the tray. Speaking of which, birds can be pretty messy and just scatter their seed debris wherever they want so you want to be sure your cage can also be fitted with an apron or base of some sort to stop seeds from scattering on the floor.

The last thing you need to consider in a bird cage is the perches and cups. You can always buy different perches but you want to make sure you can situate them at different levels and that it will take perches wide enough for the feet of the type of bird you are buying. Be sure the food and water cups are easy to get to without opening the cage (they usually have their own little doors you can slide open). If the cage is for a large parrot, you might want to make sure the cups bolt right to the cage as these big guys are known to toss their dishes around when they can.