Cage
1. What is the purpose of a cage?
A cage is what your parrot will be spending time in during the night and maybe partially the day time because if you have school or work. It is where your parrot will feel safe.
2. How big does a bird cage need to be?
In cartoons, you may see caged birds and they barely fit in it, but in real life, the cage needs to be a lot bigger than that.
An example of a good cage size for budgies would be 24 inches wide, 22 inches deep, and 42 inches tall. Bigger birds would need larger cages; no cage can be too big for a bird. In fact, the bigger the cage, the happier and more free your bird would be, considering the things you put in its cage of course, but we’ll get into that later.
The cage sizes that people in bird stores recommend are way too small to just keep your bird in. Those can be used as travel cages though.
3. Why such a big cage for such a small bird?
Birds will get bored in a cage with one perch and a bowl of water and seeds (what bird store owners will most likely tell you to do). Instead, what you want to do is to give it many toys to play with, a varied diet, and a variety of perches. Again, I’ll get into all of those later.
4. Can birds stay in their cage all day (cage size is big enough)?
Yes, only if you have fresh food and water and many toys. If you can, though, let them out of their cage as much as possible as they’re very curious creatures, so they like to explore.
5. What type of cage should I get (horizontal, vertical, rectangular, rounded roof)?
A horizontal, rectangular cage would be best because birds fly side to side, not up and down; rounded roofs make it difficult for them to fully spread their wings. They can also hide in the corners when they feel threatened
⚠️Caution⚠️: Birds can get stuck or escape from their cages even though all doors are closed because the bar spacing is too wide.
Budgie: ½” bar spacing
Cockatiel: ½” to ⅝”
Note: These are just a couple examples, but if you don’t have these types of birds, you’ll need to do your own research on the bar spacing.