Buying A Birdcage: Our birdcage buying guide will overview essential criteria and help you find the correct housing for your bird.
We have listed various features as a basis for our recommendation, such as the cages’ functionality, size, and equipment.
Birdcage Buying Tips
1. The optimal size – A birdcage can never be big enough!
A birdcage should not be a prison for birds but a pleasant place of residence and refuge. If it is not always possible to let open the birdcage and let birds move freely in the room as they please, you should purchase it as large as possible.
A birdcage for birds that cannot fly freely even under supervision should not fall below a specific minimum volume. Experts say that a birdcage should have a so-called flight space of at least two cubic meters in these cases.
A sufficiently large birdcage is also essential so that the birds can retreat from their conspecifics if necessary. It would help if you ever considered that food and drinking bowls and the perches need relatively much space in the birdcage.
If you want to buy a birdcage, you should ensure that a fully equipped birdcage leaves enough space for the birds.
A birdcage as large as possible is therefore ideal.
You can use the following dimensions as a guide to the minimum size of the cage if you want to buy a birdcage:
- Canaries, zebra finches: 80 cm x 50 cm x 50 cm
- Budgies, cockatiels: 120 cm x 100 cm x 60 cm
- Grey parrot, other large parrots: 200 cm x 100 cm x 100 cm
- Agapornides, dwarf parrots: 80 cm x 60 cm x 60 cm
These values are only a guideline and are valid if the birds can fly free regularly.
You can also use these minimum sizes for orientation for other bird species with similar body sizes. If you have much space in your home, you should always buy a more massive birdcage or aviary.
In principle, a birdcage can never be large enough.
2. Cages with a rectangular base are the best for birds
Cages with a rectangular base have proven themselves to keep birds in your own four walls for many years.
Rectangular cages offer the most space to the birds. Cells significantly longer than high are ideal for various bird species such as budgies.
Budgies, other parakeets, and tiny parrots like to fly horizontally through the whole birdcage. For other bird species, for example, finches or canaries, a birdcage or aviary that is higher than long is more suitable.
These two bird species like to jump in the birdcage from higher to lower perches.
Most bird species should buy a birdcage with a height to length ratio of about 1 to 2, and it means that the birdcage should be almost twice as long as high.
3. Round bird cages are not suitable for the attitude
Don’t buy round birdcages because of the limited fly attitude of birds. Round bird cages are for the mood of canary birds.
Today it is well-known that around birdcage makes orientation more difficult for the birds, that there are no corners. Besides, round birdcage does not offer a retreat possibility for the birds.
The base area is too tiny for round birdcages, and the birds have practically no possibility to fly at least a small piece through the cell.
4. A birdcage with a stand is useful and safe
A birdcage with a stand offers you and the inhabitants several advantages like it requires only a little space and a safe frame for the birdcage.
The birdcage does not take up space on a chest of drawers or sideboard hanging on a stand. With a frame, the birds better understand their surroundings and feel more secure in a birdcage.
However, a birdcage with a stand is only suitable for smaller cages. A large aviary or a large birdcage we cannot hang on a rack.
5. Arrangement and spacing of the bars in a birdcage
It would help if you also considered the arrangement and the distance between the bars to buy a birdcage or aviary.
Horizontal bars offer the inhabitants a popular climbing possibility, and they can hold on to horizontal bars with their feet very well.
However, most birds also love to slide down vertically running bars. The ideal is a birdcage with horizontal bars on the long sides and vertical bars on the narrow sides.
6. The distance of the bars in a birdcage is important
The distance between the bars is also essential, and small bird species can try to slip through if the bars are too far apart.
They often get stuck and injure themselves. Experienced bird owners recommend the following distances for different bird species:
- Grey parrots and other large parrots: approx. 26 – 30 millimeters
- Cockatiel: approx. 15 to 20 millimeters
- Budgies, canaries: approx. 10 to 13 millimeters
Under no circumstances should you buy a birdcage whose bars are getting coated with plastic or powder-coated.
The coating is especially by parakeets and parrots very quickly nibbled on and removed. The same applies if you want to buy an aviary.
7. Equipment that birdcage needs
Birdcages with a large and high plastic tub with a pull-out bottom have proven to be the best choice for many years. The actual cage is getting placed on this tub.
We can clean the smooth plastic surfaces for the birdcage. You can change the bird sand through the extendable bottom without reaching the birdcage.
Optimal for the supply of the birds are cages with several doors on different sides.
Depending on the number of birds living in the birdcage, there must be at least one bowl for the bird food and one bowl for the drinking water.
The birds can clean themselves thoroughly whenever you want; buy a birdcage or aviary with a birdbath.
In addition to this necessary equipment, there are other furnishings for the birdcage.
8. Accessories that birdcage needs
Most bird cages are delivered ex-works with perches made of plastic. These bars are easy to clean but not very suitable for birds. Please get branches as perches for the birdcage.
You can easily cut the branches with a knife to clamp between the bars. Natural components have the advantage that the different diameters train the birds’ foot muscles.
The foot muscles can atrophy over time with the uniform plastic seat bars. Another advantage is that the birds can nibble on the bark and sharpen their beaks.
However, when choosing natural branches, you should ensure that they are not poisonous trees or bushes such as yews.
A swing is also a popular accessory for a birdcage. Most birds like to sit on it and swing slightly back and forth, and it probably corresponds approximately to the natural movements of a branch.
Sometimes you can see a mirror in a birdcage. Mirrors are often getting hung in the cage as a replacement for a partner bird. It is better, of course, if two or more birds are getting kept in a birdcage. Then a mirror is not necessary.
Bird toys, like tiny bells, can provide a little variety. All furnishings in a birdcage should be made of as natural materials as possible and harmless to them.
Birds like to nibble at anything they can reach. If plastic parts break off and are swallowed, the birds can die. Even painted wooden parts do not belong in a birdcage.
9. Clean the birdcage regularly
The birds remain healthy and lively; we must regularly clean the birdcage and its mechanism.
Depending on the birds’ number and size and their remains, we must replace the bird sand daily. It is usually sufficient to change the bird sand every two to three days with few birds.
Drinking water and food must be filled and changed daily. We should thoroughly rinse drinking and feeding bowls at least once a week.
The cage’s bars and the plastic tray should be cleaned thoroughly every three to four weeks, rinsed, and dried again.
It is often best done in the bathtub or in summer outside with the water hose. The toys or the bird playground in the cage must be cleaned regularly, preferably once a week.
10. Choosing the best place for a birdcage
Depending on the species, birds can be pretty loud, but the birdcage location should be as quiet as possible. The living room, where the Television is on for hours, is not suitable for a birdcage.
Sometimes loud and sudden noises, as well as the changing lights, are very stressful for birds. Also, the kitchen is not the right place for a birdcage. The unavoidable smells also irritate and stress the birds.
Suitable locations for a birdcage are a dining room or a study where the noise level is usually even and not too high.
A birdcage should also not be placed in the middle of the room, as you can sometimes see in parrot cages. Birds are escape animals that are stressed by a panoramic view.
An ideal place without draught and direct sunlight in front of a wall or a room corner is perfect. A wall, or better still, two walls on two cage sides, offer the bird’s security and safety.
See Also: What Do Parrots Eat?
What are the right canary cage accessories?
The right accessories for the canary cage
The canary cage’s right accessories are crucial for species-appropriate keeping in addition to a bird’s healthy diet and sufficient water.
The canary cage is sufficiently large and offers space and freedom of movement for the bird or several canaries. The suitable accessories for the canary cage are manifold and consist, for example, of toys.
Here is how you can find the right accessories for the canary cage
However, the perches are the most important in the range of accessories for the canary cage. These should be made of wood and, if possible, be placed in the cell in different thicknesses.
The importance of the nests is also that a canary can sharpen its claws in this way. Other accessories for the canary cage, which you can easily buy in any pet shop, include bird sand as litter, and you should also buy a food and drinking bowl.
You should or should not buy this toy.
A small birdbath is suitable for toys. When you buy these accessories for the canary cage, you should always provide clean water because the birdbaths in the tub and drinks the water.
Toys that you should avoid are a mirror or a plastic bird. You can also allow your canary to fly around the house daily. However, the windows and doors should permanently be closed, and other potential sources of danger should be getting excluded.
Conclusion
There are many things to consider when choosing the right birdcage, but now you know what to look for in size, material, and equipment.
We hope that our guide will give you a good insight into the range of products and answer the most critical questions about bird cages.
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Last Updated on 18/03/2022 by Buzz This Viral
