Home, Sweet Home

Finally!  A finished bird "room".  They get their own wall behind me here in the parlor.

The cockatiels live in Kings stainless steel cages.  Out of the thousands of dollars worth of cages that I have used over the years (Hagen, an off brand powder coated, Prevue, Cages by Design and Visionary Cages), I love these the best and have kept them the longest.  I did retrofit the slide out trays so that they rest right under the grate rather than the lower area they are meant to slide into.  I don't use the seed catchers, I find them too bulky.  I also removed the large cup rings from the swinging doors and buffed the stainless smooth where they were detached.  I like my smaller 5cc cups that are attached with stainless wing nuts.

The perches are a mix of ribbonwood, Sandy Perches, Eucalyptus and the single wide dowel rod that came with them.  Each cage has an Ott light in a bell shaped fixture that sits on the cage top.  Toys are natural made from parts found at Birdsafe Store.
 
There is a 5x8 bamboo "rug" underneath for easy cleaning.  The rug is really a bamboo wood mat, not one made of bamboo fibers.  The best that I have used are the Anji Mountain rugs.  You can also find them on Overstock.com for a low enough price to take the abuse of flying food and poop.  The ones that I have seen in chain stores are not as well made from what I have seen.  All you need to do is scrape it off with an old kitchen knife and vacuum.  If you are using the bamboo on top of a pile carpet, you must put down something solid like a thin board, to stabilize it or the bamboo slats can break when weight is applied (I made this mistake with my Anji rug a few years ago).

The quilting fabric is an In the Beginning pattern called Adelaide.  It hangs on a 5/8" curtain rod held to the wall with smaller cafe rod hangers.  This way, it stays close to the wall like a tapestry without the expense of a specialized rod and hangers.  It is backed with a full sized sheet and can be taken down and thrown in the wash.

The canaries to the right are kept in a Kings powder coated cage (bottom) and Prevue basic small cage (top).  I have one more of the Kings cages out of the photo off to the right with my young American Singer male in it.