Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Home Sweet Home Part II or Let's try a new type of cage

Just when I thought it was safe to call the bird area completed.....

Cinco and Sugar have moved into the main bird area in their Prevue cage.  I moved Willow into their cage after they all spent time together out of the cages during the morning cleaning routine.  I was worried about her falling off the perches as she tried to move out of the younger tiels way in the girl-bird mansion.

Willow has a curling feather shaft on her right wing that causes the flights not to grow correctly.  The vet wants to leave it alone at the moment, so the move to a less rambunctious cage was my way of protecting her from slipping off perches while being pushed out of the way by the new young girls.

Cinco, of course loves her. Willow won't let him into her "personal bubble", but they get along quietly together.  Sugar is neutral and stays out of both of their way.  It looked a bit cramped in there and Sugar seemed to get the bottom end of the deal, which I worry about given her age.

So now I decided to look for a new cage for the new birds to live together in.  Cages have changed a bit since I purchased my stainless.  The tried and true brands have line either fully or partially made in China, so you have to look closer now more than ever.  I cannot ever recommend MIC as non-toxic.

My stainless cages are wonderful and I will recommend them above all others.  However, they are huge and I just don't have the room on the wall to put a third mansion.  I really wanted stainless, but no one was interested in making a custom cage in the smaller size that I wanted.  I like the powder coat cages, they are the easiest to clean with that slicker than bare metal painted surface.  I don't really like painted cages, though.  Inevitably they will nick and rust somewhere.

After browsing through various catalogs and sites, I went back to King's Cages and decided to take a look at the new aluminum line of cages.  The last time I had aluminum framing was with Visionary cages, which I donated to a rescue when I changed to the stainless.  I will post cage reviews with every day real use ratings at a later date.

The size and price were right, so I decided to take the plunge.  I wanted the flat top without the playpen.  My tiels prefer to hang out on cage tops rather than play gyms of any sort.


The difference in the stainless and the aluminum is obvious as soon as you pick up the two boxes they are delivered in.  The cage is extremely lightweight.  The aluminum is more of a squared framing.  The bars are slightly thicker and hollow.  It slides together with little brackets pre-screwed onto the frames.  The vertical bars go down through a hole in the center of the horizontal square "bars".  The birds are much happier in this several inches more room manor home.  Everyone has their own favorite perch.  The ladder is one that I had in my perch bin and serves as an easier way for the bourkes to get from bottom to top since she likes to fly and hop rather than fireman slide and climb on the bars.

I would love if King's would offer this size and style of cage in stainless!!!  Ok, maybe not.  I have enough already.