Lesson 3: Decision Made - Now What?
You’ve made a firm decision to buy the bird of your choice whether it’s an adult that needs a home or a recently weaned baby. The first consideration for homecoming will be the cage, then feed, and finally toys. All are equally important and deserve your utmost attention.
Cages – What Size and How Many?
The novice bird owner will probably be wondering at the above question. What does she mean, how many? Believe it or not you will probably want to purchase more than one cage for your new friend. I have three for my grey. One is his home cage, another his traveling cage, and still another smaller one that I originally purchased for a sleeping cage. My bird, however, had other ideas about sleeping. He prefers to roost at the top of his daytime cage. I installed a sundeck as close to the top as possible for his comfort and that’s his personal sleeping flat. I do use the other cage for sitting out in the yard or in another room other than his ordinary room. The daytime cage is on rollers for easy cleaning and has a seed catcher around the bottom. The traveling cage is designed to be fastened in the car with a seat belt. It is lightweight plastic and made to protect the bird from harmful sun rays. Much like you would wear a pair of sunglasses. It is called a pet coupe and is available from http://www.drsfostersmith.com/ I also have two freestanding perches. One is small and portable, the other a tower with climbing perches and places for toys. And, yes, we do use all of them.
A bird’s cage is his castle. He should always feel safe in it and this brings us to location of the cage. Never put a sensitive bird like a Grey in a high traffic area. They will not tolerate it. My Grey prefers to have his back to a wall, the daytime cage positioned where no one can walk all the way around it. In the wild parrots are food for a number of other species and they must keep constant vigilance against being eaten. The bird in your living room doesn’t know that there is no danger of being eaten lurking just around the corner. Therefore you must make sure that the cage is a secure, happy place for the bird to relax and reside.
Baby cages should be smaller than the permanent adult cage. There is a greater sense of security and the baby cannot fall or fly into the cage bars with such a force that it injures itself. After about a year you can graduate the bird to a larger cage. I find that most greys aren’t really comfortable in the floor to almost ceiling type of cages. They like to feel in control and these types of cages offer too much space. A medium sized parrot cage, large enough for the bird to be able to stretch his wings, to climb about, will do nicely. The more your parrot is confined to the cage, for instance if you work every day and have to leave your pet, the roomier the cage should be. Most cage manufactures and distributors have a guide list to follow when choosing your cage. The recommended Amazon cage is usually suitable for the greys.
For more information and a selection of cages to consider go to the link http://www.birdbrain.com.
