Alternatives to cages ?

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone has cockatiels or other birds around their home, and tends to leave them out more than average?

It seems to me that lovebirds are good with having an open cage lifestyle, when we got the lovebirds, we put them in the cage, left the door open, and they just seemed to come and go with ease.

With the cockatiel, We had 2, now 1 ( ) and neither of them want to go in the cage at all. Has anyone else had a baby cockatiel and noticed them not wanting to go in a cage at all?
The opening is about 8" wide and 6" tall, seems good, the cage is about 24x20 and 16" tall, too small maybe?

Should I just force it into the cage, to get it used to the cage?

I was also considering buying a 3 tier bird bath feeder for the living room, so the 2 top tiers are for food and water, and the bird bath dish would be for catching the mess and poops. And then buying a bird travel pouch, if we need to take him somewhere, or lock him up for a few minutes in a pinch, say in case a friend comes over with a pet dog or something.

Or is it a good idea to force him into being used to the cage?

We noticed that a lovebird seems to be prone to staying in an open cage when we are out of the house, if a cockatiel is used to a cage, will they be similar, or are they more prone to getting in trouble?

Will they just sit on the cage top or something, or are they more adventurous and curious?
Were going to have to have it used to the cage, if it's going to want to explore toasters, toilets, and electrical wires every time we leave.

Just trying to get a heads up on some traits, to see if we should demand the bird be used to the cage, and possibly locked in when we leave the house.

And I should have signed up to a bird forum a long time ago to learn about these things.

I've had Casey since she was 5 months old and she was fine with cages. Heck, she'd even climb into my budgies cage and eat their food or play with their toys!

Can you not put toys, food and treats within the cages to make them more enticing? Could it be that the cages are too small or the doors are too small and they don't feel comfortable inside the cage because of that?



I think each bird is an individual and they may do different things depending upon what they are comfortable with. I once had my flock cage-free... although this consisted of budgies, a bourke, cockatiels, and a cherry headed conure. They had an entire bedroom to fly in and I had various perches in different locations for them to fly to and land on, plus a feeding station.

Currently though, I can't do cage-free, as my current conures don't get along with my other birds and I worry that they could seriously injure or hurt my other birds! So everyone has a cage and certain birds are allowed out of their cages during the day.

I stay at home a lot, and my green cheek is always free to go out of cage - he has a full kitchen counter with his toys, food and stand (he doesn't use it at all!), and my shoulder. His cage is always open, except for night or when he is alone at home. However he LOVES his cage! It seems to me that it's like his home, although he is not cage aggressive at all. He sometimes flies to his cage and sits there for a while just chilling. I'm not any expert, but just from my experience it seems that it's nice to have a cage, but not limit the birds to it.

My Green Cheek isn't ever in a cage. She has a large play-stand instead. I also take her everywhere with me, so she is never caged, but it's not very safe. Once her wings grow out I'm going to buy her a large cage though because I think that would be safer than just a stand. I wouldn't leave your bird to roam freely though, there's too many dangers. And I don't recommend forcing your bird into a cage, you should get your bird to go in the cage by itself using treats.