Refurbishing a rusty cage

Remy · Jul 20, 2011

I'm getting a feathery baby soon, and my mom offered me one of her extra cages. The only problem is that they are rusty and not very pretty to look at. They come painted, but I suppose it needs to be heavy duty and nontoxic paint. What should I paint it with? Or should I just de-rust it? I will eventually get a better cage (Craigslist is my friend), but I am on a budget, and I like to reuse things.

oled · Jul 20, 2011

It is dificult to say without a photo but I think that you just should de-rust it. Maby it is not so pretty, but the bird dont care

Hochimama · Jul 20, 2011

de rust it ~~ paint it over again ~~ make sure it's clean and not bacteria. I have try wash with dentol before. .

suebee · Jul 20, 2011

oh what bird are you getting

good advice from above

oled · Jul 20, 2011

I should think twise before painting, it is difficult and the bird will "take it of" and maby eat it

Spiritbird · Jul 20, 2011

I suggest you get a new cage so there is no chance of your bird ingesting any toxic material.

oled · Jul 20, 2011

If the cage is rusty then it must be iron (carbon-steel) and that should not be toxid

John · Jul 20, 2011

What brand is the cage? What is it made out of? I refurbished a used, wrought-iron Kings Cage with Krylon spray paint (the brand they recommend and I believe the one they use in their factory).

The cage had a lot of rusty patches on it, but now it looks great. How badly rusted is the cage? Is it completely covered in rust or only in patches.

Obviously, to avoid exposing your bird to potentially deadly fumes, if you use spray paint (or any paint) do it outside and far away from your bird and make sure it has plenty of time to dry and air out before putting your bird in it.

Lokums · Jul 20, 2011

Getting rust off is fairly easy. Sanding, sand blasting, etc. Problem is even after you get all the rust off, you can't just leave the cage as is or it will just rust again. Painting it would work, but your bird will easily remove the paint. This is the reason why cages are powder coated, it is more durable.

Another problem is if it is rusting than it is an iron cage (as someone else mentioned) which in itself is not toxic, but birds can easily get too much iron. If you have a bird that spends a lot of time climbing around their cage they MAY get iron poisoning, although it is unlikely, just something to think about.

If you can't afford, or want to save some money in the short term, sand the heck out of the cage to get the rust off, then use a finer sand paper to get the iron smooooth. Then keep it wiped down so it doesn't rust and keep food off of it so they don't chew the old food off it.

Mike

ShreddedOakAviary · Jul 23, 2011

It really depends on the type of bird.... some birds love to chew on bars, some don't. Truth is we use Krylon spray paint every year to touch up our outdoor aviaries (they're black). After our house fire we had to go through what was left of the cages.... most were thrown away, but we had one big double cage that I sandblasted, re welded in a few places, and then we spray painted it. We only use it as a back up cage ( for birds that get dumped here). But it hasn't caused any trouble...

As far as powder coating and toxic materials go, I know of one cage distributor who gets his cages from asia.... and lotsof birds have been reported sick if kept in those cages. (If you are afraid your cage might be one of them, message me and I can send a photo of the latch (which is how the cage can be identified.) (I have one here that we keep outside and use for rehabbing raccoons.)

ShreddedOakAviary · Jul 23, 2011

Even a powder coated cage is dangerous because they frequently use zinc to get powder coats to stick.....so, point is unless it's stainless steel, the cage will carry one toxin or another.... just use krylon spray paint.

mtdoramike · Jul 23, 2011

John said:
What brand is the cage? What is it made out of? I refurbished a used, wrought-iron Kings Cage with Krylon spray paint (the brand they recommend and I believe the one they use in their factory).

The cage had a lot of rusty patches on it, but now it looks great. How badly rusted is the cage? Is it completely covered in rust or only in patches.

Obviously, to avoid exposing your bird to potentially deadly fumes, if you use spray paint (or any paint) do it outside and far away from your bird and make sure it has plenty of time to dry and air out before putting your bird in it.

If not mistaken most bird cages come with a powder baked on finish.

Cowtown · Jul 24, 2011

If you want to use the cage and be safe... research in you area and find a metal shop/paint shop that will do powder coating... you will have to prep the cage but it might be worth it if the cage is a a large one and other than rust in great condition.

Mandy60 · Jul 24, 2011

You should de-rust the cage. Then clean it out with soap and water. After that it should be good to go. :white1:

Way2fst4u · Oct 22, 2012

If you decide NOT to repaint rusty areas, after sanding, a light swipe with a paper towel and some vegetable oil or olive oil will keep it from rusting again for some time...and is harmless to your birds.

However, I've repainted several cages with appliance epoxy (almost as hard as powder coat), and Krylon. The Krylon ALWAYS chips off. I've had one cage re-powdercoated for less than $100.

WannaBeAParrot · Oct 22, 2012

What kind of bird are you getting?

I would de-rust it to the max and would not paint it. I reasearched this subject quite a lot recently and concluded that it is a lot of work to de-rust but that the possibility of my birdie biting on the paint was too high. Even he weren't a chewer, he would still be using his beak to climb around the cage, which would definitely be scratching in to the paint as sharp and strong as the beak is. Use the oil process to keep it from re-rusting. Check it every few days in all the corners, and especially where it gets wet a lot by water dishes and bath areas. Keep towels there to dry it off.

CathnPoe · Nov 4, 2012

Hi there, I've been looking up the same safe-paint issue. I found a forum where the topic was discussed. Exact copy/paste:

Re: Fixing up a rusty cage?
Post by starreys on Jul 1, 2009, 8:26pm

i used a rust kill paint. i rang up the manufacturers they said it was safe, because you can paint it on kids toys,this is from the co itself "White Knight Rust Guard Epoxy does not contain zinc or lead and is safe to be used on children's toys. White Knight Rust Guard Epoxy Enamel is totally safe for human contact when fully cured and meets Australian standards for toxicological requirements AS1647 pt 3. " i used it on a macaws kings cage i bought on ebay when i got it , it was in a bad state considering the seller had said it was in exc condition, paint was missing everywhere and it had beginings of rust in places.
---------------------------

White Knight enamel epoxy paint is sold at Bunnings (if you're in Oz anyway.)
Hope this helps... and the reply i quoted is correct. It seems legit.

lpolliard · Nov 4, 2012

In Craigslist there are powder coaters under the bike section. Contact one and see how much they would charge for sand blasting and powder coat.

cokomo · Jul 6, 2014

ShreddedOakAviary said:
It really depends on the type of bird.... some birds love to chew on bars, some don't. Truth is we use Krylon spray paint every year to touch up our outdoor aviaries (they're black). After our house fire we had to go through what was left of the cages.... most were thrown away, but we had one big double cage that I sandblasted, re welded in a few places, and then we spray painted it. We only use it as a back up cage ( for birds that get dumped here). But it hasn't caused any trouble...

As far as powder coating and toxic materials go, I know of one cage distributor who gets his cages from asia.... and lotsof birds have been reported sick if kept in those cages. (If you are afraid your cage might be one of them, message me and I can send a photo of the latch (which is how the cage can be identified.) (I have one here that we keep outside and use for rehabbing raccoons.)

Hello! I just signed up with the forum. I tried to pm you to see if you wouldn't mind sending me pics of these cages, but the forum won't let me until I've posted 20 times. Could you please send me these pictures? Thanks so much!

RavensGryf · Jul 6, 2014

This thread is a few years old, and this member hasn't been active here in quite a while. You could try looking up their aviary website if you still want to contact them.
p.s. the date of the original posts are in the upper left of the post

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