A&E Walk-in Aviary Assembly Tips?

SassiBird said:

Does anyone have an AE Walk-in Aviary? I just bought the WI8561 for the 3 littles. I've read reviews saying it comes with no instructions and can be a challenge to build. Anyone have tips to share?

P.S. I went to Europe for two weeks and left the littles in the care of my DH. They hollowed out a nail hole in the drywall and chewed the edges off my windows. They have been in the bird room for a year with no destruction - until now. Add the cost of an aviary to my future travel expenses.

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Hey SassiBird, I bought an A&E Cage, the Octagon actually, and in order to get it in my home, The store had to disassemble it enough to fit through my doors, as it was to wide. I got it home, and then went to the A&E website, The website describes which sections go together first, second and in sequential order. It doesn't have step by step directions, but you can also call their help line and get a technician who can talk you through it. After all you did buy their product, IMHO if their going to skimp on directions, they shouldn't worry about the bothersome phone calls, and if they get enough of those calls, perhaps they will be motivated to put out better instructions.

Best bird cages for sale - A & E Cage Company LLC
800-631-7387

I see there are only three steps to Assembly, seems pretty easy if you keep hold of the 800 number I enclosed.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzwwrSsFZZlAelhfM0l2WTk3OEk/view

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SassiBird said:

Thanks for the tip!

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Casper223 said:

I really wasn't trying to be sarcastic, but IMHO the assembly directions for A&E Cages suck, so again in my opinion, I would wear their number out, they will soon get the point. Where I bought my cage, The owner of the establishment had two college students there that assembled the cage, The young lady clued me in on the instructions process, and so we began talking about it. Her and the young man just took it far enough apart that myself and my brother could get it through the door. It took me approx 1.5 hrs to put it back together, but only because the only tool I had was the one they gave me, a small Allen wrench, along with a ziplock bag of Allen screws. I went to the A&E page, found the directions and laughed at that mess for a half an hour. My only clues were start with the base, so I did, when I got that assembled, then the cage was in two pieces out of 8 total. So I stood the sides up on the base and connected them together, then screwed it to the base. Them I had to get a step stool, and place the top on, connecting them together then screwing them into the cage itself. So I just used the directions to know in what order to reassemble. It was a PIA, Allen screws and 1 little Allen wrench. If I could have used my cordless drill, I would have had it together in 30 minutes. Proble was where the screws went in, I couldn't get the drill in even if I did have the correct Allen head to fit. lol. When I was done, I called their 800 number and voiced my opinion, It wasn't good feedback. On a good note, it seems A&E thought of some nice details, The doors have a double lock, about 2 ½ feet apart, so escaping the cage would take more than a Houdini act. The bottom drawers are 10" below the bottom grate, so in the idea of a bird that destroys bedding isn't an issue. The drawers pull out, all three for simple cleaning, another great thought many of the perches, toys etc that attach to the cage from the outside, I had to get bigger diameter washers to accommodate the 1" bar spacing. My biggest PIA overall was getting a bird cover that would sufficiently fit the cage, even though A&E stated on their web site they carried a cover for every cage, seems the company that made them drew a line on the octagon cage. I called and asked them to custom make me one, and the lady actually hung up on me..... Noodles123 suggested another company all together, and when I called them, they had a cover that fit another cage, and would cover mine, although it wasn't built to fit my cage measurements. I was not a happy camper with A&E. I give the cage a 9 rating, the directions a 1 rating, and their honesty over cage covers after a bought cage a 1 rating only because zero isn't in there numeric system. In reading your post, My heart went out to you. If I were close to you, I could probably help only because I eventually figured mine out. I have no doubt in the end you will love your cage, but probably feel much like me in your overall experience with A&E. Thats why I enclosed their number, Please by all means wear it out calling that technical guy over putting it together, I had no shame in doing so, and I'm honestly explaining what and how I did it. Best of Luck, and by no means do I mean this sarcastically.

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SassiBird said:

Casper223 said:

I hear ya. Your pain is palpable in your writing! Your link to instructions made me feel better. I'm grateful for the number. At least I know there is help. There weren't many trustworthy options that I knew of with a small bar spacing in my footprint (~5'x7'). I bought it knowing assembly would be a nightmare. I've read in other places will take minimum 4 hours for two people to assemble. I'm glad you didn't say anything about misaligned screw holes. Some said they gave up and made their own. A&E has an overall good rep and the sale price was good so I gave it a shot. I'll let you know how it goes.

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Okay... so since you brought it up..... After total assembly, I attempted to slide the trays in the bottom, the trays that hold the liner below the grate, 2 of 3 went fine, The third wouldn't slide in. It was like putting a square object in a round hole. I had tightened everything up pretty well. I had to go back and loosen some screws so the tray would slide in. Once I accomplished this part, I left the screws where they were. I didn't loosen or tighten beyond the point they were working. I had gone back to the store to get a Manzita Perch that I had forgotten. The store manager asked if I had any issue with re-assembly, I explained the one drawer to him, and the two college kids there that originally assembled the cage both looked at each other and said that's exactly what they had to do. It's easy to tell A&E doesn't build one cage at a time, and quality check it, They roll them off of an assembly line, and they don't necessarily fit in exact tolerance. However that was the only problem I really had, and it was easily fixed, but I might suggest putting it together loosely, then going back to tighten it all up, checking any movable items such as drawers, grates, and doors, and tightening to safe but secure positions. Best of Luck.

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