Tips for re-enforcing cage

[Sch1sm]

Hi Everyone

Stumbled upon this forum while looking researching Conures as my Partner and I recently acquired one.

We have a rather large cage that used to house a larger bird the problem is that the Cinnamon Conure we have is able to fit through bars in a few spots and escapes. It also is able to reach through the bars at the bottom and attempts to eat the food that falls through the cracks. Which I can assume is not ideal.

Looking for inexpensive solutions to re-enforce these areas. I've read that chicken wire is not advised. We would ideally like to use the large cage as it gives the bird quite a lot more room but if its too expensive to make work we will purchase something else.

Cheers and thanks for any input.

 

[LordTriggs]

just purchase something else. Anything you could use on the bars would be expensive due to it needing to be stainless steel and would look ugly. Also the bars at the top which come closer together are actually quite dangerous and are prone to getting feet and beaks caught in them

I'm assuming you're in the States, so others here should be able to give you some links to good cages. Just make sure the gap between the bars is no wider than half an inch so your conure can't get their neck caught

 

[Scott]

Welcome to the forums! What LordTriggs posted!! The issue with chicken wire and similar is they are galvanized and thus tainted by zinc, a deadly contaminant to birds.

Might be best to purchase a new cage and sell the old, using proceeds to offset cost.

 

[Flboy]

Hi, really no practical way to do what you want! Sell it and get something comparable, size wize!

 

[ParrotGenie]

Get a new cage with bar spacing less then 5/8 inch. Best is 1/2 inch as they have a easier time climbing it. Sell the old one to get some money back, don't risk it as bird can hang itself. Stainless steel mesh is only solution to wrap old cage and would be ugly and hard to clean, any other metal would be likely toxic to the bird.

 

[EllenD]

I'll reiterate what has already been said...YOU MUST GET A NEW CAGE WITH THE CORRECT BAR-SPACING ASAP!!!

No, you cannot use ANY type of Chicken-Wire, Hardware-Cloth, or Mesh-Wire unless it is Stainless Steel, because otherwise your Conure will develop Heavy-Metal Poisoning from any other type of metal, such as the common Galvonized metals these wires are made of...And honestly, even if you were to find a Hardware-Cloth or Wire-Mesh that is made of Stainless-Steel, it's still very, very unsafe, as your bird will stil be able to get himself stuck in it because he can still fit through the bars of the cage.

You just cannot keep your Conure inside of that cage, and you need to get him out of it immediately if you have him inside of it...He's much better off just staying outside of the cage than you trying to rig something with Wire-Mesh or anything similar...If he develops Heavy-Metal Poisoning he will either die, or it will cost you thousands of dollars with an Avian Vet to do Chelation-Therapy and continuous X-Rays to save his life. And if he can fit his body and/or his head through the cage-bars, he will eventually either break a leg, break a wing, break his spine, or break his neck. It happens all the time, and people come here asking the same question quite often, and they end-up not listening to us and then their bird either dies from a broken neck or from Heavy-Metal Poisoning. So if you don't have thee money to buy him an adequately sized safe cage, then you're best to keep him outside of the cage and figure something else out for him...

Have you looked on your local Craigslist pages? There are usually tons and tons of used bird cages on Craigslist all over the place in the Community-Pets section. Just go to your local Craigslist page and then do a search for "Bird Cage", and it will give you results so many miles away, and you can then just scan through all of the other towns/cities surrounding you, and you should be able to find a pre-owned cage for a very good price...Make certain that not only the bar-spacing is correct for your bird, but that it's also large enough for your species of Conure (I don't know what type of Conure you have or I'd giive you some minimum measurements and proper bar-spacing)...

If you do end-up buying a used cage for him, be sure that you completely disinfect it before you set it up for him. Soaking/Scrubbing it in the bathtub in a mixture of bleach and hot water usually does the trick, just make sure you rinse it very, very well, until you can no longer smell any bleach smell...

 

[Sch1sm]

Thanks everyone. I kind of figured that might be the case.

The bird is currently in the small cage that it came in.

The small black cage is actually inside the bigger cage at the moment. Not sure if its visible in the picture, but since the escape we have kept him in the small one.

Going to have a look at new cages today, will also check all the buy and sell sites.

Thanks again for the quick responses and the information!

Cheers.

Edit: Location is Canada (South Western Ontario to be specific)