Recommendation for a cage for a dedicated bedroom

Hi everyone. My eclectus is turning 9 and for his birthday we are getting him a new cage. We have recently moved and are giving him his own bedroom. It is 12 ft x 12 ft room with a walk-in closet. He has been using the closet to sleep during the day. I have two sofas in the room and a TV.

We are moving his cage from our living room into his "bedroom" but it looks like we will only be able to fit a 2 ft wide cage in the room due to the sofas. He flies all around the house during the day.

My question to you is this:

Is a 2 foot wide cage good enough for him to sleep in or can I go with something smaller? We will close the door to the bedroom but will leave his cage door open so even though 2 feet SOUNDS small, he'll only sleep and eat in it. His cage will be primarily just for sleeping at night and eating during the day.

I was hoping to have something small that I can hang from the ceiling so he'll still have lots of floor space to play with toys but I haven't seen anything that fits that.

Am I off my rocker here or is a smaller cage okay for him? If so, does anyone have any cages they can recommend? Since we expect to keep our parrot for the next 30-50 years (hopefully...), we'd like a cage that will last and hopefully will be one of his last cages. If it is stainless steel, so be it.

I’m very confused by your description. You describe what he’ll do in there but how much time will he be spending there, exactly? On average per day, sleeping aside.

24” footprint really is tiny, it sounds like a cockatiel cage with a cockatiel sized door. When I board Parker it’s in a 30x32 cage at the bird store. Even that makes me super depressed as a temporary arrangement. So to ask about even smaller on a more permenant basis...I’m so skeptical of this but want to hear more about your plans and how he will live before I rush to judgement.

You talk about sofas in the room. You claim this a dedicated room, but with sofas in there it doesn’t sound too dedicated to me. Why not go all the way and remove the sofas all together.

Apologies for the confusion. He'll be in the cage for about 1 hour a day (besides sleeping).

We plan on putting him in the cage at night but we will rarely (if ever) close the cage door. He'll be in his own bedroom and the bedroom door will be shut when we want to keep him "locked up".

The cage will house his food and will be where he sleeps that's really it. Otherwise, he'll never be in the cage.

I was thinking about something like this and hanging it from the ceiling. Since its only a place to sleep and eat, I have to imagine the size (though small) should be fine.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074FCFG7K/ref=psdc_2975226011_t2_B01MR7XA1E

Uhh, that’s a travel carrier. How would you like to be locked up in a closet where you can barely turn around for a full hour every day, and all night?

I do not plan on closing the cage door at all. It's just a place for him to sleep and eat which is why I was thinking a travel carrier might work out well and my thoughts is would make travelling with him so much easier as I can literally take his cage with me.

However, I never seen nor heard of others doing that which is why I'm posing the question. He'll be in his own bedroom with a playstand in the room. Bedroom door shut, cage door will remain open.

Before I pursued that, I want to make sure this is something that other birdies might have heard of with dedicated bedrooms. Even if the cage doors remained open, is this something that might work?

Get a cage bigger than his wing span to sleep in and you could really do the room up with all kinds of fun stuff for him x

If it is just a sleeping cage with feeding bowls, it would need to be big enough for him to stretch his wings out in any direction without hitting the bars. (Ideally enough room to flap/beat his wings.)

Also, if the cage is hanging, it might have movement to it, making it feel like an unsteady perch to him. So just make sure the cage is in a fixed and stable position so that he feels safe in there. It can be unsettling to have your perch move around while you're sleeping

Also, the cage door (if left open) would need to be secured safely to avoid any accidents. So maybe hold the door open by holding the door back with a thick quicklink or two.

Why a cage at all? If it were me the only reason I'd have him in a cage is for security but since you're leaving the door open, I assume that you don't mind if he's out and about when the room door is closed. Personally that is not something that I'd want to do with my bird, day or night. I like to be able to lock up Nike for her safety.

If in fact you're OK with that arrangement, why not a nice play stand to eat and sleep on?

If you're only talking an hour in there, aside from sleeping, I reckon it would be fine. But there are a number of considerations you'd want to keep in mind. Violet_Diva hit on quite a few of them in her post, such as the potential unsteadiness of a hanging cage and the precautions necessary for an open door (especially given the plan to hang the cage).

But you'll also want to consider everything else in the room. If you're planning to leave him in there unsupervised at night or in the morning, the room would need to be completely bird-proof. It doesn't sound as though it is, however. The sofa would almost definitely become a target for chewing, which could easily lead to choking hazards or injuries from exposed springs. Then there are the hazards posed by your television or any other electrical appliances in the room. Parrots just LOVE chewing on things, which could potentially lead to the the dangers of electric shock.

Add to that any chemically treated wood, lead-based paint, or anything even remotely ingestible that might be hanging around...
I'm not saying it's impossible. There are other members who have managed it. I'm just saying that a lot of thought and preparation has to be put into it before a room can be truly considered bird-proofed.

Sorry but that is an entirely too small cage to go in for even an hour. That's the kind of cage you use when taking to the vet. At minimum this is the kind of cage that's needed



Parrots can fast end up with deep psychological trauma when kept in too small a space. As for hanging I wouldn't bother for the reasons already iterated by violet, plus with the idea of having floor space to run around on parrots seldom like being on the floor, for them it means they are in danger so it is better to have at least a Java tree or similar style play gym with toys for them to play and hang out on

LordTriggs said:

Click to expand...

That’s the same cage I have for Charlie. Great size.

———

I would have to agree with many points in this thread. From personal experience, my Charlie has his own room but I still find that I need to supervise him outside the cage even in his room. Caiques get up to way too much craziness and mischief. I am also very very very aware of the 3 power points down the bottom on the floor and the air vent.

If I did leave him alone, I could come back to find the trims on the wall gone... heaven forbit that ever happens....

That travel carrier is far, far too small in my opinion. I wouldn't even keep my cockatiel or even my budgies in that. Even if your bird is allowed free roam, there are many problems with this. What happens when you have to leave your bird at home alone without supervision and he has to stay in his cage? What if your bird needs to stretch or flap his wings? How will you fit toys in such a small space? Remove one of the couches and get him a new, nice big cage for his birthday, instead of a tiny one.

Dzlemens thank you for clarifying. I’m with Stephen (anansi) on this. It sounds like bird will have free roam of the room when he’s not sleeping. Few birds actually have an entire room to move around. The room truly is a cage in this case. So I’m not too bothered by what you are proposing.

I would even argue that sealing him up at night would be unncessecary. If the room is really bird proof here should be zero need to lock him up at night. Let him choose where in the room he’s happy to sleep.

That said, forget the hanging cage. It’s a bad idea.

Also contemplate what being cage free might do. I’m in your boat in that my bird has an entire room dedicated solely to him. I’ve thought of converting it to one large cage. The challenge is: after a few years of this, how will he react when he DOES have to spend some time in a cage? Will he scream nonstop because he’s unhappy?

My bird stays with my mom in a smaller cage (30x32) when we go on vacation and yes generally good about it. As a guest in that house I need him to remain good about it. This holds me back from doing what you are planning on doing.

Thank you all for the comments. I do worry about my parrot being put into a cage for an extended period of time because he is not used to that at all. We let him free roam the house most of the day - he mostly just watches us clean, cook or browse the internet. And of course, he makes a mess everywhere.

We had to board him for a vacation and from what I was told - he was awful. He hated being in a cage all day because he's so used to being out and on someone's shoulder or perched nearby. He was not allowed back and honestly, I wouldn't do that to him again. Every vacation since that one, we hire a house sitter to come and watch the parrot.

LordTriggs - can you send me links to the cages that you put in the picture? That might be a good one for him.

I just found that picture on google so wouldn't be able to help on that, check out dedicated parrot stores and see if you can search by species

I like to joke that I wouldn't trust the Rickeybird as far as I could throw him, and he only weighs 9 ounces! Most parrots are dangerous to themselves, and Rb's a great example. I personally would urge that any bird is kept in a good-sized cage any time you don't have direct eyes on, even at night. One little mishap can mean tragedy.
I'm glad you're here, and reaching out with an open mind!

Have you thought about converting that closet into a space you can enclose him in? That would probably work as well as a cage and any house you move into could just as easily have the same thing done to a closet.

Remove the doors, make sure it can be flooded with light; use stainless steel to replace those doors ... put plastic down on the floor in there .....

And put a curtain rod above the closet so you can close them for when he sleeps.

Thank you all for the help. This was the cage I ended up purchasing. It's lower to the ground than he's used to but so far seems to enjoy the cage.

https://www.amazon.com/Prevue-Pet-Products-Stainless-Steel/dp/B073RNT8BJ

Quick update. At first, he did not like the cage at all as his perch was lower to the ground and it was a new cage. He kept climbing out and going on the top to sleep. We locked him in the cage for a few nights and now he's back to sleeping in the cage.

He puts himself "to bed" each night, we close the door to his bedroom and he's up at 5 AM singing with the birds outside. We have a baby camera in the room to watch him (I know...we are birdy freaks...) and he sleeps through the night no problem. So far he absolutely loves his room and his cage. He stays in the room most of the day, he plays on top of the cage and on the ground, he even feeds the cage and sleeps in the closet during the day.

I highly recommend this cage. Since it is stainless steel, it is INCREDIBLY easy to clean. The cage has lockable wheels and is small enough to move from room to room. It is a smaller cage than he had before but there are benefits to a smaller cage (namely maneuverability).

He's a happy camper right now and we are super happy for him. That being said, it is doubtful he'll ever be a "cage only" bird. Vacations will always require a house sitter.