Cage Question

Hello!

I am planning on getting a Quaker, hopefully this year. I've been doing a ton of reading (this will be my first bird) and I've come across some discrepancies about bar spacing sizes.

In my Quaker book it says anything under an inch is OK. This led me to find this cage which I really like: A23 Charcoal Grey - Canada Cages

It has 0.94" bar spacing.

However, I've been seeing online most people say 5/8" is the absolute max. So I'm wondering if my book is incorrect, and if this cage would be suitable or not?

I'd like to order the cage from this company, so if this cage is not suitable, would anyone have another suggestion?

Thanks for your help!

Hi Katie, I can't speak to the correctness of your Quaker book, but a bar spacing of 1" or less is stretching things for a Quaker.....3/4" would be closer to the maximum, with 5/8" being close to optimum & 1/2" probably being a minimum spacing.

As you are finding out, everything that is written about/for our feathered friends is not always right...and...like the mis-information about the bar spacing, many of the additives and/or supplements that manufacturers would have us believe are needed by companion birds are just so much sales advertising rather than truth.....

TY for your help! I'm so glad I decided to read more and ask. That cage looks so tiny compared to the one I thought was OK, but if they're happy in that size, that'll be the one to get.

Thanks for your help

i agree one inch is streaching it. in my own opinion 3/4 it totally fine. my cage is 3/4 in bar spacing and cooper could NEVER in a million years get his head through. but i think it is totally fine if people think that 5/8 is a max. that is a good bar spacing. the cage cnyguy posted is a good size. a quaker will be happy in that. my cage is the same size is the one you originally wanted but with 3/4in bar spacing. both would be great(except for that bar spacing of course). its hard to have to big of a cage. the only problem is the bigger the cage the harder it is to find the smaller bar spacing.

for smaller birds from medium conures down I always recommend flight cages, they are much bigger but have safe bar spacing, are less expensive, basically a win win situation in my book

This is a basic flight cage(posing with a bird who is waaaay to big) and it's only $145. There a lot of different brands



Here is another, it's 62'' height, by 32'' length, by 21'' depth and $129 This is HQ brand which is supposed to be good.

Thanks for the idea! I'll take a look and see if I can find one. I've read everywhere get the biggest cage you can afford, and I want to make sure the bird has ample room and is happy with his home.

I'm in Canada so I've been trying to find Canadian sellers to avoid hefty import fees so I'll see what I can find here that's similar to what you posted.

Who knew a cage was so complicated!

Out of all the cages I found on the site with appropriate bar spacing, I like A11 best, like cnyguy posted. I'm a little worried about the latch on the mini door. Do you think the Quaker would be able to open that? The door falls downward. If you think it would be ok I'll bookmark this one as the one to get.

http://canadacages.com/products/A11-Charcoal-Grey.html

I would recommend the following cage before the other two.

A36 Black - Canada Cages

A36 Cage dimension: 31"W X 19"D X 35"H
Bar spacing: 0.47"
Price: US$215.25 (excluding tax)
20,615 square inches of usable space and has proper bar spacing

A23 Cage dimension: 32"W X 23"D X 47"H
Bar spacing: 0.94"
Your Price: US$353.85 (excluding tax)
34,592 square inches of usable space but does not have proper bar spacing

A11 Cage dimension: 24"W X 22"D X 33.5"H
Bar spacing: 0.59"
Your Price: US$241.50 (excluding tax)
17,688 square inches of usable space. Costs more than the flight cage for less space.


(although, the site gives me price in US, so the prices you see may be different to what I see?



Are there any other websites you can order from that may have larger cages with appropriate bar spacing?

So this cage is ok for a QP?

Featheredsamurai said:

for smaller birds from medium conures down I always recommend flight cages, they are much bigger but have safe bar spacing, are less expensive, basically a win win situation in my book

This is a basic flight cage(posing with a bird who is waaaay to big) and it's only $145. There a lot of different brands

Here is another, it's 62'' height, by 32'' length, by 21'' depth and $129 This is HQ brand which is supposed to be good.

Click to expand...

If it helps... a 150ish gram conure and a 100ish gram cockatiel in that HQ flight cage - before it was set up

I am loving this thread ... finally some people who "think big".

The downside to see birds in shops etc. you start to think those cages are "normal" instead of realising that the open sky is their "normal" and we have to find a compromise between those.

So THANK YOU for researching and everyone else for assisting.

I agree with Monica completely, that cage that was first posted was fine bar-spacing wise, but too small. Flight-Cages are great, and i recently ordered one from Amazon for $200 shipped that is a double flight cage (recommended by Itzjbean) with a removable center panel, so it can be used as either two very large cages, or one huge cage.

While yes, the bar spacing for a Quaker needs to be under 1", they absolutely do need to have a very large cage. You cannot happily keep a Quaker in a regular, "tabletop" type of cage, nor one of those skinny but tall floor cages. They need a nice wide, deep, and fairly tall cage, just like the flight cage that Monica posted.

You need to remember that you should always have at the very least between 6-10 toys inside of your Quaker's cage, as they have extremely busy beaks, and become bored very quickly. So you aren't just buying a cage to house your bird, it must also be able to house many, many toys and different foraging activities, and large toys at that, you cannot use small, plastic toys for Quakers. They should also have things to climb on, foraging activities and foot-toys on the bottom of the cage, etc. So your bird needs to be able to fully open their wings, turn around, etc. WITH all of the toys and foraging activities, ladders, a swing, etc. (my Quaker lovers her swing)...You'll also need a lot of room to add-in various different types and sizes of perches throughout the cage, not just the one or two plastic or wooden dowel perches that they usually come with.

So the bottom-line is "The bigger the better". And flight-cages are a great option. I bought the one on Amazon after seeing Itzjbean's Cockatiel living inside of his, and even with the divider in this cage is absolutely huge!