Considering a stainless steel cage

[Ladox]

Hello, I haven’t posted in a long while since everything has been quite well with my bird and I just haven’t had the time to go on here. However I’ve now found my bird has been chewing on his wrought iron cage and has ingested some of its coating. I am reasonably sure that the coating will not harm him (if he does start to show signs of poisoning/being sick I’ll make sure to take him straight to the vet, but this is the first time I found him legitimately eating it). but now that I’ve found him doing this I’ve somewhat panicked since I do not want my bird to get harmed by this and I have been very observant over what he can possibly ingest and I somewhat feel stupid for not thinking of this, I keep plastic, cotton, most types of rope and anything generally ”unnatural“ away from him (mostly due to my overprotective nature and maybe partly due to my mild ocd). But I didn’t think of this until he was picking at the bars (just want to note he has plenty of toys but i have repositioned them to cover the spot he has picked away) and a flake of the coating came of and he ate it, this has worried me quite a bit, and has only happened less than 30 minutes ago. here it is night time at the moment and the vet closest to home wouldn’t be open (they often give advice over the phone which I would do immediately if they were open). So I’ve looked online and found somewhere else that it most likely won’t hurt the bird, but the metal underneath could. I’m only 16 however I do have an emergency fund (was originally saving it for my surgery but my dad is helping to pay that now) so I’m considering taking out some for a stainless steel cage, even if this was for my surgery I would still most likely post-pone it for my birds sake but I’m wondering if I’m just acting irrationally due to the stress and if i am overreacting?

Update: june is showing no signs of illness and is eating fine and is going about his usual business so I have felt no need to take him to the vet. My dad has also agreed to help me get a stainless steel cage (I was just short of the money needed but im very grateful he’s helping me!) not only that but I wanted to get a larger cage than he already has as a bit of a treat for him. I will not be replacing his play stand or spare cage (he has for playing and baths outside) which are both wrought iron however, as I believe I figured out why he was chewing the bars of his cage: my dad loves to give june a bit of apple through the cage every morning and I think some of the flavour got stuck on the bars? But he also would bite the bars in frustration if he didn’t get apple when he wanted, so I’ve asked my dad not to stick apple through the bars until I get a stainless steel cage. As of now I haven’t seen him chewing the bars again (it was only one particular spot that I’ve cover with a toy now)

 

[wrench13]

Stainless Steel cages are superior and like the Rolls Royce of cages. A once in a lifetime investment. Expensive, yes. Better for your parrot, definitely yes. Easier to clean? No, its exactly the same as a powder coated one. Will your parrot appreciate the difference? Probably not. But you will.

If you can afford one, go for it.

 

[LaManuka]

It is a considered purchase, but if you can possibly manage it, stainless steel is a GREAT investment. I was "forced" to buy them for my cockatiel and purple-crowned lorikeet at the time, after my lorikeet (and her species is smaller than a budgie but with a tiny but VERY powerful beak for her size!) managed to find the one fault that must've existed in the powder coating and chewed a GREAT BIG HOLE in a brand new cage probably within 2 weeks of my having bought it, rendering it totally useless. I therefore figured my only option to prevent this happening again was stainless steel. I might have just got unlucky with that particular cage, but it just seems to me that a lot of modern powder coated cages are not made as robustly as they used to be, and the damage that tiny Lilly the lorikeet did was proof of that for me.

If you get one, whether brand new or pre-loved, I would give it a good scrub with hot soapy water (Dawn dishwashing liquid if you have it) and a very good rinse off, preferably with a pressure washer to get any residue from the manufacturing process or anything from a previous occupant off of it, let it dry in the sun for a day or two if you can too. Mine do develop the odd tiny bits of superficial rust occasionally but they're easily removed with a light rub of steel wool whenever we do our deep clean. I've had mine since 2019 and whenever we clean them up they come up like brand new. Living in Australia and not having much of a choice of retailer mine were hideously expensive, but I'm pretty confident I won't need to replace them for a long, long time.

I hope this helps you

 

[GaleriaGila]

38 years ago, I WISH I had invested in a stainless set-up! Woulda been a big savings, but who knew?

 

[Ladox]

June’s new stainless steel cage, still transitioning him so he still sleeps in his old one but hopefully soon he‘ll feel most comfortable in this one. Once he’s fully transitioned into this one I’ll put a few of his fav things from his other cage in, I was worried the bars would be too far apart but he cant stick his head through (still keeping an eye on it though, one reason for the slow transition) but he’s doing fine, eating, drinking, he even took a bath in the new cage, in that huge stainless steel bowl I got him!

 

[wrench13]

Oh that IS a nice SS cage for sure. Heck, I'D move into it!!

 

[Ramble]

I can’t let Bertie see that picture…she’d be on me from now on to get her a cage like that!