Help!! New cage

[pepperoni]

Hello everyone, I’ve been a silent lurker for the forum for years but now I am in need of some help/advice from more experienced conure owners.

I’ve had my current conure for almost 6 years now, while their original cage was small it was more used for them to sleep or just hang out for a bit while I was out since they got more outside cage playtime than anything. Recently because I’m getting closer to graduating from college I’ve had less time to be at home and most of my family is rather scared of my bird biting them so my little baby would have to wait until I got home from long classes so I could let them out. My dad currently watches over them too and lets them out for the day but of course there’s times where work is taxing on him and we get home around the same time.

Over winter I finally saved up enough to buy them a new cage but now I have a bit of a situation. I’m here to ask if this is an okay cage for my conure? I’ll attach the Amazon link as well and I also wanted to see if I could get some suggestions for how to set it up better like what toys to get like perches or ropes or what to avoid? Pls pls if you guys could also show me your own setups that would be appreciated!!

My other issue is that my conure is a scaredy cat so almost everything new and unknown scares them. Do you guys have any advice for how to make them be more comfortable to the new cage and to be less scared of toys? I’ve tried to make them foraging activities too but even paper scared them sometimes and it’s a bit stressful. Because of this — it’s also hard to get them to eat things like chop because they’re also a bit picky, while they do enjoy sweet things and this little mix of pellets with some seeds they refuse to eat veggies even after years of trying to get them to be less scared of things i genuinely don’t got a clue on what else to do. Yes I’ve tried to like bribe them with a treat or slowly introduce things to them but nothing works.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I hope you didn't buy this cage. It's only 18x18 inches which is too small for any bird. I have budgies and I wouldn't put a budgie in it.
You should get a cage that's 30-32x18x any height. You can get one on Amazon for about the same price but it wouldn't have the mess apron which takes up a lot of space around the cage.

 

[Corkscr.ew]

I agree with Donna. The bare minimum for a GCC would be 24x24 inches, which is 1.5 times their wingspan of around 15.5 inches

 

[Jcas]

I don’t know about the cage size ( though I tend to live by the motto that bigger is better whenever possible). But as far as getting a nervous bird used to a new cage, my Quaker was a very set-in-his-ways bird. He came to me in what was really a budgie cage so I upgraded him to a double-wide flight cage. What I did was set his old cage by his new one ( doors open) and moved one or two toys or perches from his old cage to his new one every day. By the time the last item was moved, my bird had made the decision to move into the new cage all on his own and has been happy with it ever since. It’s important to go slow and let them have lots of time to get used to new things.

For perches, a large variety of sizes and textures are good. I have ropes, natural wood perches, and platform perches. Toys are different for each individual bird. They have their own likes and dislikes. My budgies like toys they can chew, my Quaker likes ones with bells attached that he can ring and he likes playing with popsicle sticks.

 

[pepperoni]

I hope you didn't buy this cage. It's only 18x18 inches which is too small for any bird. I have budgies and I wouldn't put a budgie in it.
You should get a cage that's 30-32x18x any height. You can get one on Amazon for about the same price but it wouldn't have the mess apron which takes up a lot of space around the cage.

Noted!! I’ll see if I can change it then, my dad was the one who ordered it as like a surprise gift so I’m not sure if it’s too late to do an exchange since it was also on sale when he got it. I’ll look into some wider ones on Amazon but this one was just more intended for my conure to sleep in or hang out a little bit in while we run an errand or I study since I have them outside for most of the day.

 

[SailBoat]

Seems like you already have the cage by this time.

Yes, a New Cage is a common issue with parrots, especially those that have been in and around the same cage for many years.

My goal with a new cage is to slowly take apart the old cage 'with the help of your parrot". The next is to slowly put together the new cage with your parrot's active involvement! Over the extended period of time, as the new cage comes together your parrot accepts the cage as his/her own and likely has moved in by the time all is done.

NOTE: A full height front door is a joy for both the parrot and the individual that gets to clean the cage!

 

[pepperoni]

I agree with Donna. The bare minimum for a GCC would be 24x24 inches, which is 1.5 times their wingspan of around 15.5 inches

I’m trying to find some cages within this range or in the 30 ranges but thank you I’ll keep this in mind. by any chance do you know if there’s any from Amazon or some other seller? I’ll try to see if my pet shop near me has some as well !

 

[LaManuka]

I’m trying to find some cages within this range or in the 30 ranges but thank you I’ll keep this in mind. by any chance do you know if there’s any from Amazon or some other seller? I’ll try to see if my pet shop near me has some as well !

Make sure to take note of bar spacing when you're buying a new cage too. Conures should not be housed in anything with a bar spacing larger than 16mm or 5/8ths of an inch, or they can get their heads stuck between the bars. I have a little varied lorikeet who has a pretty big cage, but because he is SO high octane I would LOVE to get him a bigger one, but if I got him anything larger than what he currently has he'd probably be able to squeeze his whole body straight through the bars!

 

[pepperoni]

Gotcha!! Thank you, Im trying to find one that’s fits in my home — the 30-32 ones may be a bit too big to fit in my current living space room but I’ll see what I can do still. I did see someone suggest a 24x24 minimum (still looking).

But would this kinda work? It’s not exactly that but it’s 24x17x30inches (for just the cage) and the bar spacing is 0.4 inches. Again my bird does spend a lot of time outside of the cage when not sleeping. I’m just a bit concerned about height since there’s been some rare times where they’ve fallen off a perch when sleeping or after getting scared by a loud noise.

https://www.chewy.com/yaheetech-54-in-rolling-metal-large/dp/378825?utm_source=app-share&utm_campaign=378825

 

[LaManuka]

Gotcha!! Thank you, Im trying to find one that’s fits in my home — the 30-32 ones may be a bit too big to fit in my current living space room but I’ll see what I can do still. I did see someone suggest a 24x24 minimum (still looking).

But would this kinda work? It’s not exactly that but it’s 24x17x30inches (for just the cage) and the bar spacing is 0.4 inches. Again my bird does spend a lot of time outside of the cage when not sleeping. I’m just a bit concerned about height since there’s been some rare times where they’ve fallen off a perch when sleeping or after getting scared by a loud noise.

https://www.chewy.com/yaheetech-54-in-rolling-metal-large/dp/378825?utm_source=app-share&utm_campaign=378825

I'm in Australia and we work with metric so I need Google's help to convert to inches. Am I correct that 0.4 inches equates to 10.16mm? If so then the bar spacing is ok, the general rule with cages is try to get the biggest one you can afford and that your floor space will allow, keeping that bar spacing in mind. Cages that are taller than they are wide often end up with rather a lot of unused space in the bottom portion, as birds often prefer to perch in the top half. There are exceptions to every rule of course, but if you can find one that's not quite so tall that may be better, in addition to the issue you mentioned about falling off the perch due to night frights.

I'm going to suggest that photo may be a touch misleading, they seem to have reduced the size of the birds and squeezed more of them in that cage to make it look bigger, which is a pretty common thing. Below is the exact cage that I have for my lorikeet, and the pic is on the website I bought it from. It shows an eclectus parrot supposedly inside, and personally I would go for the larger size for an ekkie!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

24x 17 is too small for even a budgie as a full time home. I have about 6 of these cages that I used to keep my budgies in but I upgraded their cages to 32x18. Ive also drilled new homes in the frame of the 24x17 and put two together to make a double wide sized cage. This type of cage comes in the larger size (32x18) from Amazon and Chewy. Since your bird doesn't spend much time in the cage a 24x17 cage could be okay but not if he's in there for more than a few hours (except sleeping time). If he's prone to night frights I would definitely not get a cage more than 32 inches high. Those super tall cages LOOK big but are mostly wasted space unless you have a bird with a very long tail.
24x24 is better than 24x27. Keep looking.