michaeln
New member
The Avian Adventures "Grande Playtop" cage arrived yesterday via truck. 290lbs! It was securely packed into three large boxes, and those three large boxes were strapped to a large wooden pallet. Fortunately the truck driver had a lift gate on his truck and a rolling pallet jack, so that made getting it from his truck to my curb easy. We then cut the three boxes that averaged almost 100lbs each loose from the pallet and the driver voluntarily helped me carry them up the stairs into my hallway (I tipped him $20).
It only took about 1/2 hour to assemble the whole thing (and it would have been much faster with a helper, but I live alone except for Chico and he wasn't much help). The entire cage fits securely together without the use of a single tool. Materials and workmanship seem fine (although it is made in China). It's powder coated in "Emerald Green" and is very glossy. The perches are of "bakau" wood which is a light colored wood that is fairly light weight and reputedly harder than manzanita. Time will tell, but it does seem very hard.
The food bowl setup is pretty ingenious. The feeder doors are solid steel and open from the outside. You put the bowl brackets in from the inside and they are held in place by tabs on the doors so the bird can't pull them loose. The shiny stainless steel bowls fit into the bowl cages in such a way that the bird can't remove them and throw them on the floor (one of Chico's favorite annoying habits), and the bowls themselves have a pattern painted on the outside that almost looks like Tiffany lamp glass. Once the feeder doors are closed and latched with AA's clever "bird-proof" latches, those bowls aren't going anywhere.
Chico's old cage was 38" wide by 28" deep by 48" tall. This one is 42" x 30" x 48" not counting the playtop. That doesn't sound much larger, but those few extra inches make for a much roomier feeling cage, and it LOOKS really huge.
Chico seems to be OK with his new cage, although when I left the door open he got out, climbed down to the floor, walked down the hall and got on top of his old cage where it was waiting to be picked up (I gave the old cage away on Craigslist). He knew that old cage was his... I think he is not yet sure about the new one, but at least he isn't totally freaked out about it. He enjoys the playtop on the new cage. BTW, the playtop has two bowl holders with two more of those nice stainless bowls, but they are just drop-in style bowl holders, and Chico promptly pulled the bowls out and threw them to the ground. Too bad they didn't use the locking bowl system on the playpen. I don't think I will be putting bowls in the playpen bowl holders.
It's a very nice cage, highly recommended at this point. Avian Emporium was great to deal with on the purchase, they kept me updated via email at each step of the process.
I posted some pics of the cage at my smugmug site: http://michaelnel.smugmug.com/gallery/7867252_5xv8F#510036017_rwMtj
It only took about 1/2 hour to assemble the whole thing (and it would have been much faster with a helper, but I live alone except for Chico and he wasn't much help). The entire cage fits securely together without the use of a single tool. Materials and workmanship seem fine (although it is made in China). It's powder coated in "Emerald Green" and is very glossy. The perches are of "bakau" wood which is a light colored wood that is fairly light weight and reputedly harder than manzanita. Time will tell, but it does seem very hard.
The food bowl setup is pretty ingenious. The feeder doors are solid steel and open from the outside. You put the bowl brackets in from the inside and they are held in place by tabs on the doors so the bird can't pull them loose. The shiny stainless steel bowls fit into the bowl cages in such a way that the bird can't remove them and throw them on the floor (one of Chico's favorite annoying habits), and the bowls themselves have a pattern painted on the outside that almost looks like Tiffany lamp glass. Once the feeder doors are closed and latched with AA's clever "bird-proof" latches, those bowls aren't going anywhere.
Chico's old cage was 38" wide by 28" deep by 48" tall. This one is 42" x 30" x 48" not counting the playtop. That doesn't sound much larger, but those few extra inches make for a much roomier feeling cage, and it LOOKS really huge.
Chico seems to be OK with his new cage, although when I left the door open he got out, climbed down to the floor, walked down the hall and got on top of his old cage where it was waiting to be picked up (I gave the old cage away on Craigslist). He knew that old cage was his... I think he is not yet sure about the new one, but at least he isn't totally freaked out about it. He enjoys the playtop on the new cage. BTW, the playtop has two bowl holders with two more of those nice stainless bowls, but they are just drop-in style bowl holders, and Chico promptly pulled the bowls out and threw them to the ground. Too bad they didn't use the locking bowl system on the playpen. I don't think I will be putting bowls in the playpen bowl holders.
It's a very nice cage, highly recommended at this point. Avian Emporium was great to deal with on the purchase, they kept me updated via email at each step of the process.
I posted some pics of the cage at my smugmug site: http://michaelnel.smugmug.com/gallery/7867252_5xv8F#510036017_rwMtj
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