Stainless Steel Cage Question for Green Cheek Conure

[TMiller]

Hey Everyone! I am looking into getting a stainless steel cage for a green cheek conure. I am having a lot trouble trying to locate one with the correct bar spacing, that is still large enough for a green cheek. I know I need bar spacing of 1/2 inch, 5/8 max as I've seen too many horror stories of people's green cheeks getting stuck in 3/4 bar spacing. Any cage that I've seen that looked good that listed its bar spacing as 5/8 turns out had incorrect information on their site (including A&E and bird cages for less...verified with phone calls to the companies). Has anybody been successful in finding a cage that matches these parameters? I know the cages run for a couple thousand, which is fine. I'm willing to pay this as my last green cheek (lived for 17 years) ended up with toxicity issues due to finding spots with rust on his cage. I replaced his cage at least 5 times due to rust issues, but my green cheek really loved playing in his water and getting it everywhere. Any help is appreciated.

 

[LaManuka]

Welcome to the forums, @TMiller, though I am sorry to hear of the loss of your GCC. I have two identical medium sized stainless steel cages made by Caitec (or Featherland as they're known here in Australia), they have 5/8th inch (16mm) bar spacing which is suitable for my two cockatiels and my princess parrot. The mediums size is suitable for a GCC, I also have my TINY varied lorikeet (the size of a budgie) in one and he has never got his head stuck. I do like them and the medium size is a great size for a GCC, even my princess parrot with her VERY long tail has plenty of room. They are, however, VERY heavy and awkward to move without help from my hubby, particularly when it comes to getting them outside for power-washing. And the wheels are almost totally useless for such an expensive cage so I replaced them with casters from my local big box hardware store and they work MUCH better just for moving them around the house. Here's a pic - ignore the eclectus in the photo as I'm quite sure it's ai-generated and not to scale!!

I've had mine about 10 years and they do develop little bits of rust occasionally but that's easily taken care of with a bit of steel wool. Oh and just recently two weld spots have come loose on one of them and I am having a devil of a time finding someone to fix them I guess if I was to give them a rating I'd say four stars out of five, but overall I'm still pretty happy with them Oh and I know a lot of folks don't like the dome top but I believe you can get a flat play top option, though that does seem to reduce the inside space. I attached a couple of seagrass mats to the dome tops on mine and my guys are able to climb and play on top of them no problem.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Caitec has 1/2 inch bar spacing on some of their stainless steel cages. Ellicott Manor cage looks perfect.

 

[TMiller]

Thank you!! I will look into Caitec

 

[TMiller]

Welcome to the forums, @TMiller, though I am sorry to hear of the loss of your GCC. I have two identical medium sized stainless steel cages made by Caitec (or Featherland as they're known here in Australia), they have 5/8th inch (16mm) bar spacing which is suitable for my two cockatiels and my princess parrot. The mediums size is suitable for a GCC, I also have my TINY varied lorikeet (the size of a budgie) in one and he has never got his head stuck. I do like them and the medium size is a great size for a GCC, even my princess parrot with her VERY long tail has plenty of room. They are, however, VERY heavy and awkward to move without help from my hubby, particularly when it comes to getting them outside for power-washing. And the wheels are almost totally useless for such an expensive cage so I replaced them with casters from my local big box hardware store and they work MUCH better just for moving them around the house. Here's a pic - ignore the eclectus in the photo as I'm quite sure it's ai-generated and not to scale!!

View attachment 82038

I've had mine about 10 years and they do develop little bits of rust occasionally but that's easily taken care of with a bit of steel wool. Oh and just recently two weld spots have come loose on one of them and I am having a devil of a time finding someone to fix them I guess if I was to give them a rating I'd say four stars out of five, but overall I'm still pretty happy with them Oh and I know a lot of folks don't like the dome top but I believe you can get a flat play top option, though that does seem to reduce the inside space. I attached a couple of seagrass mats to the dome tops on mine and my guys are able to climb and play on top of them no problem.

Can this cage be used without the stand or does it have to be on the stand?

 

[LaManuka]

Can this cage be used without the stand or does it have to be on the stand?

Cage and stand are all one unit, so the total height from floor to the highest point on the dome is a little over 62 inches, including the wheels. That's about an inch taller than me, which I thought may be a problem at first but it really hasn't been.

 

[TMiller]

Cage and stand are all one unit, so the total height from floor to the highest point on the dome is a little over 62 inches, including the wheels. That's about an inch taller than me, which I thought may be a problem at first but it really hasn't been.

Good to know. Thank you.

 

[onamom]

I recently had this same problem when getting a cage for my black cap conure. Here is the one I use for her:

Amazon.com

 

[DonnaBudgie]

That's a nice cage.

 

[TMiller]

Thank you everyone! Appreciate all the help. Right now I'm leaning towards the Caitec in the medium size as that seems to be suitable. I am waiting on A&E to get back to me on bar spacing for a playtop cage I inquired on (it says 3/4 on some posts and 5/8 in others). They have been very responsive so far and are working on figuring it out for me. It's really good to know there is another viable option if the A&E doesn't work out, which I'm guessing it won't. I didn't know Caitec existed, so that was very helpful. I wish I found this forum a long time ago! You all are so helpful.

 

[TMiller]

Just in case anybody is curious, A&E got back to me. They were able to confirm that their larger cage does in fact have smaller bar spacing than the same model in the smaller size. They aren't sure why, but they physically measured the spacing for me, just to make sure. I will be ordering this one, as I really like the idea of the play top. Appreciate all the help and I hope this information helps out someone else looking for a similar sized cage.

8A-3223 Stainless Steel 32"x23" Playtop Cage - UPS Style

www.aecageco.com

 

[LaManuka]

Just in case anybody is curious, A&E got back to me. They were able to confirm that their larger cage does in fact have smaller bar spacing than the same model in the smaller size. They aren't sure why, but they physically measured the spacing for me, just to make sure. I will be ordering this one, as I really like the idea of the play top. Appreciate all the help and I hope this information helps out someone else looking for a similar sized cage.

8A-3223 Stainless Steel 32"x23" Playtop Cage - UPS Style

www.aecageco.com

Yep that looks pretty much like mine, only with the playtop option rather than the dome. I would LOVE to have gone for a larger size, especially for my high-octane lorikeet but a) everything larger had the wider bar spacing which was no good and b) I just don't have the floor space, particular with multiple birds. Oh and I forgot to mention, I didn't bother attaching those "seed catcher" skirt panel things to mine. IMO that's just another surface to clean and they always fling stuff much further than those panels would catch anyway, plus in my house they would just make the cages more difficult to manoeuvre through doorways.

 

[TMiller]

Yeah, I've never attached those seed catcher panels. I had one cage with them on several years ago, and I found it so much harder to clean

 

[Macawdamia Nut]

It is important to note that there are dome tops that are horizontal across the width of the cage and arched on the side (good) and dome tops that are arched across the width of the cage (bad).

My macaw has the first type of cage. The dome provides extra vertical room inside. I attached a large manzanita perch spanning the width of the cage to the top of the dome with large cable ties. It provides yet another area for the bird to perch on top of his cage. Think of it as a DIY play stand on a dome cage.

Something to consider when shopping for a cage.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I wish all cages had seed catchers. The six inches around the cage is the biggest problem with budgies. When they perch on top of the cage their butts often hang right over the side and they poop on the floor. With a lot of budgies thats a lot of poop! I've had those before and liked them.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

It is important to note that there are dome tops that are horizontal across the width of the cage and arched on the side (good) and dome tops that are arched across the width of the cage (bad).

My macaw has the first type of cage. The dome provides extra vertical room inside. I attached a large manzanita perch spanning the width of the cage to the top of the dome with large cable ties. It provides yet another area for the bird to perch on top of his cage. Think of it as a DIY play stand on a dome cage. Could you post a picture of your cage?

Something to consider when shopping for a cage.

I can't picture the difference
Could you post a picture of your cage?

 

[Macawdamia Nut]

Here you go. My bird loves to chill out on the manzanita perch on the top before heading off to bed.

Sorry, no bird. He is outside in his vacation condo!