Birds

Budgie cages, canary cages and flight cages for cockatiels:

which one a bird needs comes down to how it moves. Budgies and canaries hop and climb from perch to perch, so a pair does well in a compact cage. Cockatiels and lovebirds fly from end to end instead of climbing. Length matters more to them than height, and a tall round cage with bars that meet at the top wastes the space they use and can trap a foot. Feeders, nest boxes and travel carriers have their own place in bird supplies. Think about the bird before the cage. A budgie lives the better part of a decade, a cockatiel can reach twenty, and a lovebird’s call goes straight through the wall of a tower apartment.

Cage length, bar spacing and the wire itself:

length comes first. The bird should get at least two wingbeats between perches set at either end, which for a pair of cockatiels means a cage well over half a metre long. Bars should sit no more than about a centimetre apart, or a bird can push its head through and get stuck. Stainless steel and good powder-coated steel are safe to chew. New galvanised wire and old painted cages can carry zinc or lead, and a parrot tests everything with its beak.

A starter cage against a flight cage:

a small cage for a budgie or a canary costs around $20 to $30 new, and a flight cage long enough for a pair of cockatiels starts at about $60. A small cage is cheap enough new that a second-hand one is worth little on its own and moves best with its stand and feeders included. A flight cage with sound welds and intact coating keeps far more of its price, because the frame outlasts everything clipped to it. The plastic tray and seed guards go first, and they cost little to replace.

Rust at the welds and mites in the perches:

run a hand along the bars and each corner joint. A cage that has stood on a balcony near the sea, in Colón or Bocas del Toro, rusts first where the wire meets the frame, and powder coating that has bubbled there will flake. Rust, flakes or white powder on galvanised wire are reasons to walk away, since that is where the bird will chew. Open and shut every door, since cockatiels and lovebirds learn to lift a loose latch. Red mites hide by day in wooden perches and nest boxes, so shine a torch into the cracks, and plan to scrub the cage and swap the wood whatever you find.

Rehoming a cockatiel or a budgie with its cage:

a bird settles faster when it arrives with the cage it knows, the seed it is used to and a note on its day: when it comes out, what fruit it eats, what frightens it. Give the species, colour, age, whether it was hand-reared, how its sex is known and any ring number, and pass on whatever paperwork came with it. A closed ring, which only slides over a chick’s foot in its first days, points to a bird bred in captivity. Before the handover, watch the bird settled on its perch. A healthy one sits tight-feathered and bright-eyed; one fluffed up on the cage floor, tail bobbing with each breath, needs a vet rather than a move. Ask whether there is a cat in the house. A bird that has flown out of a window belongs in animals lost and found instead.

Photos and measurements for a cage listing:

give the length, width and height, the bar spacing and the material, and photograph the corners, the tray and the doors in daylight. Say whether the stand unbolts and the cage folds flat. A flight cage on its stand rarely fits in a taxi or a tower lift in one piece, and a buyer coming from across the city will want to know that before setting out.