parrots and colors

[Elaihr]

How can you tell?

Size is good for any small parrot. Triple the number of toys/perches and you'd be set in that department.

Passerines' cages have vertical bars while psittacines' have horizontal ones (for climbing). There are some cages that are made for both types and would have two vertical sides and two horizontal (most cages for cockatiels are like that because they can be used for a tiel or for a medium size passerine). The cage in the picture looks exactly like a canary flight cage, they have a stand and measure 36x32x21 and the bowls openings don't lock at all (I have two that are identical to that one, one for my hens and the other one for the males which take turns in it).

The cage in the picture does have sides with horizontal bars, at least it seems that way to me (if you look to the right, seems like the right wall has horizontal bars)... Also the cage I've got has two sides of each type (horizontal/vertical bars), but I do believe it was made for parrots as it's kinda big, not only in size but also between the bars. Bar direction can't be the only way to know what kind of bird the cage is intended for, that'd be silly.. But I do agree with Pajarita on that you should make sure the cage isn't made from a dangerous material or painted with toxic paint, regardless. Can't hurt

[Pajarita]

No, it's not silly. There are reasons for everything when it comes to bird husbandry. Vertical bars are safer on wings than horizontal (passerines been flighty birds) and parrots, which climb instead of flitting or fluttering like passerines do, benefit from having horizontal bars (it's like having a little ladder). The courses you need to take to do wildlife rehabbing specify that you should always house passerines (robins, cardinals, bluejays, sparrows, etc) in cages with verticals bars, never with horizontal ones because if their remiges are damaged, you would not be able to release it back into the wild until after they molt.

The problem is that the bird industry doesn't really care about optimum housing for different species, they just want to sell the biggest number of cages possible to satisfy the relatively recent fad of keeping birds so they came up with these hybrid cages that can be used for different types of birds. But, way back then, when only true aficionados kept birds, we used to 'specialize' in one single species and nothing else (and canariculturists used to specialize in one single breed!).

[Elaihr]

I agree that a cage intended for passerines should have vertical bars and that a cage meant for parrots should have horizontal bars, as it is indeed safer for them, but as you say the industry doesn't take this into consideration which makes it hard to identify what species a cage is meant for by bar direction only, like in these cages where some sides have horizontal bars and some have vertical bars... If a cage does have "mixed" types of walls/sides, like mine does, is it safe to assume that the paint/enamel is non-toxic? I wouldn't dare buy a cage no matter what direction the bars go in without asking/making sure that the paint/enamel (using both words because I don't actually know what it's called) used isn't dangerous :/

[Pajarita]

Personally, I would not assume anything when it comes to the pet industry and safety for our animals. There have been way too many examples of profit trumping safety so, as far as I am concerned, I make sure. I use very few cages for parrots and all the ones I use are made for parrots. I do house all my passerines in cages but they don't chew the bars and, besides, I get new ones when the old ones get chipped (mostly because I don't like to see them looking like that) so paint safety is not an issue for me. But anything made in the US should be OK (paint ingredients are regulated) but most (if not all) inexpensive cages are made in China or Taiwan and I would not trust their products to be safe.