Is it cruel to keep a Cockatiel in a Shoebox?

[Michael]

Nobody is planning to do it but for an opinion poll for something I'm working on, I need to know your opinion whether or not it is cruel to keep a cockatiel in a shoebox or cage the size of one. I'm speaking strictly in terms of dimensions and not the actual material/darkness, etc. Why or why not?

[marie83]

Yes, for the same reason as any other bird. They need space to move around, flap their wings and preferably have space to fly. Not to mention they need as much enrichment as any other bird, room for several perches etc. Harlies cage was much smaller than I would like for a long time, the only reason I kept her in the smaller cage for so long is she was very very nervous, she was comfortable in the small one, new things are very hard to introduce to her but also it prevented her from getting up any speed and reducing the chance of serious injury when she went into her blind panics. She still has a cage which is smaller than I would like her to have but we are making progress towards that and she has more space than she used to. Hopefully the 3rd cage upgrade will happen soon.

[Michael]

Thanks. You can read my thoughts on the matter here:

http://www.trainedparrot.com/minimum_cage_size/

It's not that I thought anyone would think keeping a cockatiel in a shoebox is ok. But I hope that this will help my analogy that keeping a macaw in a "macaw cage" is the same thing and not ok. I've wanted a macaw for a long time but didn't remotely consider it till I got the new place and built in a room for it. I could not imagine keeping a macaw in anything smaller than a 5x7 aviary!

[Pajarita]

Well, the macaw cage size (I keep a double macaw one for quarantining birds the size of an amazon or a cockatoo) would depend on whether the bird is kept in it or if he/she just uses it for sleeping (with the door open, of course).

[KimberlyAnn]

A woman gets up, puts up the shades, takes the cover off her parrot's cage, makes coffee, and has a cigarette. Suddenly the phone rings. Her boyfriend is coming over. She puts out the cigarette, pulls down the shades, puts the cover back on the parrot's cage, and gets back into bed.

The parrot, from under the cloth says: "Well that was a short day!"

I thought we were sharing jokes at first...couldn't find one about a parrot in a box.

[Weka]

In a box? Would that make it Schrödinger's Parrot, then?

(Just a lame attempt at quantum mechanics humor, folks. Move along. Nothing to see here....)