Im building a cage- Ruh roh

[borjawil]

So ive had a parakeet before as well as taken care/handled conures and quakers. Ive handled macaws slightly as well as cockatoo's. Im going to be getting a Blue and Gold Macaw soon here and I will be building a cage for him as I have the tools, knowledge, and skills. Before you get all worked up yes i know to use untreated wood (its gonna be all wood), and what types of wood are ok. Now I am in the final stages of designing two different cages and I guess my question is has anyone ever build their own cage?

Advice? what works well what doesnt? Also for the bottom of the cage i was planning a solid flat surface covered with linoleum or similar for easy cleaning. Anything wrong with that? Should it have a grate floor for droppings and such? As for the bars I plan on using dowel rods. What is the spacing for a macaw? How thick should the rods be since they will probably chew at them or what have you and I dont want to replace them all the time from being destroyed.


I am making the cage 5ft tall and 3 feet wide in the shape of a hexagon, square or triangle. Should it be bigger?

[captwest]

Yes Sir i've had a little experience with building cages , i think you'll be disappointed with the wood cage especially with a Macaw, even using a wooden frame with wire on the inside didn't work very well' if i could make a suggestion it would be save the time and trouble. buy a tig welder and make it out of 316 SS, just my 2 cents worth.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I haven't built a cage, but we have one my husband made out of wire mesh, which is currently in te garage waiting to be cleaned up and used as an outdoor playpen cage.

I am pretty sure there isn't any wood that a macaw wouldn't eat through in a short period of time. I've heard of them chewing through wire mesh, let alone wood. So I'm afraid a wooden cage isn't very practical, but you may be able to manufacture somethign out of wire. Stainless steel would be great for a big bird, but I'm not sure what precautions you have to take with the welding process. I'm a hobbyist silversmith and I know a little about brazing, and the flux and solder I use for precious metals, I wouldn't want my bird chewing on, FWIW.

Sorry to be a bummer!

[captwest]

You'd be OK with the TIG welder just wire brush the welds, I've tried using TIG rods and welding them together, it's tough, maybe your a better welder than i, if you get regular SS rods /wire they weld much easier, the TIG rods seem to burn though to quick, it should be noted i'm no welder , it usually looks like my parrot has perched on my work ,if you know what i mean.

[borjawil]

funny you mention welding. I build bikes but i just recently sold my welder (looking to get a new one). I was also thinking of doing a wood metal combo. Have the top/bottom out of wood and the bars out of metal. My design thus far is a hexagon top/bottom, 4 thick wooden post, and metal "pipe" for the rest of the vertical bars. I know at home depot they have emt electrical piping, not galvanized that would work well but ill need many pipes and it could get pricey so ill continue looking right now. Is ungalvanized steel or aluminum ok? what about copper?

[captwest]

The steel might be ok but will rust quick if not Powder coated, I'm not sure about the aluminium might be too soft for macaw, the copper would be a no -no, my vote is for the SS pricey i know. I usually get my cages used from craig's list or yard sales. maybe look for a used cage and then build one when you know better what to change about it, my experience is that the second one turns out much better than my first attempt. Or maybe build a travel cage that will fit into your car/truck and gain some experience before screwing up a larger project.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Make sure whatever you use isn't contaminated with heavy metals. The bird will no doubt chew on whatever it is... Wood needs to be untreated (but if it is acessible to chew, it'll be gone, I don't think wood would contain my let alone something bigger for very long) and I'm not sure about metals, but base metals you'd need to be careful about. Stainless steel is the gold standard.

How much would it cost to buy the materials for a good sized SS cage? That might be tempting, actually.

[borjawil]

materials would actually be pretty cheap. Finding the thinner wire peices of the walls of the cage would be difficult i think. Materials would probably be $100 or less I would think.

[Michael]

Im going to be getting a Blue and Gold Macaw soon here and I will be building a cage for him as I have the tools, knowledge, and skills. Before you get all worked up yes i know to use untreated wood (its gonna be all wood), and what types of wood are ok....As for the bars I plan on using dowel rods. What is the spacing for a macaw? How thick should the rods be since they will probably chew at them or what have you and I dont want to replace them all the time from being destroyed.

If you're seriously planning to make a parrot cage out of wood, then clearly you don't have knowledge about parrots. They are BIG chewers. And unless you want the cage to be a giant chew toy that gets destroyed, you're making a huge mistake.

While there are decorative "furniture cages" with wood on the outside, it is just for looks. Why do you think all the cages for sale are metal? The manufacturers weren't just not handy enough to decide to not make them from wood.

When I got my Cape Parrot from the breeder, I was surprised to see a wire mesh bolted onto the outside of the hard plastic travel carrier. I called and asked the breeder what that was all about and she told me it's because she has known Capes to chew their way out of a plastic dog carrier in just one day. And this plastic stuff is harder than wood.

There are many things you can save money on with parrots by building yourself but a cage is not one of them. The investment in materials and machinery to properly build cages is too drastic and best left to the larger companies. You can get a nice cage for a Blue and Yellow Macaw for just a thousand or two. Considering what you'll be spending on keeping that parrot busy, the cost of the cage will look like nothing.

Stainless steel cage is the best way to go for a Macaw but can run several thousand. Aluminum is unlikely to work. Another option is to get a nice foraging tree without a cage and just dedicate an entire room to be the bird's cage. Good luck.

[borjawil]

a thousand or so is cheap? For that I could buy a nice welder and make one hell of a cage. I think the cage I've designed wont allow for too much chewing. Ill try to get pics up but the only concern about it is whether Ill be using wooden or steel vertical bars. My cage is a hexagon shape about 3ft wide 6 ft high. the back three wall of the cage will be against the wall so i just used wooden boards to make the walls since he wont be able to see over there anyways. The front 3 sides will be the wooden/steel bars.


Heres a link to the design of it.

http://s957.photobucket.com/albums/ae52 ... ot%20Cage/

sorry about the quality of the pictures had to take it from my computer webcam.