christie wrote:I was rather discouraged by my cage search today. I had about 90 min of travel time to go to two different bird stores to look at cages today. One store only had about 3 different cages that would be in my size category, and I didn't like any of them. Either the bar spacing was too far apart and/or the main door was skinny. Big enough to get a bird in and out of the cage, but not big enough to make it convenient to clean. They didn't have cage brands written on them anywhere, but I THINK they were HQ cages.
At the other store they had a few more cages and a better selection (small - large), but basically only 3 styles that were in the size range I was looking at.
I think this is the same cage as I saw in the shop, it matches the pictures I took pretty well
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... &subref=AAThe cage looked nice enough, and I liked the fact that it had the double perch on the play top, but the main door is skinny again. I would have a hard time getting my head and arms in there to clean. When I rattled around the cups (those were stainless steel) and they seemed "parrot" proof inside the cage. The ones on top of the cage did not have anything to lock them into place. But I don't think those are the ones that typically have issues with tossing. I did like the lock on the side of the food doors, those were a turn bolt lock and pretty easy to use. The 22x24 cage was 1/2 bar spacing.
This another HQ cage I found to play with.
http://www.birdscomfort.com/playtopsmal ... cages.htmlAgain, it had the skinny door (which I think is just what HQ cages do?), the bowls inside the cage seemed toss proof. The locks on the food doors are just metal round discs that slide down to keep the door shut. It is functional, I'm just not too sure how much I personally care for it.
The third HQ cage I can't find on the internet. But the store described it as: HQ Cage Model #9002422(D) 24x22. It was a dome shaped cage, had the skinny door and the turn bolt lock for the food doors.
All three styles had lower pull out trays and the bottom wire shelf would pull out for easier cleaning. the two play tops did have pull out trays as well.
All three were powder coated paint, stainless steel bowls and no storage on the bottom of the cage.
They had another interesting cage for around $58 I thought was pretty neat until I played with it a little more. (sorry no idea on brand, they didn't have it labeled). It was an 18x18 and was more of a "travel" or temporary cage. What I thought was interesting is that the dome top was split at the top so when opened the top would just slide down the two sides and allow the parrot to come out the top to play. What concerned me after playing is that the lock to keep the two halves of the top up was not that great. An inventive parrot could easily "push" it up and open the cage on their own. I have a policy, if I'm shutting a door, I expect it to say shut! I would like to have my bird out as much as possible, but if I'm closing the cage, there is usually a good reason for it.......
I did, however, find a very interesting article about testing paint on parrot cages, and what is a safe #. Apparently no cages made in China are safe due to the fact that their paint may contain lead. Stainless steel cages are the best but are usually powder coated to protect from rusting.Any powder coated cage should be tested though. The author lists the price and a place to get your cage tested. http://www.happybirdy.com/
