Rusted Cage

[cag40oz]

I have a Play-Top cage for my conure that I bought off of craigslist, only to find out later that it is rusted. So it's sits in my garage. However, it is a nice cage so I am wanting to restore it or sell it. I need some help figuring out exactly what to do to make sure the cage is safe for our GCC, or how much money is it worth? Please help...

Playtop Cage

image_1.jpeg (40 KiB) Viewed 4212 times

Rust on cage

image_2.JPG (37.15 KiB) Viewed 4212 times

[marie83]

My advice is don't bother. I got given a cage with much less rust than that and from research its cheaper and safer just to buy a new cage.

My research told me that re-powder coating it is really expensive and that there is way too much debate on what paints are safe to use on them, even childsafe ones are risky as parrots are not children, besides that you would need to remove every last scrap of rust first or it will just flake off anyway.

[cag40oz]

Ok, I do have a couple of questions...

1. What if I just remove all the rust? I have already scrubbed it for seveal hours and removed a lot of the rust. I figured since I basically lost the $90 on this cage not even a week ago, maybe I could try to get some use out of it. Pets stores tell me to remove all of the rust, and spray it with kid safe paint and let it sit for two weeks. I thought, maybe if i just remove all of the rust so that the metal is shiny, I could jsut use it like that. He has a sleeping cage, so this cage would probably go in the family room for him to play in or on.

2. Can I sell it? Would somebody even want to buy it? If so, how much should I ask?

[friend2parrots]

hi there - sorry you lost $90 on this purchase. rusted cages are bad news, unfortunately. even a professional cage manufacturing company would discard it, as it would be simply too expensive for them to remove the rust, and then refurbish it to the quality standards that are necessary to maintain birds health. the procedure of painting and coating a cage is very complicated, and requires a series of steps, several of which involve intense smelting and vacuum sealed heat application to permanently seal the paint onto the surface, so the bird cannot remove any paint with its beak.

so unfortunately, my advice to you would be just to put it on the curb. its really not possible to refurbish it, or sell it, because the next person would be facing the same situation. trying to use it in any way is likely to send your bird to the vet, which will be a lot more expensive than $90 in the long run ....

all the best with your bird!

[Pricey_boy]

What I did when I had rust on a cage I bought was I cut of all the bars with rust and used chicken wire going up and across to makes small squares it may not be pretty but it's just a temporary solution

[marie83]

Please please be careful with chicken wire, most sold it treated to stop it rusting which makes it a cause of heavy metal poisoning (zinc). You can get stainless steel but it is much less common and more expensive.

[spiral71]

Please please be careful with chicken wire, most sold it treated to stop it rusting which makes it a cause of heavy metal poisoning (zinc). You can get stainless steel but it is much less common and more expensive.

i dont know if its true or not but i read that if a bird has heavy metal poisioning its doppings have red in them i think it was online but i cant rember where i read that.

[marie83]

Please please be careful with chicken wire, most sold it treated to stop it rusting which makes it a cause of heavy metal poisoning (zinc). You can get stainless steel but it is much less common and more expensive.

i dont know if its true or not but i read that if a bird has heavy metal poisioning its doppings have red in them i think it was online but i cant rember where i read that.

I wouldn't want to get to that point to find out...... The early signs of metal poisoning are pretty much the same as for every other illness, lethary, anorexia, severe signs are seizures etc etc. No point risking it.

[Eurycerus]

Completely agree. I wouldn't risk messing around with chicken wire. It's relatively cheap for a reason, because cheap metals are used. I don't know much about rust but I feel like there might be a safe way to scrub it all off and re-enamel it. I think it could be worth it and I would probably research it more. Definitely inspect your merchandise better next time though, because that's a ton of rust.