Mood:
Thoughtful
Listening To: HEALTH x FILTER - FREE TO DIE
April 13 2026
Bird Cage Quest Part 1/?
Disclaimer: Units in USA Imperial because there's so many numbers. Apologies to the rest of the world.
I have been struggling with purchasing ‘the perfect’ birdcage. I’ve seen it argued that you can’t build a better mousetrap than the standard snap one: live traps do not guarantee the animal is not coming back to your home, and many other mousetraps do not reliably euthanize the mouse. Unfortunately, “original” birdcages will always fall short – that being said, their modern counterparts fall short, too.
My original birdcage measured 22in W x 17inch D x 27inch H. This cage was over a decade old when I retired it due to pieces breaking allowing my bird to, with some clever maneuvering, break out (outside of his outside cage hours). I purchased a new cage measuring 30 x 16.5 x 22, a now discontinued VISION model. This cage had a unique design wherein instead of a pull out grate and tray, the bottom part of the cage was acrylic, meaning you had to detatch it from the rest of the cage, which was held together with connectors.
Honestly, while this cage is not as sturdy as its predecessor, and it had no feeder doors, it was easier to clean for me [my old bird cage was FULL of crevices that made it annoying to clean] and served my purposes. I would not put a bird much larger than mine in the cage, both due to its size and the construction of the bars. However, in assembling the cage, I realized how close this cage was to being a fully modular build-your-own cage. If it had a more standard grid-and-tray base, you could build the cage as tall or as wide as needed [if you had another base]. With the acrylic base, you could not make it wider – but I was tempted to make it taller. However, the cage and all its variations are now discontinued. Now that I am looking at purchasing a second bird and maybe one or two more cages, I find myself at a crossroads.
My current bird measures about 10 inches long with a 15 inch wingspan. The next bird I am considering is a little longer, at about 12 inches long. I can’t find a wingspan, but lets assume between 12-17 inches. The minimum cage width for either of these birds, for me, is around 24 inches; ideally, I’d like to get wider, roughly 1.5-double the bird’s wingspan. However, a quick google through birdcages will show you, there are so few options. I’m tempted to say it may not even exist with the following options: pull out feeder doors, wider-than-tall, .5 inch bar-spacing.
I looked at birdcages, even looking at the minimum of 24 x 24, you easily hit over 500 dollars for a birdcage I am not happy with 100%. And I don’t want to spend that much on something that isn’t meeting all my desires. Very few birdcages will be a perched 24x24x24; usually the depth is always sacrificed for a height that seems wasteful. What’s more, I’d prefer the cages to be horizontally oriented versus vertical to help with my leg strain.
I looked outside birds, then.
My first thought was the C&C Guinea Pig cages. They are set up very similarly to the VISION cages; similar components, similar detatchable base. However, the C&C grids have spaces that measure 1 and 3/8 of an inch; much above what is safe. I’ve seen it mentioned you could double up on the grids to make the spacing less, but I am unsure how that would work as the grids are square. Perhaps I am misunderstanding.
Enter the Critter Nation. This cage is almost perfect; a single story critter nation is under $300 dollars, and is 36 x 24 x 24. A perfect width and depth, meeting minimum requirements. What’s more, its doors are the full span of the cage, making cleaning much easier and all bars are horizontal, meaning a parrot is able to easier climb the entire cage. On this alone, I feel as though one of the best parrot cages, on paper, isn’t even a parrot cage.
However, it too has flaws. Notably: the lack of feeder doors and no grate-and-tray. I’ve seen rat owners modify the cage to have a deeper tray, and with that you could, potentially, place a grate on top of it (my current bird’s nesting behavior is triggered if there is no grate). But I’ve struggled to find grates that are parrot safe and fit the cage’s size. And, while you could in theory cut out some of the bars and buy and install a feeder bowl system, I fear the bars snapping incorrectly or ruining the cage. Whats more, each of these modifications can easily be $50+ each, meaning for two cages the price could shoot up to and extra 150 each and a broken cage.
A semi-local cage builder makes a dividable cage that measures 50 x 24 x 24. That means it hits minimum requirements, alongside feeder doors and grate-and-tray. However, where it falls is the price, at $999. Do I settle for the nearly perfect but deeply flawed CN or did I shell out money for a smaller but nearly perfect parrot-speciifc cage? The search continues...