FINCHforum

As far as I know, these cages are no longer being manufactured. I bought mine used on craigslist, so you could keep an eye open for them. Mine are made by HQ, really work best with slightly larger birds than finches. The triple stack was used by a woman with parrotlets, the two quad stacks were used by a Gouldian breeder.

I had to make many adjustments to these cages to make them work the way I like. I prefer not to use grates. These grates slide out, but if you leave them out, there is a huge gap in the front where birds would easily fly out. I solved that by having plexiglass strips cut to measure, then fastened them in place with velcro. Now I can just pull off the strips, clean the trays, then replace the strips.

Lighting was a problem, no space between cages for lights. I bought 18" undercabinet lights and secured them on the back of the cage with long zip ties.

The removable barred divider left a bit of a gap in front (and in back), so I cut 1/2" quarter round to fit and use those to plug the gap. They are fastened in place with pipe cleaners, so they are easily removable when I want to slide the divider in place. You don't see them on most of the cages in these photos, don't remember why I had them off at the time.

For privacy, I hung fabric on the sides of the triple stack, and cut 1/4" hardboard to cover the sides of the quad stacks.

Lots of work to adjust these cages, and probably not all changes necessary for some species, but my Strawberries can slip out of fairly small gaps. And one of the best things about these cages, the surface is so easy to clean, poops wipe right off, and the trays have the same slick surface, so very easy to clean.

Oh, one last change I just made. When I would pull trays out for cleaning, the pairs in one cage could look down and see the pair in the next cage, causing a little too much distraction during breeding. CB males especially would hop down and try to pick a fight with the male in the lower cage. I recently had 1/4" hardboard cut 17.5x39.5, slid a piece in between each set of cages, and now when I pull out a tray, all they see is brown hardboard--much better!

This is the cage that I have, except mine are three stacked cages and four stacked cages, not the two they show in this ad:

http://www.birdscomfort.com/bird_breeding_cages.html

Great set up Sally, and very pretty to look at

Thanks for the detailed information, Sally! Wow, that was a lot of work -- but it sounds like it works nice for you now. Did you do the work by yourself?

I have the same cages as the ones in the first picture Sally and I love mine! Which all mine were like these cages.

I changed the following on mine -

I had a divider made so there was ample space between cages to put the lights directly on top. I can't stand coming up to a cage and looking at light bulbs - I imagine the birds don't care for it either.

I too take the grates out but this time I didn't - I put a towel over them and finding this much easier to clean - just pick up the whole towel which is quiter than paper to remove when needed.

I too drape a shower curtain around mine - the back and the sides.

I put lots of greens in mine too. I really like the length the best.



I really like the cage next to the black one too.

I like the fact that you made a divider so you could put lights on the top of the cages. I too hate the lights being on the back, but the quad stack reaches to within 3" of my ceiling, so no room to raise these cages any more. In fact, I have to have a three-step stepstool so I can change out water, seed, etc. Since the cages stack by having little feet that sit down on the cage below, did you just build like a wooden box for each cage to sit on? The three stack could go up some more.

I wish HQ would go back to making these cages, at least the three-stack. But even the quad-stack is great because it allows me to have four nice-sized cages in the space. These are the closest to my ideal of 48x24x24 in size.

Anna, I tried cutting the plexiglass covers myself, and failed miserably. I finally found a glass company that would cut them for me for a reasonable price. The hardboard sides and inbetween pieces I had cut at Lowe's--they are so good at cutting wood for projects for me, and never charge for it. I think they take pity on a female senior citizen! But all the other work is mine.

Great cage setup Sally....you get a lot of use out of so little space with those. I noticed in the first photo....in the very bottom of the lowest right hand cage there is a different substance on the floor of the cage....what is that stuff?
Curious me!

Ladies, hats off to your determination and hard work!

Those cages sound like they work nicely -- with the modifications topping everything off.

Sally, it sounds like you have some good mechanical aptitude of your own.

(And that's what those guys at Lowe's are supposed to do for customers -- if you ask me).

FeatherHarp wrote:Great cage setup Sally....you get a lot of use out of so little space with those. I noticed in the first photo....in the very bottom of the lowest right hand cage there is a different substance on the floor of the cage....what is that stuff?
Curious me!

These photos were taken back in October 2009, but I think that was when I was trying out some coconut chips as bedding. I saw it on someone's website as bedding in their aviary, so I thought I'd try it. I had a heck of a time locating any, finally found a company in Canada which mailed me some. But it got held up in customs for weeks--in fact, I'd forgotten all about it when it finally arrived. And then after all that hassle, I wasn't that thrilled with it as bedding. Right now, I'm trying a hay mixture which is timothy, orchard grass, brome hay--very soft, and it sure does smell good! Trying to find a bedding that will not look as bad as newspaper does when it gets soiled, something that can go a little longer between cleanings.

Sally, I know this is sort of off subject -- but I use sweetgrass and alfalfa for bedding in my largest (aviary) cage and it does last longer than newspapers. The birds also like to use pieces of it as nesting and they also enjoy eating it sometimes. The only thing I don't like is that it falls out between the bars and is pretty messy.

Sally wrote:This is the cage that I have, except mine are three stacked cages and four stacked cages, not the two they show in this ad:

http://www.birdscomfort.com/bird_breeding_cages.html

Hello,

Sally is it easy to stack three (or four) of this cages? Are your cages 14020 HQ Stackable Bird Breeding Cages? Picture dscn0718.jpg is AMAZING. Looks like you have a bit nature in your home

Sally wrote:

FeatherHarp wrote:Great cage setup Sally....you get a lot of use out of so little space with those. I noticed in the first photo....in the very bottom of the lowest right hand cage there is a different substance on the floor of the cage....what is that stuff?
Curious me!

These photos were taken back in October 2009, but I think that was when I was trying out some coconut chips as bedding. I saw it on someone's website as bedding in their aviary, so I thought I'd try it. I had a heck of a time locating any, finally found a company in Canada which mailed me some. But it got held up in customs for weeks--in fact, I'd forgotten all about it when it finally arrived. And then after all that hassle, I wasn't that thrilled with it as bedding. Right now, I'm trying a hay mixture which is timothy, orchard grass, brome hay--very soft, and it sure does smell good! Trying to find a bedding that will not look as bad as newspaper does when it gets soiled, something that can go a little longer between cleanings.

and not fall out between the cage bars! That's the only reason I won't give them hay or grass for the bottom of the cage. They make enough mess throwing all the seeds and husks around. My vacuum cleaner hates me when I drag it into the birdroom.

L in Ontario wrote:[ My vacuum cleaner hates me when I drag it into the birdroom.

LOL!!!

Sally wrote:

FeatherHarp wrote:Great cage setup Sally....you get a lot of use out of so little space with those. I noticed in the first photo....in the very bottom of the lowest right hand cage there is a different substance on the floor of the cage....what is that stuff?
Curious me!

These photos were taken back in October 2009, but I think that was when I was trying out some coconut chips as bedding. I saw it on someone's website as bedding in their aviary, so I thought I'd try it. I had a heck of a time locating any, finally found a company in Canada which mailed me some. But it got held up in customs for weeks--in fact, I'd forgotten all about it when it finally arrived. And then after all that hassle, I wasn't that thrilled with it as bedding. Right now, I'm trying a hay mixture which is timothy, orchard grass, brome hay--very soft, and it sure does smell good! Trying to find a bedding that will not look as bad as newspaper does when it gets soiled, something that can go a little longer between cleanings.

Over here Sally I buy bales of a hemp based product.It's readily available here from equestrian suppliers.