Need opinions on size of cages

[finchlover1]

Hi. It's me, only Lyn. I'm all over this forum. Getting great suggestions so I thought I'd ask:

I don't have alot of room in my one room apt here and wanted to know your opinions of the cages that are tall as opposed to long. I have been told a thousand times that birds fligh back and forth not up and down so don't get a tall cage.

I'd love your opinions. Lyn

[6finchfriends]

I have a store bought tall cage 3ftX2ftX 13inches. Until my husband built a couple of larger flight cages for me I had 3 Societies in it and they seemed to like it just fine. They flew side to side, up and down. BUT they are happier in the larger cage. I use it for a breeding cage now because the nest can be up high. I totally understand not much room. Like I said, I had 3 birds in it and they seemed fine, no fighting or trouble. That's the cage we put the plexi glass around the sides with clips.

[nelloyello11]

Lyn,
I started out with my birds in 30x18 cages (18" tall). I recently bought a flight cage that is about 33x22 and about 46 tall. I was able to put 4 birds in this one (as opposed to just 2 in each of the 30x18s). At first, they mostly just stayed in the top half, so I had to place food and water about midlevel, as opposed to down near the floor. Once they got comfortable and worked out the pecking order, they started to make use of more of the height, and I encouraged this by gradually moving their food/water lower and lower, so they would have to exercise a little more to get to it.
Having said that, more horizontal space is better than more vertical space. You can use the calculator on the finch info center to determine how big of a cage you should have for the number of birds you want to keep.
You might also consider a stacking cage system of some sort, so you wouldn't use too much floor space, but could keep more birds.

[cindy]

Lyn, the zebras will be fine in a 36 high x 18 deep x 30 wide cage. My owls like the longer flights (5 ft), they are fairly swift flyers more so than the zebras. Zebras also do fine in a 30x 18 x18 cage.

[finchlover1]

Boy you all get around! I thought it would take a while to get this answererd. I can actually go to bed now. I was in bed with a night lite for the birds. I'm all comfy and all of a sudden both cages decide to "exercise" and all I am listening to is the flapping of flying, mom, dad and the "kids". The little ones are starting to eat on their own. Watched one take a bath. Nearly wet my pants. They are cute as the devil. I just love them. Well, I'm going to say good night to you all. I'm sure I'll be here over the weekend. I will "try" to take pics. I can only figure out how to get them in the gallery. Will let you know. Lyn

[cindy]

You can actually load them right onto the topic thread, using the upload attachment section right below the section you type in.

[finchlover1]

Cindy,
You make me laugh. You seem to have radar whenever I post you seem to be right there. Thank you. I never remember how to use my camera. Actually I hate taking digital camera pics. I've had my camera since Christmas and I still need the instruction book to figure out how to just look at the pics I took. Talk about electronics illerate! But I promise pics. Hope you all aren't disappointed. Grays and Squish, my pied baby. Nothing exotic yet. Lyn

[ac12]

Lyn
I have 2 stacks of cages;
stack 1 is four cages on a shelf
stack 2 are five 16x16x24 cages stacked and zip tied together. Zip tieing the cages together is important, or they could get knocked off center and collapse or fall over.

I would recommend a stack of four 18x18x30 breeder cages. The 18x18x30 breeder cages are a better size than the smaller 16x16x24 breeder cages. You can use the entire cage or slide the divider in and use it as 2 smaller cages.

If you separate the birds by sex, put the M and F cages above each other. That way they cannot see each other. Otherwise they will want to get to the other cage to mate. Then put the breeding cages above. So you would have a stack something like this:

breeder #2
breeder #1
male cage
female cage

I don't know how tall you are but when you stack cages, the top cage can be difficult to reach. I have to use a ladder to do anything to the top cage on my 5 cage stack, including feeding the birds. So don't get carried away with a tall stack.

For the breeder cages you want cages with a door on the side where you can put an outside hanging nest box. Not all breeder cages have doors on the side. Using an outside hanging nestbox is a LOT easier than a nest on the inside of the cage, plus it does not take up space inside the cage.

[finchlover1]

Gary,
thank you so much. boy this is some network going here. I love this place. As a matter of fact I have another question I'm going to post under breeding? Hope that's the right place. Lyn

[Susan39]

Someone told me that 2 females will be quieter than 2 males. I am interested in Silver Billed Finches, Society finches or Gouldian Finches. I have not made my mind up yet.

Does the cage 26 X14X20 sound good? I can get different heights as well. It goes as high as 36 inches tall.

Will finches use the height if I decide to get this size?

Also, there is a cage that is 30X18X18. I am having trouble finding a stand for this size cage. What do you recommend?

[nelloyello11]

Someone told me that 2 females will be quieter than 2 males. I am interested in Silver Billed Finches, Society finches or Gouldian Finches. I have not made my mind up yet.

Does the cage 26 X14X20 sound good? I can get different heights as well. It goes as high as 36 inches tall.

Will finches use the height if I decide to get this size?

Also, there is a cage that is 30X18X18. I am having trouble finding a stand for this size cage. What do you recommend?

Susan, I responded in your other poost, with a suggestion for a stand for the 30x18.

[ac12]

Susan
Even though the females are quieter, gouldian males are very quiet. Their singing is soft and from the throat.
That way you get the soft singing and the nicer colors.

As for societies, yes the females are MUCH quieter than the males. They make a cricket sounding noise.