Which side to hinge the door?

[nelloyello11]

I'm in the process of finishing the doors on my flight cages (the whole thing has taken way longer than I expected, but the end is in sight now).
I'm trying to decide if it matters which side the doors open (i.e. which side to put the hinge on). The A&E flight I have has the hinge on the right, and I've never noticed an inconvenience. But since I am right handed, I am wondering if I should put the hinges on the left so my leading hand has better access.
Maybe it doesn't even matter?
Has anyone had problems with either one?

[cindy]

Question...what side of the fridge or if you have a front loading washer and dryer are the hinges on? I am left handed and mine are on the right. Crazy question but it might help.

The cage hinge on my cages are on the right, I clean and addthings with my left.

[nelloyello11]

Question...what side of the fridge or if you have a front loading washer and dryer are the hinges on? I am left handed and mine are on the right. Crazy question but it might help.

The cage hinge on my cages are on the right, I clean and addthings with my left.

That's kinda what I was thinking, being right-handed, it seems like it would be more convenient to have more access with my right hand (i.e. hinges on the left). But then it got me wondering, if A&E put them on the right and more people are right-handed, is there a reason that I am just not thinking of?

[ranchnanny]

My cages are from Quality Cage Co. Portland, OR and the hinges are on the right. I open with my right hand and use my left hand to change out water/food etc......

[Chichireeo]

The door latch can be tricky on some cages. I use my dexterous right hand to open and close the door. If your home made door is easy to open/close with one hand then it doesn't matter I guess.

[nelloyello11]

The door latch can be tricky on some cages. I use my dexterous right hand to open and close the door. If your home made door is easy to open/close with one hand then it doesn't matter I guess.

I am using simple barrel bolt locks so they should be easy enough with either hand I think.

[ac12]

For my small doors on my cage, I have the hinges on top. Let go of the door and it closes (not secure, but it is visually closed).

Other doors depend on specifics such as the location of the door on the cage. Example, my nest doors, some are LH opening others RH opening, some hinge down, others hinge up. For the nest doors, I found that top hinges don't work very well, simply because the door is when open hits the shelf.

[cindy]

I used to have the large flights hinged at the top but found that the door was in the way if I had to move about the cage with my arm like for cleaning or catching a bird. Top hinge doors are a great idea for daily tasks like feeding and watering, especially if rushed one day...at least the door comes down as Gary said and it acts like a visual barrier for those would be escape artists.

[nelloyello11]

I had considered using hinges on the top originally, but each opening goes the entire height of the flight, with two doors (one directly above the other), so that I can have the entire space open when I need to (cleaning etc), or just one open for feeding, watering, catching, moving perches, etc. With this design, there would be no place to hinge the bottom door of each set, and no place to latch the top ones.

[ac12]

I guess that is why putting a hinge on each door has to be evaluated based on where it is. Sometimes one position is just not practical. Example, I stopped hinging the nest doors at the top. The door would hit the shelf above and get in the way of my vertical nest extensions (so I can get the nestcam far enough away from the birds to see the entire nest). So my nest doors are hinged on the side or bottom.

You could temporarily put up the door, using veggie ties or cable ties. The ties make it easy to change to another location. Then when you have it figured out, then use the clamps to make it permanent.