FINCHforum

The previous owners of my new house left me a wonderful gift. Lol.. My hubby thought I was nuts,but I told him I want to turn it into a big cage for my finches. I would love to have suggestions and tips too.
I am just starting my designing of the new cage, and will update this as I make progress.

So first I am trying to figure out the tray situation.. I think I will have to make my own like the flexible ones I saw in another post.

Awesome! I would knock out that little hanging shelf first.

Looks like it has awesome opportunities. Make sure to think out your doors well for easy accessibility for food, cleaning, & getting birds out. It'll be fun to watch your progress

I love it! Going to be beautiful when its finished .

That will definitely be an awesome cage!

Please take pics along the way, so we can see what you are doing, and perhaps get ideas!

This will be very pretty. Did it come with doors you can adapt, or do you have to do the whole front from scratch?

I am going to take out the little shelf at the top. But I was trying to design some lighting to I the top. I was thinking I would cut a hole in the ceiling and make a box above the flight to house the lights in.. Kind of recessed lighting for them. I would mount a patch of screening or something to keep my birds from getting to the lights themselves. And I figure if the box were hinged right it would make getting to the lights simple enough.

And no I haven't found the doors for it.. I suppose they disappeared before we moved in. Some of the edges on the unit are pretty scuffed and scraped up. And the top finial piece is just resting up there for now, I am going to have to glue it to keep it up there. So I am thinking that I might paint or try to get some wood to match to build the front of the unit and install doors and things.

The more I think about this, I am thinking really nice show peice for my home.

I am thinking about making some doors in the sides, to help keep the front uncluttered. Maybe trying to go with a plexi panel that could be removed for cleaning. Hmmm... I better start drawing it out.

It screams bird cage! LUUUUCCCCkkyy!!

cant wait to see the result

I personally would go with a door on each side, leaving the front with an unobstructed view of the birds/flight. It may be a bit of a pain to have to go from one side to the other when cleaning, etc., but I think the beauty of the finished product would be worth it. Depending on where you are going to place it, you could even make a tray that slides in/out from the side. Storage underneath to hide all the clutter that naturally accumulates with birds, and you have a beautiful addition to your home. Can't wait to see the finished product. If you search through this forum, there are many examples of armoires/china cabinets that have been converted to flight cages.

If you are handy with wood, and can cut holes in the sides for doors, without destroying the structure of the cabinet, you could use wire mesh or something that lets light come in from the sides.

That will make viewing the birds inside easier. I once converted an armoire into a cage, and it was OK, but I didn't like how the birds were in shadow from lack of side light.

Of course, having an overhead light would probably solve that problem, but I still think it would be nice to have the side view unblocked.

Your piece is much classier than mine was. I bet they paid a fair price for that when it was new.

lol, I dont think you are nuts, I would do this myself