
Building your own cages
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- Nestling
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:09 pm
Building your own cages
Do you guys have any experience on building your own cages because I saw a cage that looks good on efinch.com and I am determining whether to build some or buy some store bought cages? 

- ApricotMuffins
- Hatchling
- Posts: 50
- Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2014 6:52 am
- Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Re: Building your own cages
I'll give you the condensed version of the speech my husband gave me when I told him I was thinking about building my own cages (and may need his help building them).
-"How much would it take to buy a premade cage?"
-"$25-40, depending on the sale (referring to the PetCo finch cage)"
-"And how much would it take for supplies?"
-"Ball park estimate...um, roughly the same?? I guess? (I don't really have wire and hooks laying around so I would have to buy everything new.)
-"Don't bother; just buy them. Consider the opportunity cost."
Begrudgingly, I accepted that husband was correct. If I make $20 an hour at my job, then the cage better take me less than 2 hours from start to completion to break even (including shopping time for materials), otherwise, it would be better to pick up a few extra hours at work and buy the cages.
On the other hand, if you love projects and you would actually save money building the cage yourself, I don't see why not. Personally, I would love to build a cage, and the opportunity cost can stuff itself! ... But I don't think I'll be able to under the watchful leye of my accountant husband
-"How much would it take to buy a premade cage?"
-"$25-40, depending on the sale (referring to the PetCo finch cage)"
-"And how much would it take for supplies?"
-"Ball park estimate...um, roughly the same?? I guess? (I don't really have wire and hooks laying around so I would have to buy everything new.)
-"Don't bother; just buy them. Consider the opportunity cost."
Begrudgingly, I accepted that husband was correct. If I make $20 an hour at my job, then the cage better take me less than 2 hours from start to completion to break even (including shopping time for materials), otherwise, it would be better to pick up a few extra hours at work and buy the cages.
On the other hand, if you love projects and you would actually save money building the cage yourself, I don't see why not. Personally, I would love to build a cage, and the opportunity cost can stuff itself! ... But I don't think I'll be able to under the watchful leye of my accountant husband

- Sally
- Mod Extraordinaire
- Posts: 17929
- Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:55 pm
- Location: DFW, Texas
Re: Building your own cages
I buy premade cages because I am not handy, but I would much prefer to be able to build my own. Most of the premade cages are not ideal for finches, so building my own would let me have exactly what I want.
- KarenB
- Proven
- Posts: 2013
- Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 11:29 am
- Location: Cypress, Texas
- kristofer
- Fledgeling
- Posts: 95
- Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2014 2:27 pm
- Location: Malta
Re: Building your own cages
I always build my own so i can mess around as i please, the wood is recycled from various furniture i manage to get from a recycling page on facebook. Than i just buy the wire mesh
i am always fixing things around the house so making the cages is fun for me and easy. The best part is that you can just burn a cage when you don't like how it ended up and make new models haha

Bird species bred up till now : Zebras, Bengalese, Javas, Diamond doves, Canaries.