I’m really happy with the way it turned out and I’m excited to get some birds in there! I didn’t really have my plan completely ironed out at the start so I had to solve a lot of problems as I faced them which made for a product that was generally a little less neat and clean than I wanted it to be. But I still think it looks good despite that and I’m proud of it. I'd apologize for the length of this post, but, naahhh. I made the actual cage part using half inch by half inch galvanized hardware cloth. I got part of this in pre-cut roll form at Lowe’s and the other, supplemental part for much cheaper at my local lumber yard/hardware store. I attached each cut-out piece using these cage clips I also found at the lumber yard. If you’re looking for something like that, I had a good experience with them and would recommend them. Search for “pet lodge wire cage clips” and make sure you get the specialized pliers that go with them. When the cage part was all put together I ended up with a box that was about 36 inches by 26 inches. I chose these specific dimensions because of what I planned on using as bottom trays. Two baker’s sheets in the largest size they come in, 26 by 18, make up the pull out waste trays on the bottom of the cage. I got three sheets from a restaurant supply store in a nearby city. They were a bit expensive (3 came out to about 40 bucks, usd) and my store unfortunately didn’t have any used ones in stock, so if you’re doing something like this and can think of a better idea I say try that out. But these’ll do to catch waste below the cage and having three makes it easier to interchange and clean them out. I also added some doors by cutting square holes out of the cage then cutting pieces of hardware cloth a bit bigger for an overlap and cage-clipping them on one side. Also during this part I added a little triangular shelf to one corner.
So then, because of my poor planning mentioned before, my cage was a bit bigger than my trays and it overhung the edge by a bit. To solve this problem I went to my dad, an architect and overall cool dude
. He came up with a solution that, as well as solved the gap problem, created a little space underneath the cage so the trays could actually slide in and out instead of the cage just sitting right on top of them. It was to cut some two by twos in half to make triangular prisms, put those on the inside edges to act as slopes, then screw them into a frame of one by threes that hugged the outside bottom. I hope the pictures illustrate this well enough. It worked great logistically and made the whole cage seem more substantial and permanent. My next step was to paint. I technically didn’t need to do this. I learned from a previous post that galvanized wire is fine for finches because they don’t really chew the bars but for some reason I went ahead and did it anyway. This was another instance of me not really thinking things through ahead of time. If I was married to the idea of a painted cage I should have painted each piece before I put the thing together instead of painting an already finished box of wire mesh. While painting, I learned things about the limits of my physical self that I hadn’t previously known. I contorted myself in ways I didn’t think I could, for much longer than was probably healthy. It was a reeeal pain in the bum, sometimes literally. I primed it with metal primer then painted it a dark green. I think it looks really beautiful, now that it’s all done. The paint unifies it and makes it look whole and complete and that almost makes it worth it.
Now for the details. I put a UVA/UVB light bulb in a little brooder lamp and set it on one corner, near the window. I added all manor of perches and cups, store-bought and otherwise. Some highlights being the interesting white pine branch I found on a walk one time with a pine cone still attached which I hung from the ceiling to become a semi-swing, the store-bought feeder meant for a store-bought cage that I impressively (if you’ll let me toot my own horn) mcgyvered into working with my hardware cloth, and the other interesting, naturally swing-shaped found branch that I hung from the ceiling in front of my water feeder. I added some silk plants and some real ones, a schefflera and some marigolds (these aren’t pictured because technically that earlier thing about the UVA/UVB light bulb isn’t true yet, it’s still on it’s way in the mail so my live plants are in other parts of the house, nearer windows, waiting for the proper lighting to be installed in their proper home). I'l probably rearrange and add and take away things as needed over time.
Now all I need are some birds! I’m planning on making the drive down to a breeder when my light bulb arrives and my live plants are in their places. I’ll be getting two juvenile female java sparrows from a breeder down in South Louisiana and driving them back up in the travel cage I also made with hardware cloth (just a smaller, simpler, more portable and less tricked out version of the bigger cage). I’m excited! I have had a really fun time making this thing, even during the annoying parts, and I hope I have as much fun with the actual birds!
So what do you guys think? Did I hit everything or am I missing something that I should make sure I have before the birds get here?
On second thought, I do apologize for the length
Thanks for reading! I have more pictures that I may post later.
To be onest I did skip through half of it as yea it was quite long about how to make a cage 
Can't wait to see birds enjoying new home.Again great job 
