Here is my cage--some questions

[Chihuahua]

Hello! I should start with an introduction. I began my venture into bird keeping with two unruly conures who have been quite a joy. However, after some changes to my living situation I am no longer able to spend ample amounts of time with them and their emotional health is clearly suffering. My friend who runs a rescue and spends most of her free time with the birds will be taking one on permanently as he loves her to death, and rehoming the other for me as he wishes for her death

Money and care wer never an object. The issue is that I am unable to let my birds have the roam of the house on a regular basis because I am renting a room from my mother and she is not always a fan of them landing on her head and such. So my friend that is taking them suggested finches, as they are
Quite hands off birds and I have been very excited about the prospect of still being able to keep birds.

Anyway, that leaves me with a pretty big cage. I have a critter nation cage that currently has the middle level removed. I can either split it in half or I can have the whole thing for my finches. However, it is quite tall and I don't think they will use the whole thing if I leave it as is. There is a stand on the bottom so the measurement includes that: 36 x 25 x 62.5 inches

The cage calculator tells me this can hold about four finches. I am looking at society finches and am interested in gouldians possibly when I feel confident in my ability to care for finches. If i split the cage I could have four on the bottom and four on top and set it up so they will use most of the cage. One half is about 36 x 25 x 24.5 inches (the size of an add on unit. If I go really crazy I could add s third separated level and have twelve ) so my question is, could I separate the two parts of the cage and have four on top and four on bottom? Or am I better off leaving it as is?

[lovezebs]

Chihuahua

Hello, and welcome to the Forum.

So why doesn't your Mom like birds landing on her head, hmmm? LOL, just kidding

My question would be:
What is the space measurement between the bars on the critter cage that you have? I know some of them have quite a large space between the bars, that's why I'm asking.

With Finches, you need 1/2 an inch or less.....

[Chihuahua]

LOL it doesn't bother me one bit but you know how parents can be! I was living in an rv in the yard but she decided to sell it and that meant the birds got relegated to my room.. I tried to make it work for a long time but it just isn't fair for them.

Anyway the cage bars are 1/2 inch! The cage is designed for the small guys and I would feel good about putting something as small as mice in there.

Also I took a nap and dreamed that my new finch got stuck in the air vent??

[Lucille]

Critter nation cages are popular and if you wanted to sell yours it probably would sell fast. I would recommend doing so and getting a bird cage with trays that you can pull out to clean and change without opening the cage. If you open those big Critter Nation doors the finches will fly out.
Your conures flew about so the door opening was not a big deal, but 12 finches in a room is a lot to chase down and back into a cage.

[lovezebs]

Chihuahua

Sweetie, I wouldn't put any mice in a cage with 1/2 inch bars, or you might really have a problem with your Mom, lol

Gouldians and Societies, can co-exist quite happily together, and they would use the whole cage and love the flying room it would offer them. If you add some artificial vines, flowers, and swings, they would have a blast .

***One word of caution, get your Societies from a breeder who raises Gouldians as well. Some Societies are carriers of certain diseases, which are fatal to Gouldians, while not being sick themselves, so that's something to be very aware of.***

[Chihuahua]

So would they use the vertical space as well? I can imagine that the birds might escape when I open the cage, but it provides significantly more space than any bird cage I have so I want to give it a try. I have a preview Hendrix f040 sitting in the garage but according to the cage calculator it can only fit two birds.

My concern is that the cage calculator says the cage can only hold four birds and it is much taller than it is long, so I was wondering if I split it if I could put four birds in each section so that they would use all the space they can and therefore double the amount of birds that can fit in the cage.

It honestly just seems like a shame to waste that space knowing that finch s use far more horizontal than vertical space.

[lovezebs]

Chihuahua

They will use the whole cage, flying both from side to side and up and down (especially if you place the food dishes at the bottom), and it is excellent exercise for them.

Of course this is totally up to you

The big door, may present a problem though. You may want to hang something like a curtain or whatnot over it, to make escape less likely whenever you open it.

[Chihuahua]

So Is it possible to have more than four birds in there? I guess that's my main question although I don't know what I'll end up with in the end

[lovezebs]

Chihuahua

In my opinion, you can have more birds in there, as long as everyone is getting along, and not crowding one other.

Some people may disagree, but I have been known to do things my way and have no problems.

[Chihuahua]

Lol sounds good, I do have extra cages if needed. When I first got the parrots I was a cage addict and I have about four additional cages not including the one that I gave to my moms parakeets. Thank you for all the excellent advice!!

[lovezebs]

Chihuahua

You are more than welcome.

[w.l.]

I'd split it, as if left as one, you will find all birds mostly stay in the upper half anyway. Does it have a tray practical for finches at the bottom of the upper half when used split though?
Also, if it stands on the floor, birds in the lower half can feel uncomfortable.

[Chihuahua]

It does have a short stand on it. It also has a tray for each level

[Chihuahua]

I think I'll leave it unsplit for now because if they tend toward the top then there will be a much slimmer chance of escape when I am changing the bottom ;)

[w.l.]

That's absolutely true.
They will flee upwards.

Then start by putting in just 4 finches and see if you feel more would be OK.
I also think that if all are peaceful small species, and breeding is not high priority, you could add 1 or 2 more pairs eventually.