Weird Cage Size?

[Nerien]

Looking for more space to put more cages, I keep looking towards the space above the big flight with the small flight already on top of it. The big flight is 5' long and 5' tall, the small flight on top of it is 18" x 18" x 5 ft long (two Petco cages wired together). The space above would be the 5 feet long, nearly 2 feet wide, but only have about 12-13 inches of height to work with.

So I could make a very long, 5', reasonably wide, 21", but not very high cage up there. (Or two 30" long x 21" wide x 13" high cages.)

It seems it would give the birds a very linear life. They could go longways, sideways, but not much in the way of up and down.

What do you think? Part of me says yes, but part says no.

[mayble]

If your lower flight is on a stand similar to mine, you may be able to buy a few extra inches by removing wheels or simply cutting the legs back a bit and reinstalling the wheels. You may be able to make room for a 15" or 18" cage on top.
Assuming your big flight isn't already sitting at floor level, I'd look for ways to lower it and tap into the space underneath.

[Nerien]

Considering that on occasion, but removing wheels would mean we couldn't move the big flight anymore, as it weighs over a hundred pounds. Has budgies in it, which are MESSY. Have also considered re-structuring the lower frame to lower the cage a bit, but we have cats and a dog, and wonder how low before we were basically offering birds to the cats? Budgies like to climb and hang on the sides, and do basically careless things like leave their tails hanging out. Right now have covered the bottom 15" of the flight with heavy duty clear plastic to both control the mess and convince cats it wasn't worth trying (which worked. As long as there's no chairs or other furniture or objects left close enough to the cage to allow them to climb...).

It's something I keep considering, but that will take work and cooperation by hubby. Much easier to make a hardware-cloth cage to fit the existing space right now. But then the little birdies can't really fly up and down much, just forwards, like living in a tube...

[mayble]

Yes, cats and dogs do present a challenge, don't they? I only have finches, and they've apparently figured out that they are safe behind bars and will sit and stare right back at the dog. The only way to keep them out of cat's reach would be to hang from the ceiling, but fortunately mine doesn't seem that motivated to get to them.

Your "tube" comment reminded me of the clever enclosures I've seen on this forum made from a roll of hardware cloth closed on the ends.
I guess if it were me, and I needed the space for juveniles or other short-term housing I'd go for it. Maybe not an ideal home, but it would do in a pinch. I've seen many breeder cages/cabinets that aren't much taller.

[Nerien]

Exactly what I would be making. Already have one, that's 3' x 2' x 2'. More of an oval, with flattened bottom so it sits easily. Actually, somewhere between oval and rectangle, found that the rounded edges look much better than square corners, but kind of flattened much of the sides to maximize space inside. The roundness also gives it better strength against warping & buckling. But mostly it looks better than a wirecloth box. Somewhere on this forum, posted pictures of it when it was first done.

Have found that by blocking cat-access to a certain height, they leave the cages alone. If they can't jump up against cage without an obstacle interfering, they don't even try. Is why I'm looking at the space waaaaaay up high, then I don't need to figure out how to defeat the cats. The birds may be safe inside the cage from dog and cats, but it doesn't do anyone's nerves any good to have sudden attacks on their walls.