Prevue F030 - favorite food/water holders? Recs needed

[Nicole R.]

Hello all, I'm new to this forum and to finchkeeping.

I've just received my new Prevue F030 flight and have a few weeks to set it up before my birds arrive. For those of you who have this cage, can you recommend any favorite food/water dispensers? I already bought two water tubes that won't work because the trough is sized for 1/2" bar spacing, not the 3/8" spacing of the F030. (I'm not willing to bend the bars of my brand new cage to force a solution : )

Thanks in advance,
Nicole

[lovezebs]

Nicole R.

Hi Nicole, and welcome to the Forum.

You're getting a favorite flight of mine.
I absolutely love these, and whenever I see one second hand, I snap it up as quickly as possible. It usually takes a bit of elbow grease to get them cleaned up, but paying a fraction of the full price makes it worth while.

In my opinion, they are the best flight cages out there.

Now, to your questions:
Regarding the drinking tubes, here are a couple of pictures of the kind that I use. The plastic of the bottoms of these tubes is pliable so you can give it a little squeeze with thumb and forefinger and they work very well, without having to bend any bars.

Regarding the seed dishes:
The ones like the purple one in the picture below work well, and you can place them anywhere in the flight.

Your flight should have come with seed cups (I believe) as well.

There are many different types out there, some that are supposed to keep the seed mess to a minimum, so in all reality it comes down to what you like and what works for you.

I hope this was helpfull

[Nicole R.]

Thank you so much! The photos are really helpful.

[lovezebs]

Nicole R.

You're most welcome .

[Sojourner]

Glam Gouldians has some of those water tubes

http://glamgouldians.com/shop-cage.php

She has some of those feed cups as well but I prefer these:



http://glamgouldians.com/product-biscuit-cup.php

In my 1/2" spaced cage the above biscuit cups tend to flip up and off the bars when my guys take flight, so I loop an elastic hair tie around the hooks and that keeps them firm.



http://glamgouldians.com/product-2gr-art57-finger.php

There is a clear version of these as well but I found them to be brittle and break easily. The white plastic ones seem more flexible. I think the finger cups will still work for 3/8" spacing because you can squeeze them without breaking them, but you should e-mail her and ask to be sure before buying.

I have some of the following but ended up NOT using them for my finches - the biscuit cups and thumb cups are smaller and less nest-like and since they are shallow, there is no chance of overfilling and ending up with seed buried under hulls. They seem large for finches to me.

I took the grates out and use these larger cups for my parakeets. However you can easily bend the hooks to fit whatever spacing you please. If you choose to use them, don't fill them very deeply and then you won't have to blow seed out or throw good seed away with hulls. You could also use them for greens but I prefer a small plate in the bottom of the cage for that.



http://glamgouldians.com/product-treat-cup-art22G.php

I use the fat silos for my main feed seed and thumb cups (you would use the smaller finger cups above) and egg biscuit cups for everything else.

[kyle]

I use the vacation feeder. It fits perfectly in the side doors of the f030. Easy to refill without taking up any cage space. Another thing I really like about this feeder is the drawer for catching all the husks.
For water I like to use the JW pet company water silo. It fits perfectly between the 3/8 inch bars.

[Chihuahua]

The double feed cups mine came with were fine for a while but ultimately the hooks snapped as they did not fit as nicely into the bars as they should have and sometimes had to be encouraged. I do not have any left. My favorite kind if you are not going to put dishes on the floor (that's what I do for the finches--encourages them to use the entire cage) are the ones that screw on to the side. They are very sturdy and easy to clean.

http://i1.ppfry.com/media/catalog/produ ... rpceq6.jpg

[Nicole R.]

I really appreciate everyone's responses. The photos and links are really helpful, too.

[Sojourner]

I use the vacation feeder. It fits perfectly in the side doors of the f030. Easy to refill without taking up any cage space. Another thing I really like about this feeder is the drawer for catching all the husks.
For water I like to use the JW pet company water silo. It fits perfectly between the 3/8 inch bars.

That's what I use for water as well. The taller ones are a little less handy than the shorter ones as they tend to lean back from the cage (they don't come with a clip like the old glass ones did). What that means is that the water tends NOT to flow down into the open part (where they would drink from) as it should and your birds may not be able to get at the water.

But I had a clip from an old silo and using that took care of the problem.

Twisting a hair tie around it and securing it through something like a bobby pin inside the cage is one way to solve the issue with the taller silos leaning away from the cage - but you can only do that with finches as parakeets would chew through it pretty quick. Undoubtedly there are other ways.

But knowing what I know now, I would just put more of the smaller silos instead of going to the taller one if I had more finches. It takes my 2 finches several days to empty the smaller one so that's plenty of water. (Unless, of course, I forget to give them their baths, then they will splash the water out of the silo in a very pointed attempt to show me the error of my ways.)

Besides, more feed and watering stations drastically reduces the chance of squabbles.