Cage background color?

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:06 am

I picked up a sheet of white coroplast to make a breeder cage & poop trays today. Then I thought about the color for a while, and started thinking about my tropical fish. For tropical fish, we want a DARK background, so the color of the fish stands out against the dark background. Seems logical that we would want to do same for the birds, at least for the colorful and light birds. For the dark birds you want a light background for them to contrast against.

For example I would use a black or gray background for a LG, so the color stands out. My zebra finches can use a white background, except for the silver penguin which would stand out better against a dark background. A red bird would stand out against a green background, etc.

The thing is that a dark/black European style breeder cage will make illuminating the cage much harder, since there will essentially be no reflection of light back to the birds from the sides of the cage.

While it is too late for the cage that I'm getting ready to build, I think my next coroplast cage will be white top and sides, but with a BLACK back, so the colored bird stands out against the black background while the white top and side reflect light to the birds.

BTW, the coroplast costed me $27 for a 4ft x 8ft sheet.

atarasi · Post by **atarasi** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:19 am

What colors of green or brown do they have?

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:50 am

Not all Tap Plastic stores have coroplast. According to the guy in the shop, coroplast is NOT a corporate item, the indiviual stores have to order it themselves from the distributor/manufacturer. My local Tap store referred me to another Tap store (farther away) that stocked it.

I saw a dark green but no brown.
The coroplast site show brown, but as a "non-standard" color = more expensive/harder to find.
http://coroplast.cat-x.net/CategoryListView.aspx?id=1

If you can use 24x18 size, these guys have it in brown.
http://www.beacongraphics.com/supplies/coroplast.html

A sign shop should also have coroplast.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 7:03 am

I painted the walls of my aviary an off-white colour. but once the climbers grow up on the back wall not to much of the paint will be visible. in reality I believe that the main reason for the painting was to make the aviary appear cleaner and to assist me in finding any unwanted spiders and ants

mike · Post by **mike** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 9:42 am

I would probably choose white for sanitary reasons, or I'd choose a colour such as light blue or green to mimic scenery. I'm sure the birds look their best with a natural colour (I mean, blue stands out best against orange but you don't want an orange background for blue birds). Darker colours tend to make spaces look smaller, don't they?

mickp wrote:...assist me in finding any unwanted spiders and ants

Are spiders bad or do you just have particularly large spiders in Australia? Our spiders are little things; at least the ones that hang around out in the open; (although I've seen some nasty ones hiding in small, dark tunnels under my shed and in my downspout.) I'd have thought the birds would eat the spiders.

mickp · Post by **mickp** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:28 am

some australian spiders can be as big as 2" to 3" in diameter, ugly/ nasty looking critters well until squashed under a boot

any spiders that go down to the aviary floor are quickly added to the quails menu for that day

atarasi · Post by **atarasi** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:03 am

Coroplast. Didn't realize that was what it's called. I remember using it in art school and when my brother worked at a sign shop I remember them using it. Same stuff the USPS uses to builds their boxes and trays for sorting mail by hand.

I can imagine if you used a 1" square frame and then used a tablesaw to cut some grooves in it, the Coroplast would easily slide in the wood. You got a great idea using that stuff.

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:27 pm

Thanks ac12 for this info.

I've never heard of Coroplast. It sounds like an interesting alternative to the plywood I am considering on be back of my aviary.

Have you ever used it in large areas (4 x 8 sheets)?

Kiko · Post by **Kiko** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 9:35 pm

It is fairly sturdy Bill, but has a bit of bend as a 4x8 sheet. If you had were sliding it in a groove, then I think you would need a brace down the middle. Otherwise fastening it to the frame would work well.
It is used for signs, attached to frames (real estate signs and others) and is quite strong.
We also used it to make our guinea pig cage. http://www.guineapigcages.com/cubes.htm

I use it as a box around my finch cage (back and sides) to keep the mess in. I plan to use it as a backing for my large flight cage. It is SO easy to clean.

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 9:52 pm

Kiko wrote:It is fairly sturdy Bill, but has a bit of bend as a 4x8 sheet. If you had were sliding it in a groove, then I think you would need a brace down the middle. Otherwise fastening it to the frame would work well.
It is used for signs, attached to frames (real estate signs and others) and is quite strong.
We also used it to make our guinea pig cage. http://www.guineapigcages.com/cubes.htm

I use it as a box around my finch cage (back and sides) to keep the mess in. I plan to use it as a backing for my large flight cage. It is SO easy to clean.

Thanks Kiko..

Think I need something stronger for the back side of my future aviary. I was looking for any alternative to sealing and painting a 7 foot tall by 10 foot wide wall of plywood.

Kiko · Post by **Kiko** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:05 pm

You could use 1/4 inch plywood or hardboard plus a sheet of coroplast.

That way you would have the stiffness of the wood plus the easy clean of the coroplast.

BillD · Post by **BillD** » Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:17 pm

Kiko wrote:You could use 1/4 inch plywood or hardboard plus a sheet of coroplast.

That way you would have the stiffness of the wood plus the easy clean of the coroplast.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I already have a composite plywood flooring that I need to treat and seal. Will be placing tiles on top of it for the aviary. I like what Steph has done with sand in the bottom on her aviary.

well, I'm hijacking this post. Sorry..

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Fri May 01, 2009 12:42 am

Having used white coroplast to make a 32Lx13Dx14H breeding cage that is illuminated from the side w a CFL in a bowl reflector, I think WHITE is the best choice. Not from a background color point of view, but general illumination in my setup. Even a 60w equivalent CFL does not light up the other half of the cage very well. To do that you need to put a CFL bowl on both ends of the cage. So using white helps to reflect light to the other side of the cage. Turns out the white back of the cage ends up looking gray, so things turned out OK.