Cage Survey - please help me with my cage shopping

[sugarbeth]

Hey all, I'm really wracking my brain over the cage options out there. I've scoured the web for as many details as I can get on cages without actually seeing them in person. Sometimes, though, the information is conflicting, and I think it may reflect changes in the models over the years. So if you can complete my little cage survey, it would really help a great deal (and others may find it useful as well).

I'm in the market for a grey-sized cage, but please feel free to chime in no matter what size cage you have so that others may use this as a reference. I originally was going to go with a King's cage, but their costs went up so much, and I'm curious if there's a good alternative. So, without further ado, here are my questions:

What is your cages make and model?

What year was it made/bought approximately?

Is the construction of the bars drilled/passed through or are they just welded? (This is probably my top question, as I do not want one that's drilled.)

Can you use your cage without the grate? Or would the gap be too large?

Can the seed guards be removed easily? Can you use the cage without seed guards?

Does the door swing all the way open and lay flat against the front of the cage?

How many food cups come with it, and what style are they?

Does the tray slide out without any problem?

What is the door lock like?

What things do you like about your cage? What don't you like?

Thanks so much!! :)

[Lori~D]

Im not going to answer all those but I will add one to think about I recently discovered...do you have doggies? I have two cages now I recently got that have wire bars down around the area where the tray is (not all cages do) AND ITS A GODSEND!! The dogs getting into the pan annoyed the heck out of me and also small children could I suppose but with bars down there they cannot and even my floors are cleaner because of it. Also my birds would climb down and get into the pan and nose around when I wasnt paying attention. Now what goes in the pan STAYS in the pan,LOL.

[dancelady]

I have a Prevue F040 cage 31x21x53 (one of their largest -- have a picture if you want) which I got last December. It is good for my lovebirds, and would be fine for larger birds. It is screwed together, rather than just folded into place. It takes a bit of work to put it together, but once you read the instructions, it is easy. The doors swing open almost 180, and the locks work as a built-in hook into the other side. There are 2 large doors in front, and a bunch of nest doors, food doors, and access doors on the sides. I like it a lot, and it is flat on top so you can put a gym or another cage up there if you want. The grate comes out very nicely (separately) along with the large plastic tray underneath. Seed guards -- do you mean those skirts? This doesn't have them, and most people say that after a short time, they remove them because they get in the way. It runs around $99- $139 depending on the time you buy it.

[sugarbeth]

Huntress - I have a dog now, but she's very old, and I don't plan on getting my bird until she's gone. So no dogs to worry about.

dancelady - thanks for the info! Are the bars welded or drilled through the frame?

Thanks! Keep the answers coming! It will be a big help! :)

[dancelady]

Hi Sugarbeth -- for my cage, part of it is welded (at the strongest places) and the other areas are drilled holes in the support with the bar's spindles going inside. If you tighten it up when you finish, I don't see how your conure could take it apart. But I think lovebirds are more likely to find a way out, so if they can find a way to take it apart they would have done so. If you can spend a lot more, check out the others, but be sure to get the smallest spacing (1/2 to 5/8") for the conure.

[sugarbeth]

Thanks for the info dancelady (though I'm not quite sure where you got that I had a conure.) ;)

[dancelady]

I'm sorry, I know you said a "grey-sized cage" -- don't know what came over me! Anyway, good luck with finding a cage that will fit your budgies or grey or whatever! There are some good ones, just get the smaller spacing to keep the budgies in... love Tweeter's name!

[sugarbeth]

No problem, dancelady! :) My budgies already have some fancy digs, I'm just shopping for my future grey.

Anyone else want to chime in with their cage specs, I'd be very grateful. I've gotten some response on another board, but still need details on A+E cages and I'd like to hear about King's euro vs. economy lines. When I'm done I'll make up a little chart and post it.

[DarwinTheSun]

What is your cages make and model? I have a HQ 9003223 for my sun conure, but it supposed to be a grey cage.

What year was it made/bought approximately? I got it last year.

Is the construction of the bars drilled/passed through or are they just welded? (This is probably my top question, as I do not want one that's drilled.)
The bars are all welded, and some of them were too sharp when I brought it home so we filed down some of the joints.

Can you use your cage without the grate? Or would the gap be too large? For this cage, the gap is a tad larger underneath the grate, so a bigger bird I wouldn't worry about. The gap is probably about an inch (maybe even less).

Can the seed guards be removed easily? Can you use the cage without seed guards? Yep, I have never used them, they are awful things.

Does the door swing all the way open and lay flat against the front of the cage? Yes, it swings most of the way. This is a feature I dont like on any cage actually. It is so easy to swing it open or closed and smash birdie feet. Whenever my bird is out of his cage, we use a perch to secure the door open at a right angle from the cage. I am too worried that my shoulder or even his flapping will de-toe him.

How many food cups come with it, and what style are they? 3 and they are stainless steel. I really like the crocks with this cage, they don't have places to get birdie toes stuck under.

Does the tray slide out without any problem? Yes, no problems and it cleans up great too.

What is the door lock like? The door lock is a double mechanism. You have to undo the front latch (a swinging latch) and then move the top swinging latch too. There is no way a bird could do it on his own, unless you left the bottom one open. That said, the crocks are just a swinging latch with no secondary mechanism. I know of some with this cage that have had their greys figure out the crock latch easily. They are using magnets to keep them attached to the cage.

What things do you like about your cage? What don't you like? Overall I like it a lot and would definitely recommend it. I wasn't impressed with the sharp welding or the ease of the door swinging open, but these are issues I would probably have with lots of cages.

[jmfleish]

Cages, cages, cages…I'm in the market for a new cage right now and I'm struggling too. I can tell you a little bit about the cages that I have now if that helps and I can tell you what I'm looking for in a new cage and what I'm considering.

I currently have six birds. Two greys, two male Eclectus, a small Cockatoo, and a Patagonian Conure. I have two HQ cages, two Kings European line cages (model 406), a Neon cage that came with my Conure, and a no name brand that came with one of my Ekkies. All of my birds with the exception of my Conure are lazy and all are probably very capable of getting out of their cages, especially my 'too, but have never really bothered. The HQ cages both have three feeder doors and porch doors that each have their own swing down latch and the latch to the door itself is a kind of slide over and up type latch. No one has ever bothered to try and get out of these cages. The Kings European line, not to be confused with the Economy line which is not made in Europe, has four feeder doors, two on each side, and are held closed by the same swinging mechanism as the HQ cages but instead of having one per door, they have one for two doors in the middle and this is a problem because the bolt that holds the tab on loosens and when it does, birds (especially my eldest Ekkie) have learned that simply pushing on the feeder door will release it. So, if you don't keep the bolts tight, you have birds who sneak out the feeder doors. Another thing about the Kings cages I don't like is that the tops only have bars going in one direction so it's a pain to hang toys in more than four places. The locking mechanisms on the doors are fairly tamper proof but once again, I have very lazy birds. All of the cages I have have drop through bars which is bad because it's easy to get water in there and for rusting to happen. But, if you're looking at a big bird such as a Greenwing or a Hy, the drop throughs are nicer because they can't break the welds. Ideally, a cage company would do a drop through and then weld, but gee…you might be required to know something about a bird to make a decent cage then wouldn't you?

All the grates come out pretty easily. The pan on the Neon cage is a pain in the neck to get out because it's made of plastic. They don't make Neon cages anymore though, so not even an issue and it's a minor annoyance. The Kings Cages have a big gap between the grate and the pan…good for the 'too because of his incredible extend-a-leg, but even that distance can be reached with those unnaturally stretchy legs to grab the papers on the pan. You can't take the grates out of the Kings cages and just use the pans but you can in the HQ cages. I don't know how adventageous it is to do so but I have done it both ways…I'm currently using the grates now. I don't use the seed catchers…they are a pain in the neck, take up valuable room, and just make yet more cage to clean up after so I couldn't even tell you anything about them.

I do like both the HQ and the Kings cages and I would probably buy either again if I wasn't dealing with zinc toxicity in my 'too. Now I'm looking to buy stainless and it's becoming the biggest pain in the butt ever. I'd go Kings stainless if they didn't just raise their rates to reach the moon and you didn't have to wait a year just to get a cage stateside, but that isn't happening in the timeframe I need it to happen in. I would go with a powdercoated HQ again if they could absolutely guarantee me the zinc and lead levels would be safe but the refuse to do so, so I'm not even going to bother and don't trust any other cages that aren't stainless. I think I've already made my decision to waste a ton of money with Expandable Habitats and get a specially designed cage the way I want it made. They've got an excellent reputation and will do it the way I want it done…can't go wrong there can you?