planning ahead

[pi77]

in the event that i am able to find a macaw or larger amazon to rescue i have a stainless steel dog crate that i used to crate train my great dane with.

now that she is 7 she no longer uses it and it is gathering dust. it is approximately 4 ft long by 42 high by 40 wide and has an abs plastic slide out bottom.

would this be a suitable cage for a larger bird?
if i added bowls and perches and toys ?????

if this would be ok to use i would put it on a roll around cart to raise it up off the floor.

thanks for your input

[Merlie]

I guess it would be okay, and just okay. Make sure it is in fact stainless steel, not just metal.

I just think that crates are for dogs, and bird cages are for birds. Bar spacing .. ease of cleaning .. slide out feeders .. etc. all make bird cages far superior than a dog crate .. IMHO.

Size wise, it's big enough. But I think your going to find it inconvenient for a bird.

Again, JMO.

Originally Posted by pi77

in the event that i am able to find a macaw or larger amazon to rescue i have a stainless steel dog crate that i used to crate train my great dane with.

now that she is 7 she no longer uses it and it is gathering dust. it is approximately 4 ft long by 42 high by 40 wide and has an abs plastic slide out bottom.

would this be a suitable cage for a larger bird?
if i added bowls and perches and toys ?????

if this would be ok to use i would put it on a roll around cart to raise it up off the floor.

thanks for your input

[Scritch]

Are you sure it's stainless steel and not galvanized? Galvanized = zinc-coated and potential toxicity. Although lots of people still do use galvanized wire cages, apparently without too many problems, but for some birds it's an issue.

I used a black (powder-coated) XL dog cage, set up on a table, for a pair of Amazons for a while. It's definitely a lot of space for not so much money and I found it pretty convenient for the most part. It was a little messier than your standard bird cages w/o the seed skirts, the tray is quite shallow, makes for more mess around the cage. I was worried the birds would destroy the plastic tray, but that never turned out to be a problem with the birds I had, those trays are tougher than they look.

I would have preferred one of the dog cages with two doors, one on the long side -- having the door only on the short side made it quite difficult to reach into the back for cleaning. Also, I'd REALLY want that other door if I had a rescue bird in there that needs to be worked with... it would be hard to retrieve them from the cage, otherwise, if they don't want to come out on their own. Heck for that matter just getting toys in the back of the cage was always a pain, took practically climbing in there.

Overall... they're not as pretty as a "real" parrot cage, but they do work.

I talked to one guy once who took two of them, removed the top from one and the bottom from the other, and stacked them to make one great big cage! I thought about that but decided it would just be too awkward and difficult to move and clean. It would be a nice big cage though!

Right now I've got one of the smallest-size dog cages as a travel cage for Lolo.

[loyallyroyal]

I use one for a sleepy cage for Dewey, its got two doors though. I use the big side one mostly and the other one for cleaning. It works very well.