Sleep Cage

[AerieAviary]

Hello all,

We are relatively new caique owners, having purchased both of ours at age 3-4 months. Penny is now 8 months old and Perry is 5 months. They live together in a large cage that is in our dining room, and are inseparable. This is about the only place in our house for it, though it gets lots of nice light, is in an active part of the house, and they seem to enjoy it. However, I worry that, since the dining room is connected to the living room with a partial wall and no door, they are being kept up when we're watching TV in the evenings. We are considering getting a sleep cage that the two of them will sleep in together from around 8 pm till 8 am, and keep it in a quiet room away from the noise of the house at night. They sleep together in something called a Birdie Bed we got from our breeder- a heavy duty plastic mesh tube covered in thick microfleece fabric, that hangs horizontally from the ceiling of the cage. We would get another one of those for the sleep cage, but is anything else necessary? I would have thought that toys would be a distraction, as would food... of course water would be available to them at all times. Also, what is a good size? We would prefer it be a smaller carrier-type cage than a second cage like we currently have, due to the space issue mentioned earlier.

Thanks so much for your help!

Rachel

[chapala]

A sleep cage can be a good idea when there isn't a reasonably quiet and fairly dark place for them to sleep their 10 to 12 hours a night. I remove all food from the cages at night - wild birds don't feed at night, and unless you sleep late in the morning, there's no reason to have food in there. They also probably will not use their water at night. With your sleeping hut, just make sure there are no loose threads. Too many birds have died in some of the huts that are still sold.

[jenseits]

I have the Birdie Bed if it's the same one I'm thinking of... did you get it at DJs? I switched from the Happy Hut to this one because it didn't have as many exposed threads and just generally seemed more tightly constructed (ie. less exposed stitching), but you still need to examine the seams and threads regularly just to make sure.

I'm not sure what size cage would be appropriate for a sleep cage for a pair of caiques. I'd think something in the 18x18 range would make sense... They don't really need a lot of room in a sleep cage.

[rockybird]

My boy Zeek has a sleep cage. It's a travel cage with a happy hut and water. I used to put food in it, but he wont eat it. He does drink water so be sure to give them water. It is covered by blankets to keep it dark, as he would get up at the crack of dawn if he could. It works great and I wouldnt have it any other way. He sleeps through the night and gets up with me in the AM. When he is tired, he will crawl into it. Beware though! Both my birds hold their potty all night, no matter how long. First thing in the AM, I hold them over the toilet and tell them to go "potty." Otherwise, you will have a mess on your hands (literally!).

[AerieAviary]

Our birdie bed is in fact from DJ Feathers. We've had it for about 5 months and it still looks brand new in terms of exposed threads and the like- even with a pair of caiques who wrestle in it daily an sleep in it every night. (The picture shows them with a scarf they like to climb on, but it's only there when we're watching. It's definitely too dangerous otherwise.)

I was considering this carrier

NEW Large Parrot Bird Travel Carrier Cage - eBay (item 380122314087 end time Jul-04-09 0957 PDT)

or this one

Parrot Bird ferret cat carrier cage cages #9003 - eBay (item 250450386407 end time Jun-29-09 1944 PDT)

Thanks so much for the feedback already!

[AerieAviary]

hmm birdboard is having problems uploading pictures it seems... check out the picture I was talking about by visiting our website

Aerie Aviary

it's the first picture in the gallery.

[Scooter]

I like those little travel cages to use as a sleep cage. Two of my birds have their cages in the living room. They were the first two birds I got. I never see the caiques take a nap in the daytime so think they really need to get to bed earlier and try, but it is so hard sometimes.

Last week I was taking care of a friends birds while she was gone for a week. She has 70 birds - I would do the upstairs guys in the morning and the downstairs guys at night. I would get my guys their clean food and water before I left about 5:30 to go take care of her guys. They seemed much more ready to go to bed when I got home about 8:00. So I just covered them all and told them good nite.

The later it gets, the louder they get and then we all get a bit cranky.

I would really like to get Chili a sleep cage so he could be somewhere more quiet at night. He also is a plucker, so I think more quiet time may be good for him.

Which cage did you end up getting them for their sleep cage? I kind of always like to actually see what I am getting before buying it. Those little ones would be good in the event of a tornado warning where I might need to put them all downstairs. I have carriers (like cat carriers), because I also worry about getting them all out if there was a fire. Before I had birds, my neighbors had a fire and we had smoke and water damage. It was 30 below outside, but I only had my cat to get out then. And we didn't have much time to get out. And were not allowed back in for a few days. So it is always in the back of my mind - better to be prepared. But I could take them to my friends house if I had too. If she could stand the noise of the screaming caiques - ha ha.

[AerieAviary]

We ended up buying a sleep cage from DJ Feathers as well, for the same reason as you'd mentioned, wanting to see it in person before buying it. It is approximately 18" x 18"x 20". It's WAAAY too heavy to be a good emergency carrier, but does the job as a sleep cage quite nicely. I think we ended up paying $80 for it, but I couldn't find it listed on their website.

[BrooklynRider]

Hi Aerie,

Can you clarify what sleep cage you ultimately purchased?

Thanks-