macaw aviary

[RoLane]

We have an outdoor aviary for our macaws made with welded steel wire that we bought at the local feed store. We have corrugated tin on the top for the roof. We put the wire across the top of the cage before putting the tin on and they love to climb and hang upside down! Plus it allows us to hang toys and perches all around the cage.

We have had 2 problems since putting it up 4 or 5 years ago.......our dogs trying to get in and mice!

We purposely did not pour concrete thinking it would be good for the birds to have a dirt and sand floor but now we have been overrun with mice. I haven't been able to find a good fix for this one yet but we keep working on it!

We fixed the problem of the dogs trying to get in by putting cinder blocks around the bottom of the cage and by continuously training the dogs not to dig near the cage.

[jessica298]

Please, please make sure you do not use the galvanized wiring for your aviaries. It contains a heavy coating of zinc which is highly toxic to birds and is usually fatal when ingested. Get wiring that is powder coated or better yet you can get 10' X 10' X 6" H black powder coated 8 gauge dog kennels. Here is the web site:

Diamond Series Dog Kennel 10ft x 10 ft. 6 ft tall
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We purchased this size from them and used polocarbonate roofing panels in an ivory color which shades 70 % of suv rays but still lets is light. Total cost under $ 850.00. We have 4 large macaws and they love it especially when they get misted with the hose. This size will not work for the smaller parrots because of the wire size which is 2" X 4".

We also have 2 cags, 3 amazons and a severe macaw and put up a 8' X 8' X 6' H octogon aviary by using the panels from this dog kennels web site:

Bronze Plus Cat and Small Pet Kennel 3 x 6 x 6

We needed 16 11 gauged black powder coated panels with 1" x 1" wire openings, 8 panels on the bottom and 8 on top and put on the polycarbonate roofing panels. Total cost around $750.00.