Housing your Parrot
A single pet parrot needs time out of the cage with its human flock EVERY SINGLE day! Parrots crave companionship. A single parrot should be kept ideally in the living area. The cage should facilitate stress free resting and sleeping. The cage should have a large diameter perch to sleep on placed in the highest position.
Cages provide routine, safety and hygiene for companion parrots. While it is not natural for birds to be housed in a cage it is also not natural for birds to be free roaming in a living environment such as the family home. The family home is full of dangers like open toilet lids, hot stove tops, ceiling fans, gaps created by furniture, poisonous substances like chocolate (a couple of pieces of a king size bar can kill a bird that weighs a kilogram!), avocado, toothpaste, coffee, potted plants and lead found in everyday household items.
Your parrot should have a cage to go to when you are not able to provide supervision. A good cage setup provides your parrot with their very own bedroom. A place they can do what they like in, go to sleep in feeling safe and retreat to when they want to get away from it all.
You should acquire the biggest cage your budget will allow and your space will accommodate. The RSPCA has set guide lines for all caged animals; the animal must be able to stretch (thus consideration of the wing span of your bird is required) and not touch the sides of the cage, feeders, perches, toys or other birds.
There should be enough room for three feeders, at least two perches and adequate enrichment items such as toys and foliage.
If you can visualize space enough for two bird’s wing spans, then your cage may be suitable for two birds in the future. Birds are flock animals and are more likely to be content and remain well balanced through puberty when kept with avian companions. This is something you should keep in mind even if you only have one bird to start with.
Avoid round cages as there are no corners to retreat to and most animals, including humans, find this quite psychologically disturbing. Because birds move horizontally (not vertically), width is more important than height and you’ll find large rectangular cages are the easiest shape for creating good layouts.
Bar spacing should be appropriate for the species. Large spacing invites accidents and risks escape. The parrot should not be able to get even close to squeezing its head between the bars. The thickness of the bars must be strong enough to resist bending or dismantling by the parrot.
A combination of vertical bars at the front and back for easy viewing and horizontal bars on the sides for climbing and perch fitting often works best. Ladders can be used on vertical sides to aid climbing.