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Summary: A cockatiel's cage is typically 20-by-20-by-24 inches, with the spacing between the bars being a minimum of 1/2 inch or 5/8 inches. Learn about why a bigger cage would be even better for a cockatiel with help from the president of a bird club in this free video on cockatiel cages.
Ces Erdman is the president of the Wilmington NC Bird Club, a group dedicated to the education of its members and the community on the care of companion birds.read more
"The proper cage for a Cockatiel would be 20 x 20 x 24. Would be the minimum cage the bird can be in. And the spacing would be, between the bars, would be a 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch is the minimum. Spacing has to be between a 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch. You can't change that at all. The size of the cage the minimum would be 20 x 20 x 24. The bigger the cage the better. Especially for, people think small bird smaller cage but small birds are usually more active and usually fly. So they need more room. Our bigger birds are lazy, they don't do anything. Most of them don't even go in their cages. They wait for us to come home, then they get off their cages. Their cage is somewhere for them to sleep and hang out. Little birds are not like that. They fly a lot. They're all over the cage, they're climbing around. So obviously the bigger the better for the cage but the bar spacing has to be exact otherwise you will have injuries. A good way to judge the cage is the bird should be able to span it's wings and it's tail and not touch the sides of the cages. So that's a pretty easy way to remember. Especially smaller birds. Wider is better than, or the width is more important than the height because birds fly side to side not up and down. So they're never going to use that space in the bottom anyway. They're only going to use the width of it so try to get something wide. You definitely, it's a catch 22 because it's a piece of your furniture usually but at the same time it has to be acceptable for the bird. So usually the prettier or the more intricate work is probably a really bad cage for your bird. Your stainless steel box that's not very pretty is going to be the best cage for your bird. And again that's how his foot got hurt was just he got his foot caught in a cage and turned and there it is. And especially for your birds with longer tails. A macaws tail can be two or three feet. It needs to make sure it's not hitting the cage otherwise you're going to have a scraggly looking tail."
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Comments
rawkstarangel said
on 9/13/2009 I recently rescued a cockatiel from the rain in my backyard....So I have been keeping him in a large rectangular (what Ive always know as a Tokyo) Cage (H4.5 ft, W3.5ft, D2ft). This cage has 1 inch spacing...and I watched him stick his head through the bars today...Does this mean he can get out? or injure himself?