I am bringing home a new baby in a few weeks
and am concerned that I may have purchased a cage
that is too small?

My sun conure has an 18 x 22 and he loves it and is very comfortable in his cage.
However, like my conure and with the new baby. We will leave the cage open
so they can play on the playtops and come and go as they wish.

With that said, for the inside of the new quaker cage, is an 18 x 18 big enough
or too small????

Concerned? My other concern is how easy is it to transition a quaker
from one cage into a new cage later on?

My conure has been introduced to the new cage and is becoming acquainted
with it being in the house even though the new bird is not here yet. He
seems very afraid of this new cage if he gets too close to it. I had
thought about getting my conure a new cage as well and he was so
happy when he stepped back onto his own cage that I hate to make any
changes as you always risk something happening with them in personality.

So before I bring the new baby home should I trade the 18 x 18 in for a bigger
cage????? Not sure what to do.

Mia Quaker -
I purchased a 15" x 24" Hagen "Visions" cage for $ 90 with stand...
I soon realized it was too small for my QP.
I then purchased a QP MANSION with a stand on rollers for $# 160.00 delivered called the http://birdcages4less.com/page/B/PROD/Small_Bird_Cages/PA5719
The internet vendor was great and their customer service excellent!
Good Luck,
New QP Dad

18 x 18 is the minimum size for a Quaker, Rule of thumb is to get as large of cage as your finances will allow. Experts recommend 5/8 inch spacing between the bars though many of us have had our quakers in cages with 3/4 inch spacing with out incedent. However, if your quaker tends to be on the petite side 3/4 may be too large of spacing.

You need to remember that the bird needs to have room enough to spread his wings completely out inside his cage without hitting anything, toys etc. So if you're one who keeps LOTS of toys in the cage a bigger one might do better.

Personally, I myself have had some of my quakers in 18 x 18 and it was fine, but I too allow them lots of out of cage time so they were basically just in it to eat and sleep...

In my opinion 18x18 is too small...

I recently purchased a new cage for my quaker. It is from queen city pets. It is 26 x 20. The price was $185 and that included shipping. My Kiwi loves it. Lots of room to hang toys and stuff. They also have some that have playtops.
The site is: http://queencitypets.com/GA82620.asp

Sandi That cage looks great....My boys have big cages but I don`t have seed guards if I were ever to get anew cage I would make sure it had that feature for sure....

Hi!

18 X 18 is fine if you bird gets out of cage time.

My cage is like 20 x 20 X 24 and I have two birds in there but they get out a lot to play and shower. I have been told by members on the forum that it is too small.

Honestly, I am not a fan a big cages as I used to have one and Nikki had an accident and got her head stuck becuase of bar spacing issues. They love there cage and I think that is the most imporatant thing. I am happy becuase it is safe and they can't get hurt.

You can see shots of my cage if you go to the quaker movies. It looks bigger than you think.

THanks for that. I am really confused. The bars are 5/8 spacing on that one and my sun conure cage is only 1/2" which is great. Never had any issues
with head getting stuck. By the way -- I see the photo of the conure and quaker together. Is that what you have and do you keep them together
or separate?

Casey's cage is just a little bigger than 18x18 (with 1/2") and she does fine with it, although I would like to upgrade it very soon. Casey is out almost all day long and therefore spends little time in her cage, so size really isn't an issue for her. I think if your new Quaker is out a lot, then it would be okay but if not I'd go a little bit bigger. If you do trade it in, I'd recommend you try to go wider instead of taller (you probably already know this since you have a Sun but...) as they tend to only use the top half of their cage, so the wider you go the more space they will have.

Good luck and Congrats on your new baby!

You know. I am very glad to be part of this website and it is very nice to know
that people take time to read others people concerns and provide feedback.
Experience is the key and usually knows the best I always say.

With that said, I have been doing a lot of reviewing of cage sizes and reading
and just not feeling real satisfied with the cage size I bought, look what I went
and bought......... I returned my 18 x 18 cage and ended up buying
this one:
http://www.queencitypets.com/8002422.asp

I am seriosly considering buying this same cage for my sun conure later as well.
I was curious to know if anyone has ever changed cages on a bird and if
they have problems adapting to new cages??? My sun conure is cautious
of the one I have now that I am taking back TODAY. But I thought when I got
my new one that I would just let him get used to it over the next few months
and if he adapted to the new bird and cage well, that I will consider buying him
the same exact cage? Any advice. Or is it best to just leave the conure in
the cage he has now??? He loves his cage now but the only reason I want the new
one is that one he has now does not have seed guards "or poop guards" as I like to call them.
So I wanted it for the play top and the side guards. I am tired of poop
on the floor around that cage.

Thanks.

I am adding a reply to my own thread that I started here.

YOu had all given me wonderful feedback on the cage size and as I mentioned in my last reply
I purchased a cage from queen city pets online that is 24 x 22 with a nice playtop.

My breeder keeps telling me, that is too big and you are going to lose control of that bird
in this cage. I told her that I would test it and see. I have always believed that
the bigger the better and she had convinced me that the 18x18 was big enough and that
I should not go any bigger.

My question is this --- has anyone's bird ever went wild or lost control of the behavior of the
bird because the cage is too big???? I think its perfect.

I am even considering purchasing another one just like it for my conure, although, "Sunny"
loves the cage he has now and I don't want to make a change that would be stressful on him.

This is the cage I bought ----http://www.queencitypets.com/8002422.asp

Thanks. Carmen (Mia Quaker)

SOrry the link did not copy right
for the cage I purchased.


http://www.queencitypets.com/8002422.asp

That is about the same size cage I am looking for, so I don't think it is too big.

The bird store we primarily deal with suggested the 24x22 size for our QP and even said that he would probably be okay in the flight cage by himself, that he would just need to get use to it.

My opinion is that if you train your birds well from the beginning you won't loose control of them. The only people i Have know to loose control of a bird were people who did not spend enough time with their birds, did not challenge them and did not attempt to do any training with them.

I think what your breeder may be referring to is cage aggression, Birds can become very possessive of their homes, She could also be meaning that the bird will be harder to catch in a bigger cage. Also the thing to remember is they do have a height supiority thing where if they can get higher than you eye level they thing they are the boss. And a lot of times will refuse to come down when asked. IE the big tall cage with a even higher play top. Foot stools work wonders to prevent that problem. And if you lay good ground rules from the get go you bird will learn that you are top bird...period.

I haven't had any problems with any of my birds adapting to new cages, I just make sure that I have the same type perches, the same toys etc. If you make a habit out of rotating toys and set up periodically then they get pretty used to new things. But if you leave it like you first set it up then they get used to it and don't like change. Its kind of like us when we move our furniture around, we stub toes and bonk knees for a day or two and then its all better.

I've had 2 of my current quakers in about 3 different sized cages, each one getting a little bigger as I can. One is VERY cage territorial where the other one seems like she could give a rip less.

The cage you bought is not too big. The only thing I'd be semi concerned about is the bar spacing if in fact yours is 3/4 inch...but unless you have a really dainty quaker, its not a big deal. And if you find you have problems with your quaker in it, you won't have to buy one for your sun you can just go find another one with smaller bar spacing.