The best thing I did for my cockatiel was buy something made for a ferret. I realize some may scratching their heads at this statement. But it is true. I was looking for more spacious accommodations for my little guy. I wanted as big as I could get and of course a reasonable price.
I wandered into the small mammal aisles when I wasn’t finding what I had in mind in the bird section. It was there I found a ferret cage. One of the features that caught my attention was the “shelves” specially designed for a lounging ferret.
During his “Australian Walkabout” time in my humble abode, my cockatiel likes to spend a great deal of time on the window sill. He seems to prefer the flat surface scattered with toys that he can fling about. He also likes to destroy treat sticks and forage around for the crumbs.
Traditional bird cages don’t seem to fit the bill in regard to parrot species that spend a bunch of time on the ground. The new ferret cage was perfect.
Toys, foraging activities, cuttle bone, treat sticks, etc can all be placed on the shelf. And as Gomer Pyle says “surprise, surprise”…guess where my cockatiel spends most of his time? Yup, on the shelf…..the ferret shelf. Even though perching and the food bowl are above the shelf, my cockatiel seems to rarely leave any deposits there. Mostly I find remnants from time spend foraging or playing with various toys. I do put a few paper towels down, but clean up is pretty much accomplished by a quick pass with the hose from the vacuum. If a scrub down is in order, it is pretty simple as the shelf is plastic……PURPLE plastic. Prince would be proud.
I also love that the cage has three big giant doors, and one is on the top of the cage. I did not use the tubes and slides provided and only kept one shelf in there. I also did have to add perching, feeding stations and toys. But all in all it worked out well for Banana Puddin'.
My ferret find has turned into my new cockatiel condo.
Barbara Heidenreich
Copyright 2009 Good Bird Inc
WOW Barbara! I've often been in pet supply stores looking at ferret cages and saying to myself "I wonder.." I have two female tiels who love to get down on the cage bottoms. I've even purchased those flat perch shelves made for birds but they're not very big. I might just have to take a look at the ferret cages again, next time I'm at the store.
ReplyDeleteHi Barbara, It would be great to see a photo of him in the ferret cage please.
ReplyDeleteI was also thinking about buying a ferret cage for my cockatiel, but ended up getting a 22" x 22" bird cage. I've been wanting to add a shelf and was thinking a shelf from my old ferret cage might fit. I would have used the cage too but the wire spacing was too wide on mine (technically my old ferret cage was a cat cage. I don't get that. Who cages a cat?!) I finally fished out one of the old shelves and it fits the bird cage perfectly! Now to see if he hangs out on it!
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