Building or Purchasing an Aviary for your Precious Birds

Before building or purchasing your aviary, you need to consider many things before wasting your money. Do you want to keep a couple of birds for show or are you thinking of breeding a variety of birds later on, it's no good spending your money on a small aviary with small mesh if you want to keep large Parrots in at a later time. Large Parrots will chew their way out, in no time.

If you are unsure, choose an aviary with strong mesh to start with. You may want Canaries or Budgerigars now, but next year you may decide to keep small parrots, which would require a stronger mesh, therefore not needing to go out and buy another aviary or have it rewired with the stronger mesh. Some of the larger Parrots need a steel mesh as they can chew through the normal wire and escape.

Guide to Types of Mesh

For Finches, Budgerigars or any small parrots you could use the normal 1cm x 1 cm wire mesh sold in most hardware stores. This type of mesh is strong enough for them. If thinking of keeping Love Birds, you would need to have double mesh between their cages. This would need to be approx 2 cm apart. Lovebirds are well known for biting the toes off of other birds in connecting cages if a gap is not left between them.

Indian Ringnecks, Eastern Kings, Crimson parrots, Cockatiels and similar parrots will need at least a 1cm x 2cm mesh wire. When wiring your cage make sure you fix it so the length of mesh is up and narrow is across. I say this as it lessens the risk of snakes gaining access by flattening themselves to slither into the cage. I was told they do not flatten themselves sideways, this is the information given to me, so far I have not heard anything different.

For Larger Parrots, Galahs, Macaws, I would strongly recommend that you use a steel mesh or an interlocking chain mesh. These birds have very large beaks and could chew through the other mesh very easily.

In some countries, it may be advantageous to have a double mesh around your whole aviary to prevent a variety of animal intrusions, like racoons for instance.

DOUBLE ENTRY DOORS

Before building or purchasing an aviary or cage for your precious birds you need to realise that all cages should have double doors. They will save you a lot of money in the end, because so many birds are lost; by escaping as you enter or exit your aviary especially the smaller birds, like finches. Most of these will end up dying, as they are not used to living in the wild, therefore are prime targets for cats or other prey.

Building you Aviary

If you are a handy type of person, then you could build your own aviary. The decision to make it out of steel struts or wood is entirely up to you and the climate that you live in. Still is there forever, whereas White ants could infest the wood or it could rot away.

A slanting concrete floor is the best and easiest to clean. This also helps prevent the mice or rats from coming up through the floor. If you wish to build a pond in the centre, this may not be as suitable.

When building your aviary you need to have the back, top and both sides covered with metal, to protect them against the strong winds. I would suggest that you close the bottom in right around the aviary about 20 cm high to prevent mice and other predators from entering. This will also prevent baby quails from escaping as they are very tiny and can get out through the smallest wire mesh.

Buying a Prefabricated Aviary

If you are not good with your hands then buy one already built. This way all you need to do is set it up with your perches, feed and water, and of course your birds. You could buy a new aviary from a manufacturer or watch the classified adverts for a bargain. Do not buy on impulse and settle for something, that is not what you really want, or you will be disappointed.

Shapes and Sizes

There are hundreds of different shapes and sizes of aviaries.

Avaries for Love Birds

If you intend to keep lovebirds, you will need to consider putting an extra layer of wire between their cages. You need to leave half an inch between wire.

The birds are very affectionate, and very aggressive. They will chew the feet off of any birds in cages next to theirs. The extra layer of wire and gap will prevent them from destroying other birds.

I was told this by a reliable person that handles snakes all the time.

No this is not impossible.  If you are using a 1"x 1/2" mesh then always build your aviary with the 1" mesh upwards.

Snake will flatten themselves. So if you put mesh with the wider acrossways, they will slither through.  They cannot flatten and turn sideways at the same time.  Sounds logical, what do you think?

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