For pet birds, a cage is nothing less than a ‘home sweet home’. Although it can hardly come out of it, it makes its own free world within the bars anyway. So, it’s crucial that you present your pet with the best birdhouse you can.
While you can choose to get a crate from the stores, or you can make one on your own. The latter comes with a couple of advantages over the first. You get to customize the cage according to your pet’s behavior or preference, and you may save some bucks, too!
So, if you want to build a DIY parakeet cage, this article will guide you exactly what you need to know and do! Stay tuned till the end to find out all!
How to Build A DIY Parakeet Cage?
There are numerous ways you make a parakeet cage of your own. In this piece, we will show you some simple steps to make one. We will divide the steps into three phases for your understanding. So, here we go.
Phase 1: Measurement and Material
1. Take Proper Measurement
The first thing you need to do is take the proper measurement for the house. It’s a default set up to make a square-shaped cage for easiness and simplicity. But you can go for other shapes, as well, if you need.
You can determine the dimensions by multiplying the number of birds you have. If you have 2 birds, multiple 2 by 2. If you have 3 birds, multiple 3 by 3. That’s how it works.
Usually, parakeets and budgies that are small in size can live in a 24-inch square crate. That’s the default dimension that can be extended accordingly.
2. Sketch It Out
Now that you have decided on the dimension, it’s a great idea to properly sketch out the whole thing. You can keep the measurement figures only, but having a sketch will let you keep track of what you’re doing and how much you have advanced.
3. Get Wires with a Minimum 2mm Thickness
As you’re going to home parakeets, you don’t want the birds to fall or sneak out of the cage somehow. These birds can accidentally or intentionally get out of the cage-holes if the bar thickness is not enough.So, make sure you’ve got wires with 0.5-inch spacing and 2mm thickness.
4. Material Collection
Collect 6 stainless steel meshed wired mesh sheets and untreated wood. The reason why we are going for stainless steel is that it is safe for the birds as stainless steel doesn’t contain zinc that is harmful to such creatures.
Again, a treated wood would be soaked in pesticides that can be pretty damaging to the little ones.
Gather up the wood, mesh, wire, and nails together to start building the house.
Phase 2: Building the Cage
1. Build the Frame
At first, take 4 pieces of wood to make a frame. Join the wood with nails using a hammer or a nailer machine. Make sure the wood is at least 2-inch wide for sturdiness. Similarly, build 5 more of the same frame to build the squire 3D frame of the cage.
2. Attach Wire Mesh
Now take a wire mesh sheet according to the size of the wood frame and attach it to the frame with nails. If the wire mesh you have is larger than the frame, trim off the extra parts over the square ends. Do this for all 6 frames in the same way.
3. Make A Door
Take a wire cutter and cut a 4-inch square area in the middle of a wire mesh. This will work as the door for the cage. You can access the inside through this opening. Take a larger square wire mesh sheet (ideally 6 to 8 inches) and attach it over the cut hole. Take a few wire cables to hang it from the wire mesh over the hole. Then do the same with the bottom of it with lockable padlocks.
Phase 3: Assembling the Cage
1. Time to Join the Frames
Now join all the frames together in a cubical shape. Take some large nails and start hammering the corners of the frames to join all these together. Use a nail gun to save your time and energy. Make sure you place the nails about 1-inch away from the edge of the frames so that the nails go through the middle of the intersection.
2. Place a Wood-Piece Underneath
Take a large piece of flat wood that measures around the same dimension compared to the frame dimension. Place it at the bottom of the cubical cage and do not nail it to the crate. This will collect the waste of the birds and can be removed for cleaning and washing. Again, make sure the wood is untreated, as well, for health issues.
3. Put Essentia
Okay, you’re almost done with the crate to welcome your pets in. But before you do so, you need to take care of a few things. Place a bow for feeding your pets inside the cage. Similarly, you would need a water bottle for drinking water, as well.
After the essentials, it’s time to go creative. Think how playful your parakeet pets are. Are they very much into toys or stimulators? If yes, then consider placing some relevant toys and different playing items inside the cage.
So, you’re done! That wasn’t a tough job, after all, right? If you want, you can keep the crate as simple as that, or you can go creative to do something more. Like, you can go for other shapes of crates, too, like rectangular, for example.
Then you can go paint the whole cage with your favorite color, as well. But make sure the paint is non-toxic to your birds.
Final Words
So this is how you make your DIY parakeet cage. It needs a few simple materials and a few hours of dedicated time. Besides making a home for your pet, a self-made cage expresses the love and care that you have for your birdies, as well. So, if you’re really into surprising your pet with a cage built by your own hands, bookmark this page right now!
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