A bird aviary is the most important piece of equipment you’ll need to purchase for your new bird. A suitable aviary will help to keep your bird safe and healthy. There are a lot of bird aviaries on the market, which can make it difficult for the the new bird keeper.. So how do you choose the right one?

It would be a good idea to study and learn about the bird you are wanting to keep. If you are housing a parakeet, cockatiel or some other long tailed bird species, you will need a long aviary to ensure your bird is getting adequate exercise. Preferably, the aviary should be sufficiently long enough so the bird can actually fly from one side the other. The birds with the heavyset bodies such as the lovebird or the senegal parrot, get a lot of exercise climbing inside the aviary. These birds do well in a aviary that is taller than it is wide.

You should then consider the size of the aviary. As a rule it is a good idea to buy the largest aviary your budget allows for your bird, but a newly weaned handfed baby bird may feel lost and terrified in a large aviary. Some younger birds may have trouble finding their food and water bowls. If it is affordable to do so, then buying a smaller bird aviary for your baby birds’s first few months is a good idea and then change to a bigger aviary when it is older.

Another thing to be aware of when choosing your bird aviary is the spacing between the aviary bars. A nice $400 bird aviary will not be of much use if the bird can fit through the bars! When considering using an aviary with wire mesh, you should compare the size of the hole in the mesh with the size of your bird’s head prior to making your choice. When the bird aviary is built with one inch mesh it is going to allow for a cockatiel to put his head through. Instead of pulling their heads back in through the same hole, cockatiels have been known to bend their necks into a ‘U’ shape and stick their heads into a different hole.

When you have decided on the aviary size and bar spacing, you should then consider other facets of bird aviary design. Looking at the cage tray. When you pull it out to clean, will there be a grate or something to pevent the bird from escaping from the aviary? Will the tray be deep enough to catch most of the mess your bird makes? If you still have a deep tray but there is no cage apron you may find the bird will still scatter a lot of seed hulls and feathers on the floor. Placing an in built metal apron instead of a plastic or cloth apron would be a better characteristic.

As a final point don’t forget to have a look at the aviary cups. Ideally it would be a good idea to enter the aviary to get to the cups without having to reach through the main door. If you are buying a bird aviary for a larger bird, the cups should actually bolt to the aviary unless you want to spend every morning and afternoon for the next 50 years reaching for cups that your bird has flung onto the bottom of the bird aviary

If you a replacing a bird aviary for an older parrot type bird, some owners have told me it’s crucial to get a bird cage of the same colour. They believe that if a bird is used to a coloured painted aviary, it will not cope easily with the metal coloured aviary.