So you bought your cage and brought it home. It probably came with two long, fat dowels and some feed/water containers.
Before you set it up just like that, lets’ make a few changes.
A finch cage from the pet store is made the easiest way for the manufacturer. It’s not necessarily the best setup for your birds.
I’ve spent a lot of time (see this, this and this article) talking about giving your finches enough flying space. So why would we take up the majority of the flying room in the cage with a dowel? The answer is, we wouldn’t. So first you want to take those dowels and cut them to fit the other direction. Instead of fitting “across”, fit the dowel from front to back, one on each end of the cage.
Even better, toss out the dowels and grab some clean branches from your trees. Make sure they haven’t been sprayed with pesticides. You can bake them in the oven or scrub them if you’re worried about bugs, I never do that. The branch can be propped between the cage bars if it’s the right size; it doesn’t require a notch. You can secure it using zip ties, jute, or even twist ties. Now you have a finch cage set up for flying.
Next, let’s replace the open feeder with a proper drinker. I know a lot of these feeders have tops over them, but trust me finches are very messy and they still manage to poop into their water. A lot. So grab a couple of drinkers (linked below) and use them instead. Get 2, so you have one in the cage and one washing. I like to put the drinker right beside a perch, so they have someplace to stand while they grab a drink. You’ll still want 2 feed dishes, one for dry food and one for wet food – so those won’t go to waste.
small drinker
That one holds about 6 oz. If you’re setting up a bigger cage, these hold twice as much:
Large Drinker
Other accessories you might want
I like to use the 2 cage dishes both for dry food, and small ceramic dishes like these to give them CHOPP. The small size of the dish helps me remember not to put in too much food, so I don’t waste it.
Small CHOPP bowls
I’ve also used votive holders before:
OH – and don’t forget your Egg Candler. You know you want one. 😉
