Hey, I have one like you probably saw in the nursing home (In fact, sadly, I’m selling mine). I agree with what
@fashionfobie said, and that’s why we made modifications. I think with any of them, you can make it work but you have to consider air flow and temperature.
I have had gouldians and canaries in it. One person told me they’d had up to 30 in one like this. That’s too many; we usually had around 10.
Here’s the photo of “mine” from the company’s website:
I don’t have a lot of photos but I’ll show you what I can.
The back top half was wood with that excelsior stuff packed behind wire. We cut off. The top half back and put in 2 layers of wire, with new excelsior in between. We found that there was plenty of air flow this way (there’s a wire mesh across the top) and themperature didn’t rise when the cabinet was closed; if it had,We were going to change the glass on the 2 bottom side doors to wire mesh.
I have used it with tree branches inside, and also hung various perches. Then I just strung lots of fake vines, which the birds liked to perch on.
It had a big fluorescent light inside on top, which worked great I eventually replaced that with a bird-oriented light but I think the first one was okay and this was an unnecessary expense.
AFter some years of use, I discovered the excelsior was holding tons of dust and debris. We pulled it all out and left the 2 layers of wire in place, using fake plants to cover it somewhat. I bought enough plants to be able to have a set in while the other was out for washing.
The glass proved to be a non-issue. The birds flew gently into it usually when first placed in the cabinet. They quickly learned the boundaries and we never had one become injured from the glass.
I personally don’t use those little wicker nests for gouldians. So I cut 4 holes across the back that were each big enough for one nest box. So the boxes hung outside, and I could accesss them from the back. Very convenient and I didn’t have to disturb the birds to look in the boxes.
The floor is wood and easy to clean, but I always wanted to put linoleum down. We have mostly kept it covered with newspapers, we did try shavings but they blew around. Most recently we had 2 pieces of green “grass” and we would keep one on the floor while the other was hosed off and dried. Many people say this is easier than other floor coverings. We don’t think that’s the case.
