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Looking for advice to improve my canary's cage

Elizabretha

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4/16/14
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Hello all! Long post incoming...

I've been a canary owner since December. Not to anthropomorphize, but my canary *seems* happy to me. He is very bouncy and energetic, and he divides his time between singing, flying from side to side, shelling his seeds, foraging at grass (I alternate between wheatgrass and a barley/oat/rye mix), taking baths, grooming, and chewing cuttlebone and various veggie/fruit/egg/seed snacks. He doesn't show any signs of stress.

However, his 30 in x 18 in cage still seems a tad small to me (he can fly in it, but only back and forth) and I want to make sure his environment fulfills all his natural canary needs. I've been thinking of getting him a 30w x 30h cage for added height, but I worry about portability because I take his cage outside almost every day so that he can get some sun and listen to the wild songbirds and finches, and this is where I clean his cage as well (which I also do on a daily basis).

Here are some images of his current setup: Imgur

It's not obvious in the photo, but his toys don't impede his flight and the room he is in is a lot brighter than the pic shows. In his cage are:
-Cuttlebone
-a bird bath (I place it in there once a day)
-2 water feeders (sometimes he takes a bath in his tray water dish and splashes all the water out or dirties it, so I'm trying to transition him to using the cylindrical feeder)
-A flat of grass (he goes through it fast!)
-2 toys, one with rope and one with a twig material. He occasionally chews on these, especially when I'm in between replacing his grass
-A swing. He doesn't seem to care for this.
-3 food dishes. An enclosed container for his seed (he used to spray seed everywhere!), one for sprouted seed or egg, and one for fruits and veggies. I could take it down to 2 dishes, but he seems to like to take his seeds over to the tangerine-shaped dish and shell it there, and the yellow dish is good at keeping his treats in.

Somewhat unrelated but: do single canaries tend to do well in large outside aviaries or are they the type to feel more at peace in a smaller enclosure?

Is there anything you would add/change? Any advice would be much appreciated!
 

expressmailtome

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Mizzely

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Since birds are more like airplanes instead of helicopters, height does little for them. Length and width are the only dimensions that truly make a difference.

Could you still use the smaller cage for going outside? That natural sunshine is so good for them and I would hate for him to lose that! Or is there a way you could get a cage on wheels and just roll it outside for the same experience?
 

Jaguar

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Putting his perches across the width of the cage will also encourage him to flap around more :)

There's not much for wider cages that are canary appropriate, unfortunately. A double flight (63x19 - very long) and the Prevue F030 (36x27) and F050 (37x23) come to mind.
 
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