flyzipper
Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Two things I'll encourage you to think about in this statement.Even the outrageously expensive 600 dollar ones are pathetic. Those "macaw" cages are cockatiel cages. I'm building my own.
First, I don't fault you for thinking about cages, because that's what many are focused on at the beginning. That said, with the type of bird you're considering (and this applies to the smallest birds as well), to provide them with the best possible captive life, you'll want to focus on allocating space and building an appropriate environment. Their cage is but a single aspect of that, or if done safely and securely, you may not even need a cage at all.
Second, I'll point out the potential mismatch in your expectations around expenses. $600 for a cage is not expensive; quite the contrary, it's incredibly cheap. My conure's sleep cage was more expensive than that, and I regularly spend $600 every 3-4 months on toys that get destroyed and need replacing.
Read about the concept of make-up air. When you exhaust air with a unit like that, it creates a pressure imbalance (depressurizing your space), and that lost air will need to be replaced from somewhere. If that's not done in a controlled manner (as it would in an HRV/ERV), it's being pulled from anywhere. It can be drawn through drafty windows, through walls, from the kitchen, and even from the garage if it's not properly separated/sealed from the house (worst case would be creating a backdraft in vented gas appliances, causing their combustion gases to spill into the space). The point is, that incoming make-up air, if not controlled, is not purified, so that fan doesn't address your bird's air purification needs at all (and may even create a danger).Will this fan work? Turn it on, and you have a wind tunnel in the comfort of your own home! ... It's a giant outtake fan. I'm pretty sure this thing will get dander out.
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