I was thinking of purchasing an acrylic cage. My African Gray is currently in a huge 22 x 24x 62 height play pen cage. But now I am moving into a condominium apartment . I wanted to know if an acrylic cage would be neater for me to clean up? And muffle some of her sounds. She says approximately 10 words and on occasion she dosa squeaky loud noises. Should I get an acrylic cage to muffle the sound?
Hi Alasha,
In general I am not a big fan of acrylic cages. While there are exceptions, most acrylic cages have a lot of issues.
They do not provide enough climbing exercise, and even those designed with slots do not have as many opportunities for the bird to exercise as a traditional cage.
Ventilation is not adequate and can cause condensation and other problems. Most of these cages only have a few holes drilled in each side.
They can scratch or break easily unless a very high quality of acrylic is used. Not only can a parrot scratch it with his beak or nails, but also with toys. Parrots can break acrylic depending on the quality. The owner can easily scratch it when cleaning or if the cage gets dropped. Regardless of what he eats, parrots will fling food and you end up with food stuck all over the cage. While it is not out of the cage, it is much harder to clean off of acrylic than off the floor. If you are not careful, the food itself can scratch acrylic.
As far as sound goes, it might help, but that would mean the sound is bouncing back on her. I don’t know how well a grey would tolerate this.
I’ve only known a few bird owners who tried acrylic and they didn’t like it. I can only suggest that you try to find more information on bird forums where you can ask other bird owners. A manufacturer will have positive solutions to anything you ask, so a more reliable source would be other bird owners.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
