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Housing Conures - Aviaries and Cages
There are a number of different ways to safely house your conure parrot from
large outdoor aviaries to large cages for individual conures. Here is an outline
of each method of housing.
Outdoor Aviaries
It is useful to take a look at other peoples aviaries before you embark on
building your own. You could visit wildlife parks, breeders or pet shops to do
this. You will see a large variance in the quality of the aviaries that you see.
Some will be amazing structures, carefully thought out and designed effectively.
Other will be rickety structures that are not that safe. You should aim to build
as good an aviary as possible. You should consider the space that you have to
dedicate to the aviary, your budget constraint (you do not want to run out of
money with half an aviary on your premises!) and how many birds you are
intending to keep in the aviary. Although studies have found that there is very
little correlation between the quality of an aviary and the ability of Conures
to breed, there is no reason to have a poor quality aviary. By having a good
quality aviary you make the mundane tasks of keeping an aviary minimum, decrease
the ability of vermin to eat your Conures food, eggs or the conures themselves.
And of course, a badly designed aviary is asking for your birds to do what they
are good at, flying off! Aesthetics are also important; you will be looking at
the aviary for years to come so you want it to be eye pleasing.
Planning
Not planning your aviary is likely to end in tears. Unplanned structures are
generally a bad idea would you build a house to live in without designing and
planning it first? Furthermore, by planning the aviary well you can calculate
the materials that you will need to build it and therefore can check that the
costs fit with your budget. A rule: plan before you build, and finish the aviary
before you buy a conure delays are a real possibility.
Site
For many people space is a large constraint, but you should at least try to
ensure that the aviary is in view from your house. Other things to consider:
Do not place your aviary directly underneath a tree it is damp, branches can
break off and damage your aviary, cats can climb up the tree and near to the
aviary, trees screen beneficial sunlight, there is a danger wild birds will do
their droppings into the aviary (not good with the event of avian flu). All
these factors will have adverse effects on the health of your conures
A wall can provide useful cover from wind and can serve as a nice backdrop to
the aviary. The ideal is to have the flight facing south east or east (if you
live in the northern hemisphere!). This will ensure that your conure can enjoy
te morning sun which they love to do. It also confers the additional benefit of
blocking out cold northerly or westerly breezes. It is usually better to put the
aviary on the part of your premises that is highest this helps any dampness
problems.
Aviary bases
Bare Earth - Bare earth is not the best base for your aviary. Whilst it is cheap
(free!) it can become aesthetically unpleasing to look at, more unhygienic than
other bases and during bad weather it will inevitably resemble a mud bath. If
you do go for this option you should lay down strong chicken wire across the
surface to prevent vermin burrowing into the aviary.
Gravel Gravel tends to be quite a good option for the bases of conure aviaries
and it confers the following benefits:
Prevents weeds sprouting
Easily cleaned/washed down
Conures will benefit for pecking the mineral/insects in the gravel
Generally looks quite aesthetically pleasing
The gravel should be laid about 15cm in depth and underneath there should be a
layer of chicken wire to prevent vermin burrowing into the aviary
Concrete Concrete is also a good option for the base of your conure aviary. It
has the benefits of being:
Very easy to clean
Can be coloured to make it more pleasing to look at
You only need a few inches of concrete. You should give it a slight slant so
that water can drain off. The drawbacks of using concrete for the base of your
conure aviary is that it takes some time and skill to do properly and tends to
be quite permanent.
Slabs Using slabs is also a good method. Slabs are quick and easy to lay,
attractive to look at and are quite flexible in that they can be moved with
ease. On the other hand slabs are quite expensive although you can find
relatively cheap slabs if you look around a bit. Slabs should be laid on a bed
of sand and gravel
Aviary Size
This is a very common question and the only answer that can really be given is
as large as possible. At the end of the day conures are birds and birds tend
to enjoy flying, its what they are designed for! If space is constrained you
should aim to get the aviary as long as possible this will give your conures
the best chance to flap their wings. It goes without saying that keeping lots of
birds in a confined space is a rather unpleasant thing to do. To get enjoyment
from keeping conures, you will want to see them enjoying their selves giving
them as much room as possible will allow them to do this. It should be noted
that breeding conures should be housed in separate aviaries. This is because
they tend to become very aggressive towards their own kind when they are
breeding.
Aviary Design
The most straightforward design is the common rectangle, however round and
octagonal aviaries can be quite fetching to look at. Of course, it will be more
expensive to built such a shaped aviary and they require more space. Further
more they may be more difficult to perform mundane upkeep tasks than rectangle
aviaries. It is a wise idea to build a safety porch into any aviary, this will
help prevent your conures flying off. You should consider the future in the
design. It may turn out that you wish to extend the aviary in the future or put
a partition in for breeding purposes. Another consideration is building a
section to store supplies and equipment.
Flight Materials
Whilst you will see flights built using chicken wire, you should use welded wire
when keeping conures. This is due to the fact that conures are very strong
flyers. You should not use wire that has a gauge of less than 19, although even
lower is preferable. With regards to the size of the holes in the mesh, you
should not use mesh with holes any larger than 1.25cm x 0.62cm. Any larger and
you could have vermin getting into the aviary with potential devastating
consequences. The timber that you use to construct your conure aviary should not
be less thick than 5cm y 5cm and it is a very good idea to put strips of metal
around the inside of the frame in order to prevent damage from your conures
beak. The best method is to bolt the frame together as this allows it to be
dismantled and makes the whole aviary more flexible is terms of being extended
or moved in the future. It is a wise idea to treat the wood which will protect
it from the elements and give the aviary a longer lifespan. As an alternative to
wood you could use a metal framework. This could be arranged by a local
engineering firm but would be more expensive. It is essential to have an
undercover area in the aviary so that your conure can have shelter from the rain
and cold winds. The food container should be under cover so as to protect the
conures food from rain and the elements.
Indoor flights
Indoor flights are perfectly acceptable as a method of accommodating conures.
You should ensure that windows are cover with some type of mesh otherwise your
conure could serious hurt itself trying to fly out. You should also build a
safety porch in order to prevent your conure escaping. A factor that must be
considered is drafts, conures can cope with colder weather but drafts are
detrimental to their health.
Conure Cages
Most good pet shops supply high quality cages, however there are a number of bad
quality conure cages on the market. These should be avoided. Things to look out
for include:
Strength of the cage
Space between perches
Number of feeding dishes three or more is best
A good catch. Conures are intelligent birds and soon learn to open regular
catches- you must have an anti-conure latch
Pull-out trays are very useful for ease of cleaning
A mesh raised of the floor is highly desirable as it keeps your conure away
from faeces and spilt food
The stand for your conures cage should be very solid. Having the cage knocked
over can send your conure into shock and will almost certainly have negative
psychological effects on the conure.
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