Quaker Parrot Cages

Finding a large parrot cage for your bird is often on the top list of priorities for people who have birds as pets. While finding the largest parrot cage available is a good idea, perhaps a better idea is to have no cage at all. This may seem impossible and dangerous at first, but I assure you it is not if you are willing to put the time into training your bird to live outside a cage. It is even possible to bring your bird outside for flight and exercise while still being sure they'll come back to you! This process is called freeflighting, and we will discuss the process in a later article.


Here is some information on birds in cages. For information on freeflighting please check out some of our other blog posts.

In the wild parrots live in flocks and are never alone. Even if a parrot gets separated from the flock for just a little while the bird will wildly call to their flockmates to find them. Birds need company, so if you are considering buying a quaker parrot, consider getting at least a couple. The birds will preen each other, play toether and fly together and it is really a beautiful bond that you will get to experience as a bird owner. Here is a video of birds preening each other.

In the wild many birds will never take another partner if their first partner is lost.

Anyhow, life in a cage, even a large parrot cage can be devastating for birds. Especially if they have no partner. Many times birds will suffer from loneliness and stress from confinement. It makes sense if you think about it. How would you feel if you spent 95% of your day in a cage not much bigger than your body? And even more so imagine having wings and the instinct to fly but lacking the ability to do so due to confinement or clipped wings? Anyhow. Quaker parrots are known to be temperamental, but perhaps this is because they are pack/flock animals and being isolated is simply not good for their mind. Being caged can produce a sort of OCD behavior, such as the parrot weaving its head back and forth, or shifting constantly from one foot to the other. In come instances the bird will pluck its own feathers or even show aggression towards people who put their fingers near the cage. Often times this is seen as normal behavior, but without a cage, even a large parrot cage you are much less likely to see this behavior.

In addition, many birds and especially larger parrots are taken from their natural environment by smugglers, and over the pat ten years this has led to a significant drop in wild birds which is really quite sad.


And many times when birds are bred in captivity (like birds sold at pet stores), if the bird gets older than ten weeks of age and doesn't sell they're often just kept for breeding purposes and destined to life in a small cage.

Anyhow! There is good news for all of you who do take care of a parrot now. You can begin to form a new bond with your parrot that will last a lifetime. And you can be sure they will thank you for it too. Freeflighting is the process of teaching a bird to fly and come back to you. If you practice freeflighting with your bird, you can take your parrot outside to play and fly. If you have 2 or 3 parrots it's even more exciting! Here is a quick demo I found on youtube! Later we will describe this training process and you can have one of the healthiest relationships imaginable with your pet quaker parrot!