Below are some photos I took of my breeding room. They show the breeding cages I built, the nesting box, food dishes, and flight accessories. I hope you find them helpful.

This is a photo of half of one of the cages in a bank of eight that makes a total of sixteen. The full cage is made up of 2 - 24 inch wide cages that are 16 inches high and 18 inches deep. A solid divider is used between them and can be removed to make a four foot long holding cage. As you can see, the nest box is set into the cage with an opening for the birds at the back and access for me in the front.

A 3 by 5 card holder is attached to the door of the nest box for record keeping.

The sheet metal tray is a tray purchased from Morton Jones in Ramona, California. It is a standard utility cage tray. I designed the cage around the tray since that was the most difficult item for me to produce.

The nest box is a drawer inside a box. With this design, I can easily remove the drawer, to check the young chicks, replace a dirty drawer with a freshly cleaned drawer, or to just change wood chips.

The nest box is just under 7 inches wide and 9 inches tall. It is 10 inches from front to back. To allow for the greatest amount of space inside, I made the side walls of the box and the drawer from one-eighth inch door skin material. The rest of the box and drawer is made from three-eighths inch plywood.

Because I find the birds waste a lot of the food provided, I use separate containers for each cage. The initial cost is greater for the jars and dish attachments but I feel that the savings is better in the long run. The birds choose to eat what they want and do not have to throw out those seeds that are not interested in.

Each cage has cuttlebone, mineral block, three spools of salts, a container of oyster shell, three food types, and access to an automatic watering system. The watering system has been a great time saver. The three containers of seed include: a 45% parakeet mix, Perchmate Parakeet from KAYTEE, and recleaned canary. As a supplement I also give my birds fruits and vegetables, especially sweet potato for the vitamin A.

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to send a note to Greg as he is always happy to help.

This page was created by Greg Ruth and was last updated on April 28, 2000.
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