transport cage ideas

[smallworld]

Hey everyone,

looking for advise here on how to make a proper transport cage. The materials that I would be using are wood and fence. I thought of plexiglass but I think thats too aquarium like. I know the dimensions of what the cage should be. But I'm looking for ideas as to what it should look like. Seeing as that IRNs have such long tails, I dont want to use the normal bird transporters that we have.

I also want a cage thats comfy enough for an hour or two in it. As the journey to the vet isn't that near for us. So something that can hold some snacks and water, has a door and I'm just not sure how many sides should be fence.

So if any of you have ideas or have built something like that, I'd love to hear it. Pics would be great of course.

Thanks

[xx_sheena_xx]

i have never built a transport cage, i just use a budgie cage and put a towel over it if their not used to travelling

[smallworld]

Thank you Sheena but we donated our budgie cage a few months ago and I dont want to be carrying something so high. Besides, I have all the wood and a tonne of fence and the stuff I need to build one. So I thought it would be a fun project, that would help me take my mind off Pongo as well.

[doipac]

Hi smallwolrd,

We frequenlty go to our parents, 200 km away from our home (approx 3 hours by car) and we use Cesar's own cage for travelling with him. It's quite large indeed (only one person can travel with us on the back seet of the car, if the case), but our IRN is very happy, as we don't change his environment. He stays either on the cage walls or on some of his favourite places within the cage and doesn't feel the difference. Anyway we cover with a thin white blanket 2/3 of his cage so he won't be scared during the journey. We leave no water or food inside, but we make sure he had a good lunch before leaving.
Anyway if you intend to build a special traveling cage for your IRN, my opinion is that you should have 3 sides fence and only 1 side wood (plexiglass can make quite noise and scare your IRN), a top of fence and a botton of wood so that the little one can feel confortable and relaxed. You can use the top fence as a door.
With respect to food & water, I'm not sure if its indicated for Pongo to eat during travel...it might get "car sick" -just a thought.

Hope it helps.
Bye

[smallworld]

HI doipac,

Pongo past away last week and I meant that building this transport cage would help take my mind off of that. I dont think I could fit ecos cage inside even a multivan, perhaps at the back of a pick up truck Its too tall and wide.

But your suggestion with a 3 sided fence thing got me interested. I drew up some plans yesterday and I thought 2 sides but yeah 3 sides or not bad. But how would the door look like?I'm just wondering. I've a few ideas and the door is the biggest problem to figure out. Thank you for your suggestion and I welcome anymore that you have

[Shane7285]

Hi Smallworld

The breeder I got my Ringneck from freights her birds around Australia, and when I met her to get mine, she had a couple of birds in the car with her that she was taking to the airport. She has been shipping birds for a number of years, and her travel cages were only 1 side of mesh. I think you need to be careful to provide security for the bird, as it will be in an unfamiliar environment, so you don't want it all open. I would think one of the longer sides and the top could be mesh as you will be with the bird when travelling.

As for the door, you could have a piece of timber that slides in a groove vertically to open. You would need some sort of a latch on the outside to make sure it can't get out either.

Hope this info helps anyway.

Regards

Shane

[pinkdevil]

I have had a couple of birds freighted and all their freight cages were wooden on all sides except for 1 wired end. But that is for freighting where a bird is exposed to all kinds of new noises and sights so providing a darkened safe area is important.

I have a couple of wooden carry/transport boxes that I use on the 'odd' occasion that I have purchased birds from a bird sale, that are wooden all around except for one side and on the wire side a wooden panel can slide into it to give the bird total darkness and safe feeling. There is a door on the side that is hinged and lined with rubber 'fingers' cut into it so if the door is open the bird is still safe enough not to escape. Kinda hard to explain it.
I will take a few pics for you to show you what I mean.
You could make a larger version of this to accommodate your birds needs.

Just going to feed my birds and take those pics.....I will be back soon!

[pinkdevil]

I personally like this design as it can be used open for the bird to see or if stressed, sick/injured bird etc, can be closed off to keep the bird calm.
I would prefer the door to be bigger and a better latch but I guess it is made with flighty aviary birds in mind, so the smaller the opening the less chance of birds escaping.
Also like the rubber covering the door area, helps to deter the birds from trying to get out of the door.

ok....pics below.

[smallworld]

Ahh pinkdevil that was just absolutely PERFECT! Seriously just perfect! Thank you for those pictures, it was really nice of you. I showed it to my wife and she said, its really what we were looking for.

I'm not sure if I'll add the window slider because Echo isn't going to be on freight but I might because it just looks nice and like you said could be used to keep them calm, if necessary. I think thats what Shane meant with his vertical door suggestion. I like the rubber lining on the inside of your door and I'm really surprised that it doesnt look gnawed up!

But THANK YOU really, that was just the perfect suggestion. I like the handle too. The wood I have is pretty heavy so I'll head over to the hardware store in the next couple of days and try to get some thinner wood or improvise somehow. I'll get started on this hopefully by this weekend.

Its like that new song from that girl. She sings 'I like I like'. Thank you again for taking the trouble to make those nice pictures

Thank you to Shane too for your suggestion.

[pinkdevil]

Cool, glad you liked it and is of some help, even if just ideas for you to design your own travel cage.

[momenmahe]

pinkdevil wrote:
.........I have a couple of wooden carry/transport boxes that I use on the 'odd' occasion that I have purchased birds from a bird sale, that are wooden all around except for one side and on the wire side a wooden panel can slide into it to give the bird total darkness and safe feeling. There is a door on the side that is hinged and lined with rubber 'fingers' cut into it so if the door is open the bird is still safe enough not to escape. Kinda hard to explain it.
I will take a few pics for you to show you what I mean.....

Thanks for your post. I am wonder about transportation of boxes! Moving Boxes is an significant factor when we need to deliver our boxes, packing, blanket, from a substantial distance to a new location. It is necessary to hire a shipping service to bring our boxes. Because, it is impractical for someone to move these about 3,000 miles.