A common question among new budgie owners is "What cage will I need?" The short answer is to buy the biggest cage you can afford. Budgies are intelligent parrots and a cage is their home. They need space to stretch their wings and can become depressed in too small a cage.

The minimum size cage recommended for one budgie is 30in X 18in X 18in. However, as previously stated: the bigger the better. As long as the bar spacing is right, no cage is too big. Bar spacing on a budgie cage should be no larger than 1/2in. Any wider and the budgie risks getting caught between the bars.

Budgies, like most parrots, love to climb. For this reason a cage with more horizontal bars is preferable to one with mostly vertical bars. Give your budgie a climbing-friendly cage and you will be rewarded with wonderful displays of acrobatic behaviour.

Budgies, like most everyone, love to feel safe. A rectangular or square cage offers corners to hide in when they are scared. A circular cage can leave them feeling vulnerable and unsafe.

The amount of outside-of-cage time your budgie will get is big factor in the size of the cage you will need. It is recommended that budgies get 2-3 hours of outside-of-cage time a day. If your budgie will be getting less outside-of-cage time than that on average, you will need to make sure your budgie has a much larger cage. You will also have to keep that cage well stocked with toys. When a budgie doesn't¡ get ample outside-of-cage time, their cage goes from being simply their home to being their world. That world needs to be large enough to accommodate their physical need for exercise and psychological need for a stimulating environment.

If you have multiple budgies, you'll need a larger cage. If your budgies are different genders, you'll need to separate them into different cages. Breeding birds should be left to experienced bird keepers, and even then is generally not encouraged. Left in the same cage, male and female budgies will often undertake making more.

Further complicating co-caging is that female budgies can be territorial and sometimes end up needing to be separated. Separating male budgies can also become necessary. While they are typically less territorial than females, sometimes personality conflicts necessitate separate cages. Putting multiple males in a cage with a female is never recommend, as it almost always ends up in fights. While larger cage sizes do make budgies less prone to fighting, sometimes there is simply no alternative to separation. Budgies are fragile birds and any fighting can result in serious injury. Even with birds that typically get along, you need to make sure there is ample space for them to get away from each other should they end up in a tussle. Lack of an escape route can turn a minor squabble into a dangerous fight. This is something to consider both when buying cages and when deciding how many budgies you can handle.

Apart from size, you'll also need to make sure that your budgie cage is made of bird-safe material. While one would hope that unsafe items would never be sold, unfortunately the reality is that they are: sometimes by the unscrupulous and sometimes by the uninformed. Materials like lead, zinc, brass, and galvanized steel can be toxic to birds. The best materials are powder-coated iron, stainless steel, and cold-pressed steel. Remember, budgies use their beaks to climb their cages, so they will come into frequent contact with whatever material the cage is made of.

Budgie Cage Requirements

Budgie cage requirements, what bird cages to avoid, recommended budgie cages...

Budgie Cage Requirements:
• The cage should not be made of toxic metals such as zinc, lead, or brass (wet brass tarnishes - this tarnish is toxic). Stainless steel is best or powder-coated.
• Do not put your budgie in a cage that is rusted or has chipping paint.
• If you find an old cage in the attic, basement, trash-picking, or at a yard sale that only has a few rusty patches or a little chipping paint and you want to re-paint it for your budgie - DON'T. Throw it out and get a new cage on eBay. The cost of getting a cage sanded down and then powder-coated is more than you would pay for a new cage on eBay.
• Big enough for the budgie to not only fully turn around and spread out their wings, but to fly from one side to another - a absolute minimum of 18x18x24.. Buy the biggest cage you can afford. Parrot cages are MUCH cheaper online than they are in the petstore. Please check ebay for new parrot cages at great prices!
• Horizontal bars because budgies love to climb!
• Width is more important than height as budgies fly horizontally.
• Bar spacing should be no wider than 1/2 inch so that the budgie doesn't get their head stuck between the bars. Their heads are smaller than they look!
• No round cages - a budgie doesn't feel safe in a round cage - there is no back wall to retreat to. Along the same lines, be sure there is a wall behind at least one side of the cage.
• A good size rectangular cage is best - the palace shape or house shapes actually restrict the room the budgie has to fly and play and create a mess of poop and food the others do not.
• Do not place the cage next to a window. Drafts can cause the budgie to become sick. Keep the cage out of direct sunlight.
• Place the cage in a room you spend alot of time in (though not the kitchen - because of fumes and hot unsafe surfaces) but that will be quiet at night.
• Budgies require alot of mental stimulation. Be sure they have lots of fun toys and that you rotate the toys frequently so that they do not become bored and so they get used to change.
• Budgie-proof the room the budgie will be flying in by making sure no open water surfaces, open windows/doors, uncurtained windows, other pets, etc will harm them.
• Be sure to cover the cage at night to provide darkness and a secure cover to prevent night-frights.
• Several perches of varying widths are necessary to promote healthy feet and legs and to prevent foot sores caused by plain wooden dowels. We recommend the wood branch perches and rope perches.
• Avoid: sand perch covers (cause foot sores), mite protectors (cause respiratory illness), bedding (breeds fungus and can cause crop impaction when injested) - paper towels or plain newsprint are best so you can watch poops for health.
• Covered food and water dishes so budgies don't poop in them and get sick.
• Cuttle bone to chew on. It's good for their beaks and provides needed calcium.
• Use stainless steel quicklinks to secure all cage doors and windows. Budgies are smart little buggers and can quickly and easily figure out how to give themselves some unsupervised out time!
• Place the best wood perches up high - and the stone ones that are good for toe nail health down low. Budgies like to be up high and will spend most of their time on the nicer perches that are good for their feet. We don't recommend using the wooden dowels that come with cages for anything other than step-ups and collecting budgies from around the room to return to their cages.
• Make sure there is a food bowl for each budgie in the cage so that they don't have to fight over it or the dominant budgie doesn't let the other budgies near the food.
• If you are going to have several budgies in the same cage - it's better to move them at the same time rather than moving a new bird into another's birds cage to avoid territorial issues.