galvanized cage

Question
i have a galvanized cage i made, i understand there could be a zinc problem. can the cage be painted? what paint do you recommend? i have seem many gal.cages with no problems... what do you think? thanks

Answer
Hi Joe,

Galvanized cages are fine for birds like canaries and finches, who don't use their beaks to climb around in the cage. Hookbills (parrots), however are at risk for galvanized cages. Repeated exposure to the zink when they climb the cage sides can lead to heavy zink poisioning.

You might have met birds that didn't seem to have any problems, but this could be for a number of reasons... here are some:

1) The birds are new, and haven't been in the cage long

2) the cage is new, and the birds haven't been it long

3) the birds are still young and haven't had enough exposure to the zinc to outwardly start showing symptoms of zinc posioning

4) some birds simply will expose themselves to the metal more often (some birds are more mouthy than others and climb around their cage more.... others sometimes actually like to chew on the cage bars).

Here is some more information on zinc poisioning and proper housing for your bird:

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww14eiii.htm

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww14eii.htm

I hope this helps.

-Maggie