Hospital Cage...

[Ripley]

Hello All,

Does anyone know where I could acquire a hospital cage? I think I'm looking for a cage that can be easily sterised...I know I sound slightly vague, but I have never really thought of getting one before; and I cannot for the life of me remember, seeing any for sale...
Obviously, there needs to be a heat source & temperature guage, but apart from that...what? Should the heat source be a light bulb or ??? Should it be a dry heat or humid?
No idea!

Cheers

[wayno.fuller]

I made one up out of a plastic tub. covered the front in wire and jigsawed hand sized hole at one end. Made a swing door from a piece of 3mm MDF. 5mm Dowel for perches. Back is sealed so easy to keep warm and can hit it with pineoclean and the hose. cost about $10 bucks.

[djb78]

Hi Ripley I'm at the moment trying to design myself a double hospital cage so I can keep birds that have different sicknesses apart. In the end once designed then I would have to build, not hard just more fiddley. As for sales of them I have seen a couple on eBay, bird sales may also have some. I would suggest more of a dry heat than humidity due to parasites/mites would prefer the hot humid heat to survive. In all hospital cages I've seen they all have used lights ranging from 40-60watts and 1 or 2 globes. I'm looking at a reptile setup which is temperature controlled to about 40'c. The only reason that I know of to use humidity would be for ak eggbound hen.

[Ripley]

Hi Danny,

You have raised a really good point, that I didn't think of...that birds ancestors were reptiles...so maybe if I think about all the reptile housings that are for sale at the moment at almost every pet shop in Australia, i could adapt it to a bird cage...A really good point about wet/dry heat...

Thanks...

Cheers
Ripley

[Myzomela]

Sick birds are generally dehydrated and so need some humidity.If you include a bowl of water in a heated environment this is usually enough.

Easy to clean, non-porous surfaces are ideal for hospital cages. If you have rounded corners instead of ones that meet at right angles then this allows for easier cleaning & disinfecting-not essential, just an advantage. I have used converted plastic tubs with barred fronts very successfully. If you also can prevent the bird from accessing its own droppings then so much the better.

If you can also use a thermostat with your heat source then this will allow you to more accurately set a temperature (28-30 degrees C) and also allow you to gradually wean the bird off the heat once it recovers. Ideally the box should be lit but not too brightly.

Just make sure that you can pull it apart for cleaning and not leave any inaccessible places where nasties can hide.

Cheers

Myzo

[jusdeb]

Im about to post some pics of my new brooder/hospital box . I think it has all bases covered with hygeine etc.

[djb78]

Thanks myzo that cleared up the part about humidity. Sorry Ripley my mistake.

[Myzomela]

Your reasoning was spot-on Danny.
In general we try to avoid excess moisture to stop bacteria/fungi becoming established.
It's just that in a box with just a heat source the air tends to dry out too much, hence the water bowl.

There are also commercial brooders available which can be converted but they tend to be quite expensive.