Repaint Cage?

[Dave Copeland]

The bird we recently rescued came with two cages, one that he lived in and one that was outside for some time. It is fairly rusty, but is an enormous and beautiful cage. I was wondering if i took a lot of time and scraped all of the rust off if there is a special paint i should be using to repaint it. Would just spray paint be ok? I dont want him to nibble it off and become toxic to him. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Talon]

There is a special paint, but I don't know what it is. Most members here say it is very difficult to get all he rust off, and paint it properly. Hopefully Dave007 will pop in soon, he knows best...

[Dave007]

There is no special spray paint that can be used for that problem. First, the bad paint has to be removed. Then the rust has to be removed. After the rust has been removed what's left is bare metal which can rust up very easily because it is bare metal. If the cage is really one that you like its best to get it done by professional people who will remove the paint and rust and will put on proper paint coating. It's best to get the whole cage done because you really don't know where the rest is hiding. It's an expensive job but it's less expensive than buying a new cage. You cage will be looking like a brand-new cage.

The coating that's used is called Powder-coated baked paint on finishes that are usually the best. This is the process used on most new cages and also used cages. In a factory setting this is a very economical way to apply a quality finish. A dry powder coating is sprayed onto the bare surface. Sometimes an electrostatic process is used where an electric current between the paint sprayer and the cage pulls the paint to the cage creating a very tight and even finish. When heated the paint melts, shrinks and dries into a very high quality finish. Powder-coating is done by many paint shops around the country, but for small jobs is expensive and usually overkill for most repainting situations. That's why it's best to get the whole cage done. Once you include your time and labor preparing the cage you will have more invested than if you purchased a new cage. If you have an expensive cage that you plan on keeping for a long time you may want to look into this process or you may have to throw out the cage you're talking about. Usually, when the cage isn't very expensive the best thing to do is to buy another one but I can see that you liked this one a lot. If you would go into a pet store you would see that just about every cage for parrots is powder coated.

Parents can usually pick right through the surface of regular paint but powder coated cage paint is pretty durable.

Another choice that you might have is to buy a stainless steel cage which is probably the most expensive that you can get. Since you have very nice cage, my opinion is to not do that. Lots of people get their cages redone using powder coating. It's the safest method as far as a parrot who has the ability to chew off rusted paint and greys are known to do this.