Tips on painting an old bird cage
Between climbing, grabbing, scratching and chewing, your bird can wear the finish over time. Chips from old powder coat may not break up and may cause intestinal blockages.
Preparation Use a wire brush to remove any loose finishing Sand all the metal by hand The paint you choose Should not contain lead, zinc or chromate Is "high adhesion", formulated to bond with the metal surface Is hard-wearing Is fast drying Many brands will have a picture of a baby crib or a mother holding a child - look for indicators such as these Before you paint Remove the bird(s) to a different room The room you paint in should be well-ventilated Thin coats are best Use a backdrop like a large sheet of cardboard behind the cage to catch excess paint When your done Wait at least a week Don't cover a freshly painted cage with the bird in it If your bird seems to be wearing out the paint on the bird cage Make sure there are lots of interesting perches to climb on Every parrot cage (for hookbill birds) should have at least 3 textures of  bird perches - soft wood, hardwood & rope (or fabric) Birds love to climb, and paint damage often occurs from birds' gripping the cage with their beak and nails to assist them in climbing up the cage. Aviculturists have reported that, by wiring (We use cable ties) perches or appropriately-sized tree branches onto the inner sides of the bird cages, the birds will be encouraged to climb from place to place by gripping these with their beaks, so that they do not even touch the wire bars when climbing.

Bird Cage Painting FAQ's

Hello- Im concerned about your posted info on restoring cages... according to 2 well-respected avian vet specialists in my area,it is NOT safe to use any type of store-bought paint on a parrot cage-powdercoated is the only acceptable method.These vets have no reason to push powdercoat other than genuine care about bird safety. my sources: Dr Fern Van Sant,DVM-she has published articles on zinc toxicity and other topics-owns avian practice in San Jose,CA Dr Michael Murphy,DVM-head vet at a specialist practice in Monterey,CA Just wanted to let you know. -Sue and birds Bodhi & Chipper Hi Sue Thank you for contacting us We appreciate the feedback. Prevue Pet the worlds largest manufacturer of bird cages PAINTS many models right here in Chicago and has assay results on file as to their safety. They (Prevue) are the only company to include touch up PAINT in all their wrought iron bird cages. Because they supply these bird cages to the big box stores like Petco, Petsmart and so forth, their potential liability is so great, they must be certain the bird cages are safe. Most people do not understand powder coating. Unless the metal (substrate) is prepared properly, the powder coat will not adhere well. As a former partner in a small powder coating facility (Shelf-Kote, Barrington Illinois) and having sold thousands of cages, I can say with certainty a bad powder coat job is far more hazardous to birds because of the potential for flaking off an ill prepared substrate. UNLESS YOU KNOW WHERE THAT CAGE CAME FROM YOU WON'T KNOW THE POWDER COATING IS BAD until your bird starts dropping chips on the bottom of their cage (or they get caught in their digestive system) There are differences between Thermoplastic powders that will remelt when heated, and Thermosetting powders that will not remelt upon reheating. Some powder coat companies recycle the powder coat - great for out door furniture - bad for birds. Further, a powder coat job over metal with too much zinc or rust will not protect the bird. There are factories in China with leaky roofs that produce thousands of cages that have been powder coated over rust and are sold here in the US So to say powder coat is the ONLY way to coat a bird cage is actually not correct. If you look at the cheap bird cages on Ebay, with no brand names they may look just like the ones we sell from HQ, AE & Prevue. I would not trust them to place a rescued street pigeon in, in spite of the fact they have been powdercoated.