A bird’s home is their home. Literally. They like their privacy and a place to get away, just like you do. Tu casa es su casa. Your home is their home but that doesn’t mean that goes both ways. You don’t want the Jolly Green Giant reaching his hand into your abode for any reason much less to redecorate or to grab you out of it for his Jolly Green purposes, so keep that in mind when you consider your bird’s cage and what it really is. THEIR home. This next statement should be self-explanatory but a breeder once said this to me regarding birds but it holds true for almost all aspects of human behavior, and that is “humans are really good at hiding their stupidity”. Anyone who is a divorcee can probably concur with that thought. But the “self-explanatory” statement is this; YOU as a human likes more space to live, be it square feet in a house or a yard so your bird likes more space too. Again, I shouldn’t have to say this but it needs to be said. More space is better, especially for your bird’s cage. Get your bird the largest cage you can house. There’s a reason we don’t live in tents or hotel rooms.
Your bird is a flying creature with the ability to have a domain hundreds of square miles in area as its habitat… and here we are thinking that not only will it be fine and dandy spending most of its time in a cage but also to have its wings clipped so that once its out of that cage it can’t really go anywhere? That’s pretty much worse than us living as a para, if not a quadrapeligic. Yeah, I get that not everyone can have mansions with oodles of space or even an area to let the birds fly with a harness on but be cognizant of this before getting a bird.
I see it all the time with dogs. People living in an urban area that have these large dogs, or herding dogs that are meant for large spaces like ranches, farms or at worst, large yards, living out there existence cooped up in an urban apartment for hours at a time while the owners are at work, all the while holding it in, and when they finally relieve themselves for the few minutes that they get to go outside, the owners then scoop it up and bring it back into the house. The dog is probably thinking, “yaknow, I can just crap in the house and cut out the middle man”. Then they get to go for walks when the weather is nice but are screwed most of the year in colder climates. All so the owners obtain bragging rights of having an X for a breed or bragging rights for having a rescue. Not to mention breakups, divorces and kids. I guess it’s better than euthanasia but I feel it’s worth mentioning.
So, do the best you can when accommodating this loving, intelligent and highly social animal. Also, keep in mind that birds have only been domesticated for a couple hundred years, unlike dogs, man’s best friend who has been by our side since we were in caves. Dogs, for the most part, even on an evolutionary scale, belong by our side. Both species can certainly survive on their own but when it comes to “being at home”, this is why we must make the extra effort to make our fids as comfortable as possible in their “home”. Remember, your home is their home but that doesn’t mean that theirs is yours. You’ll understand this if you have a female and she starts laying eggs.