Best cage size for a Pionus parrot

Cage size is the single most important thing you'll buy for your bird — and most cages sold in pet shops and online are genuinely too small for a parrot to extend its wings fully, which is a real welfare problem. Bar spacing matters too: too wide and a bird can get its head stuck. Before I give you a specific recommendation, can you tell me which Pionus species you have and roughly how big they are, whether it's one bird or a pair, and how much floor or wall space you have available for the cage?

Perfect — a Blue-headed Pionus is a lovely medium parrot, and at around 28cm you're working with a wingspan somewhere in the region of 55–60cm when fully extended. That's the measurement that actually matters. The absolute minimum cage width I'd recommend is 90cm, but honestly for a single bird with no space constraints, I'd push you straight to 100cm wide or more. Bar spacing should sit between 19mm and 25mm — narrow enough that she can't get her head through, wide enough that she can grip comfortably. What's your budget roughly, and are you happy with a flight-style cage or were you thinking something more traditional?

In that case I'd point you directly to the Rainforest Cages Amazon parrot cage — the Belize 100 model. It's 100cm wide, 60cm deep, and around 160cm tall, which gives a Blue-headed Pionus genuine room to move laterally, climb, and stretch fully. The bar spacing is 22mm, which sits right in the safe zone for this species. The build quality is noticeably better than most cages at this price point — heavy-gauge powder-coated steel, solid welds, and a decent tray system underneath. It comes flat-packed but the instructions are straightforward. It's available on Amazon UK and typically sits in the £250–£300 range depending on when you look.

A few things worth knowing: position the cage at or slightly below eye level — at height, parrots tend to become more territorial and harder to handle. Keep it away from the kitchen entirely because non-stick cookware fumes are genuinely toxic to birds. Fill it with perches of varying diameters, not just the standard dowel ones that come with the cage — natural wood branches at different thicknesses keep her feet healthy. And leave enough open space inside the cage that she can actually fly a short distance between perches rather than climbing everywhere. A cage that size can easily get cluttered with toys, so rotate them rather than piling them all in at once.

Good luck with it — she'll be much happier with the extra room. If you find the Belize 100 is out of stock, the Rainforest Cages Rio 100 is a comparable alternative worth checking. Feel free to come back if you have questions about perches or enrichment once the cage arrives.