Best cage size for a cockatoo to prevent feather-plucking

Getting the cage right before your cockatoo comes home is genuinely one of the best things you can do for its long-term wellbeing — feather-plucking is often rooted in chronic boredom and confinement, and it's a habit that's much easier to prevent than to break. Cage size is the single most important factor here: most cages sold as 'parrot cages' are too small for a cockatoo to fully extend both wings simultaneously, which is a real welfare issue. Bar spacing matters too — for a cockatoo you want 19–22mm, wide enough that they can't get a toe trapped but not so wide their head could pass through. So: is this a sulphur-crested, a galah, a bare-eyed, or one of the smaller cockatoos like a cockatiel? And will it be a single bird or a pair?

Good — a sulphur-crested is one of the larger cockatoos, wingspan typically around 90cm, so you need a cage with a minimum internal width of around 90cm so she can stretch fully. With 1.2m of floor width available you have enough room to go bigger than the bare minimum, which I'd encourage. Height is less critical than width and depth for parrots — they need horizontal space to move. What matters most is that she isn't rotating her wings and hitting bars. Does she already have toys and foraging activities planned, or is that still being figured out?

Sensible approach. For a sulphur-crested in your space, I'd recommend the Ferplast Parrot Cage Zara Extra Large. It measures 97cm wide × 67cm deep × 166cm tall, which gives her genuine room to extend her wings fully and move between perches without twisting. The bar spacing is 20mm — right in the safe zone for a cockatoo. It has multiple access doors which matters because cockatoos are smart and will test every latch, and the pull-out tray at the base makes cleaning manageable. It sits on castors so you can move it when you need to. It's available on Amazon UK and comes in around £350–£400 depending on the listing. That's not cheap, but it's the right size from day one, which is exactly what you're trying to achieve — buying a cage that's too small and upgrading in a year costs more and causes the behavioural problems you're trying to avoid.

A few things worth knowing: wipe down all surfaces with a bird-safe disinfectant before use regardless of how new it looks — manufacturing residues can be an issue. Place the cage against a wall on at least one side so she has a sense of security rather than feeling exposed on all sides. Position it at eye level if you can, not up high — cockatoos that are kept too high can develop dominance issues. Put two or three different perch types at varying heights and widths to keep her feet healthy; the standard dowel perches that come with most cages are fine as one option but shouldn't be the only one. And leave some space in the cage — don't fill every inch with toys on day one. Let her settle, then add enrichment gradually.

Good choice. You're starting as you mean to go on, which makes a real difference with cockatoos — they're long-lived birds and habits form early. When you're ready to look at foraging toys and enrichment to go inside it, come back and we can go through what actually works for sulphur-cresteds specifically. Good luck with her.