Wider cage for stressed Yellow-crowned Amazon

A vet flagging psychological stress in a Yellow-crowned Amazon and recommending a wider cage is a serious signal worth acting on quickly. Cage size is the single most important welfare factor for parrots — most commercially sold cages are simply too small for a bird to extend its wings fully, which causes chronic frustration and stress over time. Bar spacing matters too: too wide and a bird can trap its head, too narrow and it feels enclosed. To point you to the right cage, can you tell me: how large is your Amazon (they typically run 35–38cm), is it housed alone or with another bird, and how much floor space do you have available for the cage?

That's a good amount of space to work with. For a single Yellow-crowned Amazon showing stress signs, you want a cage with an absolute minimum internal width of 90cm — ideally wider — so she can fully extend and flap both wings without touching the bars. Bar spacing for an Amazon should be 2–2.5cm; any wider and there's a head-entrapment risk, any narrower and it limits grip and feels restrictive. What's the current cage like — do you know its internal dimensions and bar spacing?

Sixty centimetres internal width is genuinely too narrow for an Amazon — she physically cannot open her wings, and that restriction day after day is a well-documented driver of stereotypic behaviour and stress in parrots. That alone likely explains what your vet is seeing. Given your available space, I'd recommend the Liberta Explorer Large Parrot Cage. Internal dimensions are approximately 91cm wide x 61cm deep x 158cm tall, bar spacing is 2.5cm — right at the upper safe limit for an Amazon — and it has a play top, multiple access doors, and a sturdy powder-coated steel build. It fits almost exactly in your available footprint. It's widely available on Amazon UK and is one of the few cages at this price point that actually meets the minimum welfare standard for a bird this size.

It's a fair concern, but the research is pretty clear: the short-term disruption of a cage move is far outweighed by the long-term benefit of adequate space. To smooth the transition, move some of her familiar perches, toys, and foraging items directly into the new cage before she goes in. Put the new cage in the same location as the old one for a day or two if you can, so the territory feels familiar. Most Amazons settle into a larger cage within 48–72 hours — and many show noticeably calmer behaviour within the first week simply because they can move properly.

Good decision — it's the right cage for her size and your space. One thing worth doing once she's settled: schedule a follow-up with your vet after four to six weeks to reassess the stress behaviours. If the cage change alone resolves them, great. If signs persist, it may point to something additional — diet, social interaction, or enrichment — that's worth addressing separately. Hope she thrives in the new space.