We often say the same thing to each other: and then there was a bird, and our lives changed forever in the best way possible.
I keep a caique. He is crazy and amazing, and he is the reason I get asked about them constantly at the pet store I work in. There is very little honest Australian writing about actually living with one, so this is what mine is really like: what he eats, what he plays with, what he costs me in time, and the parts that are harder than the videos make out.
I keep a caique in Australia and he is crazy and amazing in equal measure. He lives in a Green Parrot flight cage that most people would call oversized for one bird, eats Tropimix as his base diet with Nutriberries, nuts and a lot of fresh vegetables, and gets between two and six hours out of his cage every day. The things that surprised me most are that foot toys beat hanging toys by a mile, that a strict bedtime with a cage cover is what keeps the noise reasonable, and that he is harness trained and comes on walks. They are a long commitment and they need real attention, but I do not regret him for a second.
If you take one recommendation from this page, make it Tropimix Small Parrot. I live by it, and so do several of my customers who actually breed caiques. It is the thing I credit for how shiny his feathers are, and it is the highlight of his day. He tears the lid off the container himself.
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| Item | What I use |
|---|---|
| Cage | Green Parrot Bird Flight Cage BC8252, 79cm wide and 87cm high, 10mm bar spacing |
| Base diet | Tropimix Small Parrot |
| Extras | Nutriberries, nuts, budgie seed for foraging, daily fresh fruit and vegetables |
| Favourite toys | Foot toys, mini maracas, sola balls, cork perch |
| In the cage | Corner shelf and a snuggle up warmer |
| Out of cage | Two to six hours daily, harness walks outside |
The Cage: Buy Bigger Than People Tell You
He lives in a Green Parrot Bird Flight Cage BC8252 from PetShop Direct. It is very much big enough for him, and some people say it is overkill for one caique.
| Spec | Measurement |
|---|---|
| Cage width | 79cm |
| Cage height | 87cm |
| Cage depth | 52cm |
| Bar spacing | 10mm |
| Construction | Powdercoated heavy duty tubular steel, hammertone black and silver |
| Included | Four feeding cups, two perches |
Two specs there are worth pulling out. The 10mm bar spacing is narrow, which is exactly what you want. Wide bars are a head entrapment risk, and a cage sold for bigger parrots is not automatically a safer cage. And the 79cm width is the number that actually matters, because horizontal space is what a caique uses. It is sold as a flight cage for smaller parrots, which is why it ends up being generous for one caique rather than tight.
It arrives flat packed and needs assembling.
I would not want anything smaller for him, and I would say that to anyone buying for a caique. The mistake people make with cage sizing is buying for the bird’s body rather than its energy, and a caique has an absurd amount of energy for its size. They are one of the most physically busy parrots you can keep. They bounce, they hop, they hang, they wrestle with things. A cage that technically fits them is not the same as a cage they can live in.
If your budget forces a choice between a smaller cage with more toys and a bigger cage with fewer, buy the bigger cage. Toys accumulate over time. The cage is the one thing you will not casually replace.
What He Eats, and the One Thing I Avoid
His base is Tropimix Small Parrot, and I live by it. So do several of my customers who actually breed caiques, which is about as good a recommendation as you get in this hobby. It makes their feathers so shiny.
He loves it so much that it is the best part of his day. He comes out in the morning, goes straight to the container it lives in, and tears the lid off himself.
Around that he gets:
- Nutriberries, the tropical ones. I normally buy the small bird size, though they are out of stock at the moment so we are on the macaw ones.
- Nuts as treats, not as a food group.
- A little budgie seed, scattered for foraging rather than fed as a meal.
- Fresh fruit and vegetables daily. He eats better than I do, honestly. Huge variety. He loves chillies, he loves capsicum, and he loves capsicum seeds, including the mini ones.
Two things worth saying about that list.
Chilli is fine for birds. Parrots do not have the receptor that makes capsaicin feel hot to us, so the heat simply is not there for them, and plenty of parrots love it. It surprises people, but it is not a risk.
I avoid sunflower seeds at all costs. They are very high in fat and birds will preferentially eat them over everything else, so they end up being the whole diet by default. A seed mix heavy in sunflower is the bird equivalent of living on chips.
We have tried a couple of other crumble style foods and he was not especially fussed on either of them. He does not really refuse things outright, some things are just not his favourite, and with a bird that is fine. Variety is the point.
Foot Toys Beat Hanging Toys, Every Time
This is the thing I would most want to tell a new caique owner, because it is where the toy budget actually goes.
He is not the biggest fan of hanging toys. He will hang around on them, but they are furniture to him rather than entertainment. Foot toys are a completely different story. He will spend all day with a foot toy. He carries them up from the bottom of the cage to the top, sits there and shakes them about.
We bought him mini maracas that make a sound, and he will hang upside down from the top of the cage shaking them. It is the funniest thing in the world.
He also loves sola balls, and specifically the squeaky noise they make, especially when I am holding one. Interestingly, a sola ball hung up as a toy just got left there. Handed to him, it is a hit. Same object, completely different response, which tells you something about how caiques play: they want to hold it and control it, not visit it.
His Bigjoy cork perch is another favourite and he loves it so much, and his corner shelf gets more use than almost anything else in there. Flat surfaces matter more to a caique than I expected, because so much of what they do is on their feet rather than on a perch.
Sleep, Noise and the Screech
Noise is the first thing anyone asks about a parrot. He is pretty good, honestly. It is never anything crazy. Most of it is singing along.
He has a favourite song, Wings by Birdy, and he goes absolutely crazy for it.
The routine is what makes this work. He goes to bed around seven every night, at the same time, with a cover over his cage. If you start interrupting him after that, or you get too loud, he will screech. It is very clearly him telling you to shut up, and he is entitled to.
A consistent bedtime and a cover is genuinely the single biggest noise management tool with a parrot. Birds need a long dark sleep, considerably more than people assume, and an under rested parrot is a louder and more irritable parrot.
He has a snuggle up warmer in his cage and he absolutely loves it. He sits next to it all night, on his shelf.
The Honest Bits
Three things that are less charming, and that I would want someone to know before they commit.
He bites, occasionally. It is very occasional, and it is almost always about being taken away from something he wants rather than temper. If you reach in to move him off something good, that is your moment of risk.
He can be a bit much. If you are overstimulated, you have just got home from work and you let him out, sometimes he will not get out of my hair. Literally my hair, which I think is a nesting thing. He will not come out of it, and he screeches when you try to move him. On a day when you have nothing left, that is hard.
They are a genuine long term commitment. They live a long time and they require a lot of attention. That is not a line to skim past, it is the whole decision.
Harness Training Was Worth It
He has an Aviator harness and we take him on walks, and he is great at it.
I would push anyone with a caique to do this. It gets them real sunlight, which matters for vitamin D, it is enormous enrichment, and it turns outside time from a risk into a normal part of the week. We take him out in the sun when we can.
Start young if you can, go slowly, and expect the harness itself to take longer to accept than the walking does.
Would I Do It Again
Without hesitation.
It is a commitment. They live a long time and they do require a lot of attention. But you will love it, and you will not regret it, if you have the time and the energy for them, because they are wonderful wonderful pets. I do not regret getting him at all.
And then there was a bird, and our lives changed forever in the best way possible.
What I Use
The things actually in his cage and in his day. (these are affiliate links)
Want to see everything I run? Here is all the gear I actually use across my reptiles, tanks, rabbits and caique.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are caiques good pets?
They are wonderful pets for the right person, and a bad idea for the wrong one. Mine is affectionate, funny, endlessly entertaining and genuinely part of the household. But they live a long time, they need a lot of attention, and they are a commitment in the way a dog is a commitment rather than the way a budgie is. If you have the time and the energy for one, you will love it and you will not regret it.
Are caiques loud?
Mine is pretty good, and much of what he does is singing along rather than screaming. He has a favourite song, Wings by Birdy, and he goes completely mad for it. The exception is bedtime. He goes to sleep around seven every night with a cover on his cage, and if you interrupt that or get too loud near him he will screech at you, which is unmistakably him telling you to be quiet. Keeping that routine consistent is most of what keeps the noise manageable.
Do caiques bite?
Very occasionally, and in my experience it is almost always about being taken away from something he wants rather than aggression. If you go to move him off something he is enjoying, that is when you might get bitten. The fix is mostly management, which means giving him something better to go to rather than just removing him from what he has got.
What should you feed a caique in Australia?
A good quality base mix plus a lot of fresh food. Mine is on Tropimix small parrot, which is what I recommend and what several caique breeders I deal with at work use. He also gets Nutriberries, nuts as treats, a small amount of budgie seed scattered for foraging, and a big variety of fresh fruit and vegetables. He genuinely eats better than I do, and he loves chillies and capsicum, seeds included. The one thing I avoid at all costs is sunflower seeds.
How much time out of the cage does a caique need?
Mine gets at least two hours a day and often closer to six. That is the part people underestimate. A caique is not a bird you can keep well in a cage and visit occasionally. We also take him outside in the sun when we can, because natural light matters for vitamin D, and he is harness trained so that is safe to do.