Couple of quick tips:

Leave the new cage set up near the old one for a bit so they can explore at their own pace

Keep the new cage in the same place as the old one so the safety in the environment/ consistency can transfer easier

Use the new cage for a lot of foraging/ training activities

Fill the cage with familiar toys/ perches

It can help to mimic the setup in the existing cage

Spend a lot of time on and around the cage together at first

Play targeting games in and out of the cage

Practice going in the cage, shutting the door, and reopening it quickly for a treat gradually building up duration before filing moving them in

No pout!

I honestly never even thought of a masterlist bc nobody asks or anything but I'll totally dig through my clusterfuck of an account and make one 😂

I completely understand where you’re coming from and it is true to an extent!  Cages are not ideal for parrots to be in all the time, they’re very intelligent creatures who require a lot of stimulation, a lot of exercise, and a lot of space to not develop feather destructive behaviours and phsycological distress. BUT using appropriate cages is necessary for safety reasons!

Leaving birds outside of their cages unattended can end up causing them a lot of harm, many can chew right through walls and get to electrical wiring (yes even the little guys), clambering on to hot light bulbs causing burns, flying in to windows that can cause neurological damage, getting caught behind furniture that could make them dehydrated or starved, ingesting carpet materials that can cause compactions, among many other things. 

Cages should be an enriching environment for a bird to be and they should only be in there if no one can supervise them otherwise.  The larger the cage is the better it’s going to be, ideally you’ll want something that provides enough room to get a good amount of exercise, enough space to flap around, stretch their wings, and spacious enough to fit the amount of toys needed to keep each specific bird stimulated.  One of the bigger reasons why cages are viewed as such a bad thing is because in the past we have known much less about their needs than we do today (and we are still learning).  Cages in the past were horrifically unhealthy for birds and the effects it had on them psychologically had created a huge stigma around what cages are really for.

If you had the funds you can definitely purchase an indoor aviary or even make one yourself if you feel you could create a safe enough one for the bird (there’s actually loads of tutorials online, just watch out for toxic metals and woods).  This way the bird is getting a massive amount of space and they’re being kept away from all of the potential dangers being out of the cage alone can have.

My cage doors are open whenever I’m at home, the birds have their own dedicated room that’s been bird-proofed as much as I can that’s filled up with toys, ropes on the ceiling and most of the time they will still choose to fly on in to the cages and play around with the toys I’ve got hiding in there! That behaviour is a strong indication to me that I’ve set up my cages correctly, they don’t feel stressed or afraid to be in them, they’re finding independent enjoyment in the cages even though other options are available.  Them choosing to go in there on their own terms to play is them showing me that this cage is currently a happy, suitable place for them to be when I’m not able to have them out.

Oh yeah definitely, I hate those things.  With cages the best layout is to have to water on one side of the cage and the seed on the other and to have water slightly higher than the seed.  This way seed doesn’t fall in to the water and they’re far enough away that water doesn’t splash in to the seed and cause moulding issues or bacterial buildup.

http://www.wctropicalbird.com/#!product/prd1/1014775004/duplex

Mine’s canadian shipping only, just a heads up

Here’s a few other cage brands you may find something in!

http://www.kingscages.com/

http://www.hqpetcages.com/hqcages3.html

https://ca-en.hagen.com/Bird/Housing

Getting the cage sanded and re-powder coated would be the route to go but unless it’s a very large cage it’s best to just buy a new one as it is very expensive to do that! You can’t just sand it down and paint it yourself because the adhesives in typical paint are toxic to parrots and it will be likely to chip and rust again by patching up the spot. 

If you’re referring to my burbs throwing a tantrum the other day that was because I had moved the entire cage to another part of the room (made the room have more space) which is what they were upset about, the cages themselves hadn’t been rearranged.  However, it is important to rearrange cage layouts frequently, you could leave their favourite perch if you wanted to but other perches and toys should be rotated! By keeping the area the same it can become very boring to them (increases risks of feather picking, not playing with toys, generally unhappy with the environment), increases the odds of them developing territorial behaviours towards the cage as well (the area is the same, it’s theirs, they’ve claimed everything as theirs, no one else can touch it) and keeping layouts the same can also make birds more susceptible to stress in different environments (more likely to get stressed when you take them to the vet, move, get a new cage, afraid of new toys and objects).  Moving the perches and toys around in the cage makes the area seem new and interesting, lessens the odds of them claiming it as their territory and getting defensive over it and gets them used to an ever-changing environment which lowers stress levels. Another factor is that they’re spending 12 hours on that one perch, that puts a lot of consistent pressure on the same parts of their feet all the time which can potentially cause sores or issues down the road.

Aggression is a major issue, especially with parrotlets since they claim so much territory all to themselves in the wild and are a naturally aggressive species, since I’d like to continue to have both my birds out of the cages all day together while I’m there rather than alternating (more out of cage time, better enrichment and exercise) I really need to keep on top everything that potentially causes aggression and rearranging the cages is a big factor in that otherwise they’d be non-stop trying to chase one another away from the cages and likely seriously injuring one another.  Typically when I rearrange the cage there’s no problem at all, they’ll just go to the next highest perch and nap but because I moved the entire location of the cage they got a bit upset last night.