Last Updated on October 1, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Hi there,

I was referred to your website by some folks who have purchased from you in the past. It is generally known that HQ makes a very good cage. I have looked at some of the other cages you have to offer and wanted to know how they compare.

I have seen the Prevue Select cages but haven’t seen any reviews or information on the web as to the quality, ease of cleaning, etc.

I notice that the Prevue Select 3152 is more expensive than the HQ 80024 and wondered if it is a better cage overall.

The other line I am curious is AE, any suggestions?

Thanks
Adrian

Adrian – The best way to talk about this is to look at the 3 bird cage manufacturers side-by-side

Kings – AE –  Prevue 

All 3 cages are well built and constructed of Bird-safe wrought iron with durable powder-coating finishes. Prevue uses a higher strength steel so the bars are thinner than the other 2 thus the Prevue cage is a bit lighter than the other 2
AE & HQ are each 24″ W X 24″ L and have an interior cage hieght of 29″. The Prevue is 24″ W X 20″ L but the inside of the cage (living space) is 5″ higher at 34″ yet Prevue is the shortest at 60″ tall while the other two are 67″ tall overall

Ok let’s start with some basic features AE has 3 feeder doors vs 2 for the other guys – I feel 2 is enough. Our Indian Ringneck Sunshine likes his cage against a wall. (If you are going to place a place a cage in a corner, make sure you put the side panel with the feeder cups on the open side when assembling)

AE & HQ uses a gravity lock to keep feeder doors secure, Prevue uses a “gate type” bolt latch. The bolt latch may be a tad more secure in the long run but gravity lock are effective in that birds struggle with moving them far enough to actually release a door.

Prevue offers 3/4″ bar spacing, AE & HQ are at 5/8″ I feel that bar spacing can be over anaylzed. Our Ringneck has over a dozen cages, his main one at home has 1″ bar spacing. Many people would gasp at that. Sunshine is 20 and has been in that cage for 6 years. Birds are as different as people. So fudging on an 1/8″ or 1/4″ difference in bar spacing is a calculated but subjective decision.

Feeder cups – all three offer stainless steel cups and a system to help lock the feeder cups down so birds can not pull them out of the holders. Prevue’s cup holders can be removed without tools. You must unscrew the rings on the HQ & AE

Speaking of screws. AE & HQ use conventional phillips head metric screws which means you probabaly have the right tools already while Prevue has opted to go with hex head screws. The Hex is a little more labor intensive using the included Allan key (unless you follow my suggestion in our listings Prevue 3152 but are much harder for birds to unscrew. Less of a problem with smaller parrots but each of these 3 cages come in 4 sizes so if you have a Houdini African Grey going into at 32″ x 23″ cage the screws may come into play.

All 3 are similar in terms of 2 removable trays, 2 removable grilles, a dowel perch inside the cage and one on the play top. Prevue 3152 is notable in that the lower refuse drawer is spaced about 6″ below the grate. The open area is protected by cage wall to prevent a bird from what I call dumpster diving. (You spend $20 on a bag of food and all they want is that 2 day old dry morsel in the tray.) In that regard Prevue’s lower tray design prevents your bird from ingesting decaying food) The knock on that (the lower tray) by some of our senior aged customers is that it’s too low and requires additional stooping to empty

Playtops are playtops. The AE comes with a toy hook standard. The Prevue has a a double ladder on it’s metallic color cages. HQ offers a double play top scenario. HQ and AE offer plastic casters – this one goes to Prevue for their stainless ball bearing casters. Prevue offers a spring loaded bolt action cage door lock, very effective. The other two have typical “lever/gate” locks. Prevue & AE have secondary “gravity” door locks, HQ does not.

It’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of seed guards (we’ll leave that for another post) AE & HQ seed guards mount with less harware than Prevue’s which require 8 hex head screws for intallation (and removal) but if you must have seed guards, Prevue’s have rounded corners making them safer especially for children and other pets.

Prevue offers 5 conventional colors and 3 metallic colors (Prevue metalic color cages have dual ladders), HQ & AE each offer 6 colors. When people ask us “what’s the most popular color” we’ll always answer platinum because we think it hides bird poop the best.

Assembly time is about the same with all 3, about 30 minutes once all the parts are out of the box and all 3 cages retail for about $200 including shipping on WindyCityParrot.com

The specs:

HQ 80024

24″ w x 22″ d x 29″ h
Overall height 67″
Bar Spacing 5/8″

Great for these medium birds or these smaller birds
Removable trays (1 under playtop – 1 below the bottom grate)
Removable grate (the floor of the cage)
5 Stainless Steel Cups
Playtop with ladder
Access feed cups from outside the cage
Seed Skirt
2 Wood Perches
4 EZ Roll Casters
Constructed of Bird-safe wrought iron
Durable powder-coating finish
Assembly time is approximately 45 minutes
Tools required: Pliers, Screwdriver (electric preferred)

AE 80024

24” wide x 22” deep with a total height of 67”
Inside height 29″ – 5/8″ bar spacing – 4mm bars

Great for these medium birds or these smaller birds
Playpen top with curved ladder and wood perch with toy hook and 2 stainless steel feed cups
3 swing out feeder doors with stainless steel cups
Constructed of Bird-safe wrought iron
Durable powder-coating finish
Matching seed catchers (adds 8″ to width & depth)
Slide out grate
2 slide out trays for easy cleaning
Large front door with safety latch
4 EZ roll Casters
Assembly time approximately 30 minutes
T
ools required: screwdriver (electric preferred), pliers
Prevue 3152

Parrot Cage Dimensions:
24″ W x 20″ D x 60″ H (overall)
34″ Interior Height
3/4″ Bar spacing

Great for these medium birds

or

these smaller birds

Playpen top with 2 stainless steel cups
2 Hardwood dowel perches
2 Stainless feeder cups inside the cage
(Accessible from the out side)
Rounded corner seed guards
Pull out grille
2 Pull out drawers
(One lower, one up top)
Cage wall between the lower grate
& lower tray (So birds can’t pick at garbage)
Spring loaded safety lock
Second gravity door lock for extra security
4 Stainless ball bearing casters
Constructed of Bird-safe wrought iron
Durable powder-coating finish
Hex head bird proof screws (Hex wrench included)
Estimated assembly time 30 minutes

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Mitch Rezman

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