A big deal for keeping pigeons indoors with predator animals, especially cats, is keeping your birds safe! Here is one method for predator-proofing a cage so that a pigeon within would be protected from any prodding cat paws.

I have used this particular method twice; once on a XL dog kennel and once on a XXL dog kennel—the first was done years ago and I didn’t document anything, but I remembered to catch some pictures of the end of the second one’s process, and I have a better idea of techniques.

The finished XXL cage for reference

Materials

• A roll of plastic poultry fencing. While inadequate for outside predator-proofing, it is perfect for wrapping around a pre-established cage indoors where you know exactly what animals will be a risk for the birds. You can get one of these at pretty much any hardware store and a large amount of farm supply stores. They look like a roll of hard plastic mesh - as far as I’ve seen they have round/hexagonal holes. Assuming you are protecting against cats, the only thing you want to check before buying is the width of the holes - make sure your cat would be unable to fit more than a couple toe-beans into that width. However, you want to be able to wedge a finger through if possible, or at least a tool you could use to grab the end of the zipties and pull them back through the mesh.
• Around 350 or up zipties, depending on your cage size. I used around 450 zipties attaching the fencing to the XXL kennel, but it depends on how thorough you are - I recommend more rather than less, as the better fit you have of the fencing on the kennel, the less available space for a paw to try to snag a bird. Buying more mid-process is also a terrible feeling.
• Scissors or some other snipping implement. If you have something pretty sturdy that will save your hand some weariness cutting the fencing or the zipties, get it, you’ll thank me. Scissors will work if you have nothing else, however.
• Probably several days! If you are doing this by yourself, set aside a few days to get this done. It’s a bit time-consuming, and you’ll need some breaks from the proofing process.
• Optional: A couple clothespins. Being able to pin the mesh in place further down the cage will be helpful if you like to keep things neat.
• Optional: A pair of tough gloves that won’t mess up your dexterity. Tightening several hundred zipties can wear your skin a bit - so if you can get around that, keep it in mind.

The Process

Once you have gathered your materials, pick as comfortable a spot as possible to work on the cage.

The first thing you want to do is get the mesh and line it up against one side of the cage - whatever you think is easiest. It doesn’t matter if you’re placing it over a door unless you can see that there is no way to snip the mesh at the edges of the door. Your biggest priority is to try and get the fencing as parallel with the bottom of the cage as possible and to get the mesh close to the floor. If it is touching the floor, don’t worry about it - you can either trim it later or leave it, you’ll have more width than you need - you’ll probably notice immediately that there is overlap with the roof of the cage. You can trim this off, but personally I leave it and attach it, because it makes doing the top at the end easier.

<aside> 🐦 The edge of the mesh usually has a border, where there is about an inch or so where the fencing is solid and has no holes. Lining this up parallel with the floor and clipping the mesh to the cage once you have it straight will help you keep the fencing flat against the cage as you’re attaching.

</aside>

Once you have the mesh approximately where you want it, grab those zipties. We’re going to start with a line across the side of the cage, near the top. Generally securing the mesh in the orientation you want it first and then working on attaching it to the rest of the side will keep the mesh straight instead of finding later you’ve pulled the fencing three inches off the bottom.

There is an ideal placement for placing the ties that is best at keeping the mesh flat. Hooking through any random hole and part of the cage will make the mesh able to slide and will bulge as you work. You want to secure your first zipties along spots on the mesh where the plastic lines up well with the bars of the cage.

Here’s a couple diagrams I whipped up to give you an idea of what you’re looking for:

You want to look for sections where the bars cross.

You want to thread the ziptie through the mesh hole that has a border touching or nearly touching the cross section - make sure you’re going through both the mesh and the cage: if you only get one and not the other, you’re just wasting a ziptie!

Mesh added on top in a basically-ideal position.