The effects of rearing cage type and dietary Ca, available P and vitamin D
3
(VitD
3
) on body and skeletal development were studied. A total of 3,420 Lohmann LSL-Lite day-old chicks were reared in conventional (CON) or furnished cages (FUR) to 16 wk of age. Initially, 40 and 150 chicks/cage were placed in CON and FUR and transitioned to 20 and 75 chicks/cage at 8 wk of age, respectively. Three diets: Diet 1, Diet 1.5 and Diet 2 were formulated to meet nutrient specifications with Diet 1.5 and Diet 2 containing 1.5 and 2 times more Ca, P and VitD
3
than Diet 1, respectively. Diets were allocated within cage type to give 6 replicates and fed in 3 feeding programs: starter, grower and developer. At 4, 12 and 16 wk of age, BW was recorded, and femur, tibia and blood samples for bone quality and related parameters. There were no interactions (
P
> 0.05) of cage type, diet and pullet age on BW, plasma Ca and inorganic P, femur and tibia morphometry, mineral density (MD), breaking strength (BS) and ash concentration (AC). Concentration of Ca, P and VitD
3
linearly decreased BW (
P
< 0.001), relative femur (
P =
0.010) and tibia weight (
P =
0.013). A quadratic increase on femur MD (
P =
0.03) and BS (
P =
0.026) was observed with dietary concentration of Ca, P and VitD
3
. Femur (
P =
0.031) was longer for CON than FUR pullets, however, femur for FUR pullets had higher (
P
= 0.003) AC. Cage had no effect (
P ≥
0.415) femoral MD and BS. Pullets reared in FUR cages exhibited higher tibial MD (
P =
0.015), BS (
P =
0.071), AC (
P
< 0.01) and whole-body mineral content (
P
< 0.01). In conclusion, cage type and diets showed independent effect on femur and tibia quality with FUR pullets exhibiting enhanced indices of mineralization. Feeding pullets twice the recommended Ca, P and VitD
3
decreased BW, relative weight of leg bone but enhanced femoral strength with no effects on tibia attributes.