Cage cleaning questions...

[gonefnuts]

i clean my bird cages and bird room with simple green. i change the cages every day to everyother day. fresh food and water 2 times a day sometimes the water gets changed 3-4 times a day depends on how much food they thro in the water bowl,either way they seem happy and i make sure i keep a lrg. supply of newspaper around for the bottom of there cages.

[Maureen F]

Originally Posted by parrotntn

What/how do you folks clean your cage trays/grills? (I think grill is not the right word, but I don't know what to call the thing that slides out that looks like a grill that keeps the bird off of the bottom tray)
disinfectant?? like what? what's NOT to use??
then, do you line it with paper?? or some sort of granulated material? Cecil's owner uses ground up corn cobs that he buys. That's awefully messy to me, but I'm new with this "big bird cage" cleaning deal. I like the newspaper, but I wanna use what's best for the bird, even though he bit my sweet wife.
Thanks!
Mark

Hi Mark,
If find that grapefruit seed extract is a wonderful disinfectant to clean the cages. I do the grate bar by bar every couple of days. I find cleaning out newspapers is easies for the bottom. They fold up so nicely and can be easily transfer to the garbage without seeds and junk falling out. I also use a steam cleaner all over every now and then.

As for the biting - start reading. We find that always have a small piece of grape vine in our pockets is a great distracter. We use the word "No" only for biting and have great results. But since our birds attention is not too long we find that we must praise her as soon as good behaviour occurs.

We keep a very calm and quiet house. We have four kids around 18 to 33 so they are still around a lot. They are also very calm and my kids have never found it reasonable to fight so we are always calm. Emmie (my scarlet macaw) is also very calm and relaxed. She has complete trust with us. We don't allow non family to hold her unless she goes to them. We get little love nips not anything serious. Good luck.

[Gordo]

Use newspaper in the tray below the grate, opened up it fits the tray perfectly and is easy to transfer all the stuff to the trash. I remove the grate to the backyard and hit it with the hose. I find that if I hit it with the mist setting for about 10 minutes and then the pressure nozzle cleans it right off. Do the same thing with the perches and toys. Let them dry in the So Cal sun. Clean the rest of the cage with warm water.

[DanaFL78]

I use a vinegar/water solution, spray the grills, then use a scuncci (sp?) steam cleaner to get off the stuck on birdy stuff. Works well. I let the vinegar/water solution sit on the grills for a few mins to help loosen it. I just use newspaper to line my cages. In 3 yrs, never had a need to use that corn cob stuff. There is a grate on the bottom of the cage with about a 4-6 inch separation from the pan.

[Ponyfeathers]

I noticed some people don't use grates, is there any reason why? Seiko doesn't walk on the bottom much, but i wouldn't want him walking in his poops.

[parrotntn]

Oh my, I just saw all of these posts to this thread. It has been awhile since I went to this thread, wow. What a great bunch of informative people we have here!
Mark