Always line the cage tray with newspaper, folded to fit. All you have to do then is pull the tray part way out and remove the soiled paper. Replace with clean paper. The job is half done. This can be done as many times a day as needed.
Once a week (at least) put your birds in a smaller cage or on their play stand and place the larger one in your bathtub. Turn on the shower and go to town. I have a scrub brush used only for the birds' cages. I also use Clorox Clean-Up to cleanse and get rid of bacteria.
By HESTER from Chesterfield, MI
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Newspapers yes! Clorox clean-up, no! A 50/50 solution of vinegar & water is best! Works great and disinfects without harmful residue left! Do your bird a favor and stop using the chemicals that could kill!
I used to have zebra finches (beautiful little birds!) and had 2 fairly large cages for them (I began with 2 and inside of 6 months I had 7!). I cleaned the cages basically the same way Hester said. With one difference.
While I was cleaning their cages, I let the birds fly around in one of my spare bedrooms. They loved being able to fly loose and flex their wings and get some good exercise.
Once the cages were clean and set up again, I set one cage in its original spot in the living room and the other went in the bedroom with the birds. I left the room and every so often would crack the door open just enough to peek in and check the cage. I put some water and their favorite treats (for my finches it was millet spray) in the cage to tempt them in. It usually only took 30-45 minutes, sometimes less, before they'd all fly into the cage on their own to eat and drink. At this point, I'd enter the room slowly and close the door real quick.
One method I found for closing the cage before they could fly back out was to take a straightened out clothes hanger and hook one end to the cage door and put the other as close as possible to the room door. Then I'd sneak in real slow and carefully and pick up the end of the hanger and use it to close the cage door before they ever knew I was in the room.
Then it was just a simple matter of reaching in and taking out the ones that went in the other cage and putting them there. (This is not a hard job if they are bought when very young and handled many times a day so they get used to being handled and picked up).
I find after cleaning my rescue cockatoo's play gym (he doesn't live in a cage), that a rub over the metal with some cooking oil after cleaning makes the poop easier to wipe of from time to time during the day. I also use newspaper, though Big Bird thinks it is his for playing, so I often end up with seed etc. scattered all over the floor while he 'reads' the paper!
Does the oil not collect feathers & dander? I'd considered doing this but decided against it because I thought the oil would collect stuff.
I use large puppy pads to line the grate of my green wing macaws cage. No mess to soak up. And because its plastic lined, it's not yucky...newspaper can get yucky by the end of the day.
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