Cleaning hack

I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but here goes.

I'm fastidious about keeping Nigel's cage cleaned every day. In the wild, he would be flying around, not exposed to dander, dust, etc. air would be fresh and clean so I try to keep things fresh as I can. Besides, it's better for all of us to keep things tidy. Plus his cage gets washed outside every month and sun-dried.

I use, as many of you already do, a plain water bottle sprayer that I use to spray down the cage before wiping it down daily. It keeps dust down and catches fuzzies that are everywhere especially since he is molting.

As well as keeping things clean, I do like things to be fresh smelling but with parrots we can't use any fresheners so, after a long fact check, I found the following to be safe which I now do and am so happy with the results!

After wiping everything down, I squeeze the juice of a fresh lemon onto a thin cloth and wipe down the tray, grill and areas that tent to catch all foods and droppings. I even use it on the tile floor underneath his cage. It's perfectly safe and natural and smells nice, very faint but nice. I don't use a lot of the juice, just enough to spread lightly onto the cloth. I do this maybe once a week.

But if you don't like how lemons smell, it's not for you!

I like that!!!!!

I know the real reason you're so fastidious, though. Nigel is too hoity-toity to put up with anything less than 5-star service from his "help".

GaleriaGila said:

I like that!!!!!

I know the real reason you're so fastidious, though. Nigel is too hoity-toity to put up with anything less than 5-star service from his "help".

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EXACTLY!


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"Harrumph!"

Lemon juice organe juice all help with cleaning and being natural is the real bonus.

My goal is to get a spare grate so I can just swap them out once every 4-5 days. I do a good job with cleaning the cage but am not up to a consistent standard of scrubbing the grate down.

Benefit of orange juice is it also repels bugs! I use a little bit of orange peel everyone once in a while, we have silverfish so we have to be quite diligent about the bird room. But the orange seems to reallly help and it smells so nice

DRB said:

Lemon juice organe juice all help with cleaning and being natural is the real bonus.

My goal is to get a spare grate so I can just swap them out once every 4-5 days. I do a good job with cleaning the cage but am not up to a consistent standard of scrubbing the grate down.

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Oh now that's a good idea. I wonder if I could get two half-grates to fit the bottom of the cage? Then, and don't tell anyone I said this, I could put them through the dishwasher.

Oh my goodness, this is the greatest thing ever. I LOVE the smell of lemon, and I can't wait to try this!

I know this thread is a couple of months old but didn't feel the need to start a new thread on the same subject. I found it because I clean with lemon juice also but I dilute it with water when I clean Jasper and Tillie's cages. I was hoping that I could stop wiping it down with plain water after which it looks like I can. I've used lime juice when I didn't have lemon as I always have limes or at least lime juice.

Another hack that I found is wiping the bottom grate with coconut oil. It makes cleaning much easier. Even if Jasper gets on the bottom grate, it's safe and gives his feet a little moisture. I just put the oil on a paper towel and run it through the bars. It hasn't been enough to make Jasper slip but enough so the food/poop doesn't really stick.

Home-made and natural air fresheners - lemon, lime, orange and coconut umm.