Poop!

So...I am familiar with what I think is the best way to get poop off: a mixture of baking soda, lemon juice and water.

It works WONDERS but it's peeling the paint off of the window sills (they're wood)...So that's frustrating...does anyone have an idea of how to prevent this?

We use this for tricky poops (we have the wipes though, but should probably invest in the spray...) we think it's great. Just kinda makes the poop less... stuck? Kinda all just falls away/disappears

Not sure how safe it is on wood though, sorry!

Wayne361 said:

Have you considered potty training your bird(s)? It is fairly simple to do and poop stays on newspaper below perch.

Wayne

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Have to be careful doing that though as if he's not placed on the perch, or given the command often enough, then he might not poop! Can be very dangerous so caution needs to be had with potty training.

Merlin will outright refuse to poop in his cage until he literally cannot hold it in any longer. It's damaging for him and we have to get him out as soon as we wake up, just to make him poop!

Wayne361 said:

Upon reading your post I wonder if Merlin is training you in a sense. I.e. "if I dont poop my human friend will come get me out of cage".....dont know. Do you know where this habit of Merlin's orignated from.....mine has no problem going in cage and havent heard of this before tbh. But have heard of people rewarding the bird in potty training and the bird will hold in longer than necessary to gain reward. Maybe your birds reward is you letting out of cage???

Wayne

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Not at all, we have only recently been getting Merlin out of his cage to poop. (As recently as last Thursdays vet visit!) So he has no connection between the pooping + being let out. He simply will not poop near where he eats and sleeps.

Apparently this is a natural thing, as poop is a sure fire indicator to predators that 'food' is around. It's a survival thing that a lot of birds don't get out of the mind set of.

We tell Merlin to "go poo!" when he is out though, to encourage him to poop before sitting on guests etc. But he happy to poop absolutely anywhere (including on/in Charlie's cage...) but never his own!

I use straight vinegar (white) sprayed from a bottle, a plastic (ice-windshield) scraper if its dry and a paper towel. I have a lot of wood (though none of it painted) and never have problems.

I use a steam cleaner to clean off poops, not sure if it'd damage a painted sill

Thanks for your replies! Yeah, I use a steam mom for poops on the tile and that works wonders! I may have to just paint the sills. He's pretty good about pooping near his cage, but not always.

We use white vinegar, water, and lemon juice. Our paint doesn't peel.

Kalidasa said:

I use straight vinegar (white) sprayed from a bottle, a plastic (ice-windshield) scraper if its dry and a paper towel. I have a lot of wood (though none of it painted) and never have problems.

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I do as well.