How Do YOU Manage Your Parrot "Maintenance"

We all know that being a parront is hard, especially when you're a single parront (or your partner denies that they are truly the parront of your parrot and won't "pay up" in cleaning, feeding, and training time), so how do YOU manage it? I have a chart I work off of, and though I don't ALWAYS weigh my bird four times a day (though I usually do it at least once a day), and I don't ALWAYS write down every detail of my fid's feeding, I DO follow my scheduled maintenance of changing paper, wiping down a side of the cage, and cleaning one toy daily, with a bigger haul of chores every Saturday. If I didn't make a chart I would never remember which toys have been washed, that's for sure, and I don't think I would be as motivated to do my "daily duty." Does anyone else use a chart for their birds, or do you just play it by ear? Here is the chart I use:

No chart for me. Been doing it for a 'few' years, and it now all comes naturally and flows pretty smoothly.

My fids get weighed once a week, and I do keep a record of it.

My day with the fids starts at 8AM sharp. Each cage is cleaned, including the grates, wiping down the sides as necessary/needed. All get fresh paper on the bottom tray in the morning, too. They all get fresh water in the morning, and then again as needed throughout the day (my big macs, especially Ripley, is a HUGE dunker, so he spoils his water quite often). They get fresh dry food, and a warm, mushy, cooked mix in the AM. I'm usually done with the cages by 9:30AM.

Toys are cleaned, replaced, refreshed, or tossed as needed.

3-4 times a year I tear the cages down and power wash them. The same with the Java trees.

At 11AM breakfast is removed and they get birdy bread.

At 6PM they once again get their warm, mushy food for dinner.

Nah...nobody's spoiled. :21:

Yep. ONLY I WISH I COULD SLEEP IN UNTIL 8:00 A.M. MY DAY STARTS AT 5:40 A.M.!!! BY 8:00 A.M. I'M SUPPOSED TO BE AT MY DESK (all the way across town) AND WORKING...

Been doing this stuff for over 20 years. It's just second nature...

Down at the rescue we had checklists. With 350 birds, you need to be sure everyone has food and clean water, and has had papers changed and grates cleaned. Not so hard to remember with five...

Now? My birds get food and water twice a day. Cleanup is just something you do when you feed them. As needed... Part of my daily routine. They get played with and fresh food and water while the coffee is cooking... Floors get swept and/or shop vac-ed. Everyone goes back to their spots. And I'm off to work.

Same thing at dinner time. They get fed while dinner is cooking. They get their "human food" treat cups when we sit down to eat. Sweep the floors during the normal after dinner cleanup.

It's what I do.

And somehow, it still looks like I don't do it... :32:

I would forget all about the chart (but would still clean Kiwi). I couldn't stand him getting too dirty so chart or not, he's getting cleaned!

I vacuum around his area daily (though within 5 minutes you could never tell), wash his dishes daily, change cage liner/clean his whole area (steam everything inside the cage, the swing and the tree) every other day, make his food 2X a week and change out a couple toys a week. I used to not be so OCD about deep cleaning his cage but I ruined his last cage by power hosing it outside, so now I won't be power hosing this one, which means much more frequent steam cleaning.

Hmm, i have just been playing it by ear?....

I am curious now, does paper at bottom of cage need to be changed every day like in above charts?...by 'need' i mean is that a common thing people do is change paper every day?

I have been only been changing the cage liner once every maybe...3 days?...so basically a couple times a week. I just take toys/perches out as i see them when they have poop on them and wash.

Keep in mind i do have her poop in the garbage 3-4 times a day. And only have 1 bird. To me the bottom just doesn't seem to get dirty enough to change it every day?

I believe there is a large amount of folks who don't change the paper every single day. Seeing what 'state' the bottom of my cages are in each and every morning (heck...sometimes even only a few minutes after cleaning them), I opt to change mine daily.

There are also folks who put in large amounts of paper, and every day they just have to remove the top layer for a neat and clean appearance.

jasper19 said:

Hmm, i have just been playing it by ear?....

I am curious now, does paper at bottom of cage need to be changed every day like in above charts?...by 'need' i mean is that a common thing people do is change paper every day?

I have been only been changing the cage liner once every maybe...3 days?...so basically a couple times a week. I just take toys/perches out as i see them when they have poop on them and wash.

Keep in mind i do have her poop in the garbage 3-4 times a day. And only have 1 bird. To me the bottom just doesn't seem to get dirty enough to change it every day?

Click to expand...

I change Kiwi's cage liner when needed. I typically find that to be every other day (sometimes I'll change on the third day). It really depends on the bird. You just don't want it to get unsanitary with stinky, rotting food and thick with poop. Some birds reach that point daily, but others are fine to go a day or two

ok, i just wanted to make sure i wasn't a bad bird parent for changing twice a week!

I mostly do papers daily as well due to feeding high amount of fresh foods. Don't want or need any critters from outside attracted. Sometimes if it's hectic I may skip one day once in a blue moon but never longer.

BTW I get the white packing paper from U-haul comes in a nice big box already cut into good size rectangles, makes it way easier on me and being white makes it easier for me to keep track of poopies.

I only have one tiny gcc in a really big cage his poop dries very quickly, and the grate keeps him about 6 inches away from the tray lined with the paper. I tend to change his lining less often. He usually poops in one corner so unless he takes an extra wet bath then I can usually get away with cleaning the cage less frequently. His biggest mess by far is dry pellet powder rather than poop or anything that quickly breeds bacteria.. ill clean his cage maybe once every two weeks.

My morning starts at 6:30 am now with all my little birds. In the large flights, I use newspaper on top of their grates as well as under it, and change the paper on top each morning, and the paper underneath every other day. The button quail, barbet and laughing thrush are changed every day. I then move to my room with pairs, and their cages are changed every other day. Last is my big bird room, and my ekkie gets changed every day, and usually the rest are fine with every other day. I wipe grates and bars as needed.
I wash and dry all food and water dishes every morning and refill for everyone.
After I am done with that, everyone gets veggies. This is generally between 9:30 and 10:30.
In the afternoon, I get started between 4 and 4:30 and change everyone's water and feed a fresh chop.

Sunday is our big cage cleaning day where we completely clean every cage and grate. I keep an eye on the perches and toys and clean as needed

Great thread, I love hearing everyone else's routines!

I get up at 4am [Its a bird farm ]

Ummmmmm, I didn't get the memo that nature had a chart I had to complete, poo.

I wouldn't sweat the chart. I feed my fids veg and fruit. They run track and other activities and they are fine.

Taw5106 said:

Ummmmmm, I didn't get the memo that nature had a chart I had to complete, poo.

I wouldn't sweat the chart. I feed my fids veg and fruit. They run track and other activities and they are fine.

Click to expand...

LOL, I'm not "sweating" the chart, I'm just OCD. I like to have charts for everything. Otherwise I am a complete mess who never does anything, instead sitting on my lazy butt saying "I'll do it tomorrow" in a groggy voice. So I have learned to use charts. You should have seen me my first year as a teacher--I never knew where ANYTHING was, never got progress reports in on time, and couldn't keep a parent contact log to save my life.

I change the paper every day simply because I like it to look neater, not necessarily because it needs it. I am one of those people who puts in a bunch of paper then just pulls off the top sheet, so it only takes ten seconds. I only take the tray out and disinfect it once a week. Same for the grate unless it looks really nasty for some reason. I don't think you NEED to change the paper every day--I just think that it depends on the size of your cage versus your bird. AKA, is the floor totally loaded with poop every day? If not, then wait to change it.

I am planning to get a small shop vac. I've been sweeping every day, and I just manage to push the mess around, LOL!

EDIT: I am glad I posted this because I just remembered progress reports are due by 10AM tomorrow and my grade book has no grades in it, LOL.

You have a fantastic system!! I put a kitchen trash bag down as a liner. It fits perfectly. I remove it every week and put a new one down, in its place but now you've given me ideas, hmmmmmm...... That's what I love about this forum, new ideas I didn't think about. Your method is fantastic and I can work it with my fids easy. Over the next week I will stripping their cages for a super steam clean for summer. The question in my head is how many liners can I get in before the next steam clean, lol.

JerseyWendy said:

I believe there is a large amount of folks who don't change the paper every single day. Seeing what 'state' the bottom of my cages are in each and every morning (heck...sometimes even only a few minutes after cleaning them), I opt to change mine daily.

There are also folks who put in large amounts of paper, and every day they just have to remove the top layer for a neat and clean appearance.

Click to expand...

I do an "as needed" cleaning. Paper changes happen when they are required.

My birds spend most of the day outside of their cages, so paper changes are significantly less frequent. Cleaning under and around the playstands, however, is a twice a day thing...

So far every day or other day I change the newspaper for Kyo. I do it when it looks needed.

As far as toys and cage grate, I make sure to clean the grate every couple of days and keep my eye on the perches/toys for poop that I can clean off easily. I sweep the floor about twice a day, and just purchased a dust buster to try to make it easier for me. I'm going to switch toys out tomorrow, as she likes to keep busy when I'm working

As for feeding, in the morning before I go to work she gets 1 tablespoon of Roudybush, 1/2 tablespoon of zupreem, 1/2 tablespoon of hagen seed mix (no sunflower and has some dried fruit in it), and 2-3 nutriberries hidden around her cage. This is left for her all day, and she of course also gets fresh water. I often have to pick up the nutriberries off the bottom because she finds them and throws them (lol). She is working on holding her food with one foot, but is a bit clumsy still. She gets stronger and better balance every day! She is flying really well now, and I think it helps that she has room to fly from perch to perch in her cage.

When I get home from work she gets her fresh foods, this week it's kale and either a piece of apple, orange, or banana. She also gets her water changed as she often dunks her zupreem pellets and makes soup.

I clean her water dish out every day (tiny bit of vinegar water rinsed really well) and her dry food dish every other day. Of course, her fresh food dish is taken out after she is done picking through it.

As far as time for training and attention go, hubby and I do our best to spend as much time with her as we can. We give her about 20 minutes every morning while I feed her and change her water (+fend off annoyingly needy cats from the bedroom door) and then he drives me to work (usually around 8:15am). Sometimes he goes to work too, but most often he comes home (he's a photographer). If he's home during the day, he takes about an hour and spends time with her upstairs (because of cats she is in our room) playing on his iPad between letting her out and training her. He picks me up from work around 3:30pm or 4:00pm, and we come home, change water, feed fresh foods, and let her out until she gets tired (usually about 2 hours). When she goes back in her cage we make our own dinner and hang out downstairs for a bit to give the needy kitties some attention. Around 6:00pm I go upstairs and take her fresh food away, and give her some more opportunity to come out and play. She usually gets cranky around 7:30pm and lets me know she wants to go to bed.

It is not ideal by any means, but we just can't have her in the living room unable to be let out because of the cats. We are working on a permanent solution right now by converting our second bedroom into a bird room/office for me, where we can hang out and watch a few shows and maybe even have our dinner once in a while.

Great thread! I loved reading through them.

Kyoto... Just wanted to note that I have many needy kitties. The older ones get used to the new bird faster than the young ones and I have several at this point that completely ignore the bird. The newness will wear off if you allow them "around" just obviously not direct access to the bird. Mine show zero interest in pineapple EXCEPT sometimes I think he taunts them from the top of his very large cage and they jump up on top and he sticks his tongue out because he knows he is safe. They're still pretty interested in my little GCC but losing interest in Chiqui as she reminds them of my CAG who terrified them.

I don't really have a set routine, I clean feed and water bowls daily. Change cage liners as necessary. Toys and perches also as necessary.

Robin's old cage has no grate, and it does seem to fill up with poops everywhere (not just one spot) pretty quickly, so I change it daily or twice a day if he gets really messy. Occasionally I'll get lazy or insanely busy and 'cover' the debris with fresh paper over it for half a day or day longer :54:. He never goes down there and messes with the paper so it's okay. His new cage has a grate thank goodness! Haven't had time to set it up yet.

Raven and Griffin's cages have grates, so I am not as worried about it since they can't get to the debris. I don't count the days, but I try to do it before it gets completely disgusting :52:. BUT... while I'm not too obsessive about the paper, I make up for it with the grate. I am very OCD about cleaning poop of the grates!
I don't worry about it if I'm busy and they have to be in their cages, but when the cage doors are open, I will check it and spot clean the grates obsessively! Especially Raven's cage because that's where Griffin and Twigs hang out too.

Twigs is a Budgie. Man, budgies poop a lot! I change his paper every other day, but I pick up all the poops on the paper on the off day. The poop is so small and they dry hard, it's so very easy to do.