Kindling/Shimmies anyone?

A little less than a week ago DH decided me it was time we go 'green' with the bird cages. By that he meant we no longer use newspaper or any other paper to line the cages with, but 'something else' instead. So off to Lowe's we went.

We found a roll of remnants of a rather ugly linoleum floor and lugged it home because it was .... dirt cheap. :31:

Hubby promptly cut it up to fit perfectly in each cage tray. Easy peasy, right?

Well, not so much when it comes time to clean it in the morning. :32: The paper I was just able to scrunch up and discard, but it's a royal PITA to get the tightly fitting linoleum out of the cages each and every day. So I have to improvise. I now use a dust pan, old brush, shop vac, hot soapy water, and old towels to clean up the messes every day. It's just a matter of getting used to the newly 'green' method, I guess.

Anyway, my beaver...I mean Ripley (the GW) has been presenting me with a rather large amount of kindling/shimmies each and every day. I should reuse that, too, no? :54:

Before cleanup:


And after:

That really looks good.

I use paper inside but on the floor outside of the cage i was not working it would drift around and cause a big mess. I pulled out some old beach towels and laid around the cage. Keep a extra set on hand and just toss in the laundry.

Wendy I wonder if you rub some coconut oil on it if that would help with the cleaning.

Steam cleaner and linoleum works great. I've got it under all my cages...

That's the answer! Melts the messes.

Personally, I believe using newspaper for this IS recycling! I clean enough stuff as it is without adding things to clean.

Christinenc2000 said:

That really looks good.

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Wendy I wonder if you rub some coconut oil on it if that would help with the cleaning.

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Christine, I think I may give the coconut oil a try, but that would entail yet another extra step. :09:

Birdman666 said:

Steam cleaner and linoleum works great. I've got it under all my cages...

That's the answer! Melts the messes.

Personally, I believe using newspaper for this IS recycling! I clean enough stuff as it is without adding things to clean.

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Mark, we've run out of paper. All my neighbors used to give me their 'old' newspaper, but we are the only ones left on the street to still get it daily. That's $700 a year for a newspaper that ends up in cages, and one certainly never is enough for all 4 of them. We even brought home free advertisements whenever possible, but I admit I hated having to unfold a gazillion of little bitty papers to line the big mac cages. :32: We have a steamer, and I love it to pieces, but I only use that once a week when I do the super thorough cleaning. :54:

I went to the fabric store last night to purchase the fabric to make the DIY cage liners that Kiwibird made. I left the store without anything because I needed to get home to walk a dog. Maybe it was meant to be so that I could see this today and become confused as to what is the best.

Makes perfect sense to me.

In the summertime you can probably just hose that off...

I wish I could get my cage outside for a good hose down . To big to get out the door and taking it apart seems like a pita. Maybe once a year thing. For now its paper inside and steam once a week. Dogs running around the paper on the outside just did not work for me. BB feeding the dogs causing them to run around the cage was crazy messy . Even tried putting the paper under the wheels. Nope RIP .

Yeah. I know what you mean.

Maggie's cage doesn't fit through the door either. I have to steam clean that one in place.

It looks great, Wendy! I hope you can find an easier cleaning method though, it looks like lots of work. I think I'd try Mark's idea or maybe go back to raiding news stands.

Very impressive pile of kindling, Ripley's been busy.

Oh the things we do for our birds.

Hand vac, baby! A good, high quality, wide-mouthed hand vac would suck in all the kindling and food detritus 1, 2, 3! I use one in the areas around the cages and playstands all the time.

And as for paper, I wind up getting more than enough from all the coupon papers that are regularly delivered to my house. Also, my wife often grabs some more from the local Shop Rite. Their stuff is the best because the pages are so BIG!

For the playstands, though, I've switched to a green (environmental, not the color... although the color does happen to be green as well. But I digress...) bird litter composed entirely of recycled newsprint material. I've been really happy with it so far.

I did tried a different cage liners but somehow always get tired of extra work so I ended up using good all paper ...Just a quick tip here for a paper liner. Home Depot - Lowes stores sells a rolls of paper in their paint department area . 36" wide so it fits perfectly for macaw cages. (less then $ 20.00 ) Its much better then a news paper as it is thicker and will not stick to your cage pan . One roll should last you a 6 months or so depending on your cleaning habit .

( Home Depot paint department - Heavy weight red rosin paper roll of 35x140ft. $ 10.97
or 36"x166ft $ 12.97)

Now that I'm used to the linoleum it's taking me the same amount of time as it did with the paper. So, all is good. The Amazon cages are actually a snap to clean.

Stephen, a handheld vac (we have a Dyson) couldn't/didn't handle the large shimmy pieces Ripley and Niko made. A dustpan is working GREAT for those.

Talking of shimmies: When my big guys leave chunks so big that they don't even fall through the grate, I often re-use them. All I do is drill a new hole and re-attach the chunk to a toy. I had 2 of those this morning. Grabbed the first one and my DeWALT, starting drilling, but not paying as much attention as I should have. I was actually drilling through a pretty tight knot, which resulted in my left ring finger's nail partially separating from the nailbed. :52: OUCHY!!!

Aw, Wendy! OUCH! This whole drilling into fingers thing is becoming a bit of an epidemic among the mod team! I think I'll steer clear of drills for a while... hopefully long enough for whatever hex was put on us to run its course. Hahaha!

I love the cage maintenance posts because, well, I'm a neat freak and tend to change papers twice a day most days and I can use all the hints I can collect. I love the coconut oil on grates! I used to use Cage Shield, which was like a nontoxic polymer coating that made poop and food just not stick at all or wipe right off but they quit making it, sadly. Coconut oil works, though, and doesn't need to be applied every cleaning, just after weekly steaming.

The lino idea is a good one, but mine are always making a mess with their water so I know that would get nasty underneath with bits of food dust and water, so probably not an option for my guys. I still use newspaper on top of grates, and, you're right, it's tougher and tougher to get a large supply of, so I just asked my husband to ask around at work for anyone still taking the paper to save them for us. A couple bring them to him instead of throwing in the recycle bin and he even picks them up once a week from someone who takes the paper daily. We also negotiated with our local paper for the big paper (Wed and Sun) for a super cheap price so we take those; and one next-door neighbor got the same deal and saves hers. For our medium-size flock, it is enough. I will be checking out those painters' rolls at Lowes/HD, though, so thank you for that nip, Nico. We also have used U-Haul packing paper. Those things fit perfectly in my 36" cages and don't even need trimming. I LOVE those!

Wendy, my Galah makes mountains of shimmies like that every single day (he kills a wood toy a day). That's a good idea to repurpose the big chunks with a hole. I will start doing that. Some of them, I put in the stainless cage toy for him to chew out. Sorry about your injury, though. That even made me winch just reading about it!

I might have to try this in my cages, since Gonzo likes to move the grate and pull the paper up to shred, making a huge mess in the process, hmm.

I also use acrylic sheeting underneath my cages to protect the floor, it can also be drilled into the wall to protect from splashes and projectile poops.

Wendy, what kind of wood do you give your flock that they shred like that?

Aquila said:

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Wendy, what kind of wood do you give your flock that they shred like that?

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They mainly get (untreated, of course) pine and poplar that I buy at Lowe's. But I also cut up some dragonwood chunks, which will last a whole lot longer, but are a lot less fun for them since the chunks are so resilient. LOL.

Willow is a heavy chewer like that too, lol, last night she chewed one of the 4" 2x4" blocks off her chain, the proceeded to hold it like a chip and completely demolish it in about 5 minutes. She's definitely a beaver bird!

JerseyWendy said:

Aquila said:

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Wendy, what kind of wood do you give your flock that they shred like that?

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They mainly get (untreated, of course) pine and poplar that I buy at Lowe's. But I also cut up some dragonwood chunks, which will last a whole lot longer, but are a lot less fun for them since the chunks are so resilient. LOL.

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I get the dowels and sometimes boards from Lowes, do you get the boards and cut them down?

Aquila said:

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I get the dowels and sometimes boards from Lowes, do you get the boards and cut them down?

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Boards???? I mostly buy 2X4s. And yes, sometimes I get the thick dowels and cut the up, too.



And when I feel like it I even dye them: