Cleaning Bowls: How to, and how often?

[AJBirds]

How often should you clean your bird's food/water bowls, if there is no obvious contamination in them (ie they look clean)?
And what method (vinegar soak, dishwasher) should you use?

I'd love to hear what members do for their birds. I'm feeling woefully inadequate cleaning Pixie's bowls - I'm thinking of buying a bunch of replacement bowls. Oh, speaking of, how many food/water bowls do you have?

 

[Giggleagain]

Depends on the bird

Canary:
Food bowl gets cleaned and filled with fresh food once a day.
Water bowl gets refilled 2 - 3 times a day (she's a pig and always out of water). She gets a cleaned bowl at night.

Quaker Parrots:
1. Clover's / Sweet Pea's (Quaker Parrots) food bowl is cleaned and filled with fresh food in the morning and at night (pellets).
2. The veggies are removed after 4 hours, and the bowl goes in the sink
3. The fruit gets removed once they walk away from the bowl, this keeps fruit flies at bay. The bowls go in the sink.
Oopsie I forgot the water bowl! They get fresh water at least twice a day if not more!

Amazon:
1. Water bowl gets washed and refilled 5 - 6 times per day. Willie makes soup with EVERYTHING.
2. Pellets and dried veggies: fresh every night, in clean bowl.
3. Veggies are removed when he's "done" with them and the bowl goes in the sink.
4. Fruit gets removed after maximum 2 hours. Bowl goes in the sink.

Every night I hand-wash the bowls with dish detergent and rinse over and over until I can't smell any detergent anymore. I have a great nose... the rinsing goes on forever. I don't trust the dishwasher to get rid of detergent traces.

I have so many bowls in so many different sizes that I can't tell you how many I have. I have enough and some more...

 

[Flboy]

Water at LEAST every day! Dry food dish, when needed. Water dish really needs to be rubbed out well or it picks up scum!

 

[Kyoto]

Kyo makes soup constantly... So I clean her water bowl 2 to 3 times a day (vimegar spritz and scrubbing) and I change out her food and water dishes every couple days, replacing them with sterilized bowls from the dishwasher.

I have 6 stainless steel bowls for her regular cage, and 3 for her living room
Cage.... I kind of want more though ><

 

[RavensGryf]

Wow, sounds like a part time job for some of you . I do it quick and easy, and I still believe they're sufficiently clean.

The parrots have stainless steel bowls, the budgies have plastic and a little ceramic veggie bowl.
All my birds keep their water clean, so when I change it at the end of the day, there might be some tiny particles in the bottom, but it's nothing bad. I take a paper towel and wipe bowls out and rinse, before replacing the water. I just use water to wash them with. I mean, it doesn't have visible scum in it, and besides you're thoroughly wiping the inside surface out with a clean paper towel, so it still gets sparkling clean that way.

Fresh food bowls - there is always leftover food, so I dump down sink garbage disposal, and clean with hot water. Soaking for 30 seconds with hot water makes stuck on food unstick, then like above I simply wipe out with a clean paper towel, rinse and dry. Easy.

The pellet bowls - I only give enough for the day, and they always pretty much look clean except for residual pellet dust and seed shells from an occasional Nutriberry. I dump the bottom crumbs then refill :54:. I periodically wash them out with the same method as above, or spray bird sanitizer and wipe.

They have 2-3 bowls in at any given time. Water at all times of course, then veggie bowl, and pellet bowl.

 

[AJBirds]

Thanks Julie - I like your answer the best! Reduces my insecurities a little

I've recently started overkill washing - it's a bit embarassing to reveal how much time is spent soaking/washing the bowls. But I might just switch back to rinse+wipe+soak a bit with vinegar. And buy some more bowls while I'm at it

 

[DexMom]

I have 3 bowls: 1 fresh food, 1 pellets/seeds/dry snacks, 1 water

Fresh food bowl - filled in AM (chop, veggies, fruit), cleaned and refilled in PM (fruit, grains, nuts), removed before bedtime

Pellet/seed/dry snacks - taken out, emptied, cleaned and re-filled in AM, after fresh food AM meal is served and left all day and overnight (in case he needs a midnight snack)

Water - multiple times per day - my Dexter is a dunker and the water bowl is on the same side of the cage as the dry food/snack bowl, so he's always dunking stuff in it and making it murky with little floaty bits.

 

[RavensGryf]

Thanks Julie - I like your answer the best! Reduces my insecurities a little

I've recently started overkill washing - it's a bit embarassing to reveal how much time is spent soaking/washing the bowls. But I might just switch back to rinse+wipe+soak a bit with vinegar. And buy some more bowls while I'm at it

Haha, reduces YOUR insecurities, while making ME look less than stellar? :18: LOL!

You'll find that many people do what you're probably calling "overkill" washing, but everyone does it differently, and ulitmately what they're comfortable with. Some people also aren't home during the day to stand by and keep changing bowls, or go the time consuming route.

 

[Mimsy01]

I go by the same way I would do my own.

Dry foods-pellets, seeds ect-clean every few days, or as needed. Just like a bowl of nuts or popcorn for myself, as long as no one walks by and accidentally poops in it I consider it fine.

Fresh foods I leave for a few hours depending on what it is and how fast it starts wilting or looking funky. I will go back in the kitchen and finish off a salad a few hours after dinner, so I figure the same for them. Cooked grains like oatmeal don't get to sit long, just grosses me out on a personal level.

Water has to be done more often here, because just as I would for myself if I had a glass of water and someone took a bath in it or washed their lunch in it or accidentally pooped in it I would probably wash it. Every so often we make it a whole day with no one falling in or dropping some food in it.

Washing is the same as my own, just normal dish soap, scrub, rinse, dry. When I had a dishwasher they went in there. I have extra dishes, so I just fill a bowl of water and trade out for the yuck one.

I mostly only use stainless steel bowls, however I have a few plastic bowls and those I do spray with vinegar and then with peroxide every so often just like I do my cutting boards just in case there is anything in there I can't see.

 

[Birdman666]

I wash them with dish soap.

I do the water and (fresh) treat dishes every day. The dry food bowls, on an as needed basis.

I just wash them all immediately before refilling them in the morning.

 

[ruffledfeathers]

I do the same as Birdman--water gets dish soap washed each morning when I am waiting for my coffee and the food bowl gets washed as needed. The treats/veggies/wet food bowl gets washed daily. (basically if it is wet and can get skanky/slimy it gets washed daily).
If there happens to be a crazy playtime that day and I come home and the water bowl is trashed, it gets done an extra time.

 

[henpecked]

I have lots of amazons and have tons of spare bowls/dishes. I change out fresh food dishes and water dishes everyday. The pellets dishes get changes once or twice a week. I scrub the food/water dishes daily and usually soak a large sink full in clorax solution every other day. In other words, i use a clean,sterile dish for fresh food and water everyday. I have spares so i pull dirty dishes and replace with clean ones. When i have a sink full worth of used (but cleaned) i sterilize, drain and dry them for use over the next few days. Sounds like a lot of work but not really , a system helps. (and plenty of spare dishes)

 

[riddick07]

I have replacement bowls for all the water. I used to have replacement bowls for the pellets too since I'm a lazy lazy person but they have been stolen by other bird cages coming into the house.

I just throw everything in the dishwasher. I replace water bowls every day but if they have thrown water out of their bowls sometime during the day they are SOL until I do the water bowls. I do the pellet bowl whenever they need to be done.

 

[SailBoat]

Well, this tread gets behind the doors.

The water and wet foods are the primary problem areas that need the greatest attention. This is due the the greater likelihood of the growth / spread of germs.

Have extra bowls, best purchased as part of the buy of the cage, stand, etc... If you have a dish washer, use it! It is the hot water that kills the germs and a dish washer heats the water above what would burn our hands. Having extra bowls allows whatever schedule works best for your home. A set in the dish washer and set in the cage and a set between as a minimum in our household.

Remember that the problem areas are the water and the wet foods.

 

[Christinenc2000]

I wash them with dish soap.

I do the water and (fresh) treat dishes every day. The dry food bowls, on an as needed basis.

I just wash them all immediately before refilling them in the morning.

Same here. I have a extra set so easy to swap out .

 

[AJBirds]

Thanks everyone for your replies!

I was going through a long process of soaks in vinegar, dish soap, dishwasher, vinegar again - I don't like putting "non-cleaned" bowls in the dishwasher with ours, and then post-dishwasher, I worry about residue. But I also worry that sterilizing with vinegar alone won't be enough...

 

[RavensGryf]

Well... Imho, as far as you being concerned that vinegar is not "enough", we have to remember that in a bird with any sort of a functioning immune system, it doesn't need to be "hospital sterile". I'm confident my dishes are still 'clean' enough to not cause a problem . Look at the poor birds in the wild! Lol

 

[Taw5106]

I rotate ten stainless bowls, water and food. I run them through the dish washer, R least four a day. My choice.

 

[AJBirds]

Julie, I do love your answers so much (Efficiency = awesomesauce )
And I use scalding hot water for the soak part... So maybe I'll just do that most days, and the whole vinegar-dishwasher-vinegar shebang once in a while. There are only so many hours in the day!
Taw, your answer is inspiring me to buy a bunch more stainless steel bowls

 

[Kyoto]

I just wanted to mention, I work and don't feel comfortable leaving a chop bowl in Kyo's cage all day, so I feed her chop on a plate every morning while I have my coffee. Makes it feel like her special meal, otherwise she just throws it everywhere. Oh wait, she throws it everywhere anyways :3