A shameful question...

[sweetpeamusic]

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve had Nico for a good few months now and still don’t know the answer to this question: how should I be keeping the bottom of his cage clean?
Several components here- first off, our breeder told us to keep the grate that goes on the bottom of his cage removed. She said she had seen way too many birds get their beaks caught between the grate bars after dropping food and trying to get it.
2. Nico likes to eat off of the floor- which I assume is a safety concern. I have caught him with his dried poop in his mouth, as if he’s checking if it’s edible.
3. Nico also loves to play at the bottom of his cage- especially with the paper towels that line it. This is super frustrating because I will put new paper down and within a couple of hours he’s pushed it around and it won’t cover the bottom of the cage anymore.
4. I’ve gotten conflicting information on how diligently I should be cleaning the bottom of the cage. The vet gave me a paper that told me to change the paper once a day. Some friends who own birds say they do it once a week, some even only a couple of times a month, and some do it twice a day. I don’t know what would be a realistic range that people have for how often they clean. And of course the internet offers a variety of results.

I guess my questions are, should I have the grate at the bottom of the cage? How often should I be replacing the paper, and how often should I be scrubbing the bottom of the cage?

 

[Sunnyclover]

If I were you... I'd put the bottom grate back on. 11/10 times if I left it off, all three of my birds would go down there and have a hayday and be covered in poop head to toe trying to recover tid bits of treats ect. I'm not sure why your vet said that.. are they a CAV? The vet might be talking about those cheep cages some people use to house budgies but not like a well built cage that has a powder coating and something to hold the bottom grate in place. It is far more dangerous for you bird to be constantly rooting around and eating it's own poop than having the cage grate on.

I clean the bottom of the cage twice a week and give the whole cage a good scrub down once a week. However, if my bird didn't have a grate (not sure why that would happen) and was walking around down there and eating it's own poop I would clean the bottom...2 times a day or so because I would be scared for my bird to get sick if I didn't. Nothing against you, I realize that you said you truly didn't know...

If you do put the grate back on I would definitely not tell your vet because they may shame you into letting your bird walk around it it;s poop all day and get sick and hormonal by taking the grate off again. Or perhaps..get a new vet...so far the advise you have received has been not that grate (ha...a pun).

 

[Aerski]

Please put back on the bottom grate! If you are concerned about your GCC getting his beak stuck between the bars, you could buy a bottom grate that has a smaller width than your bird’s beak. Obviously those are hard to find and not that efficient as wider bars for conures, but it might be worth a shot.

If your bird manages to get it’s beak stuck most of the time it can just pull back out it’s beak, and almost 97.994% of the time, it’s not life-threatening. What’s more life-threatening is your conure walking on, and (probably eating) his own poop.. You do have to clean the bottom grate’s bars because sometimes the poop will get stuck to it and build up, but there will still generally be less poop everywhere. Never in my life has any of my birds gotten their beak stuck between the bottom grate. Just go ahead and put it back on.

As for your question with how often you need to replace the paper and clean the poop on the bars; it’s up to you. My personal preference is every 3 days, that way the poop doesn’t build up too much. My Too poops less often, but way bigger.. If the cage ever seems like the poop is building up, or it’s giving off a foul odor, go ahead and clean it immediately.

 

[ChristaNL]

Just remove poop daily - then you will not be scrubbing, just whiping.so...

Spotcleaning daily and a deepclean (everything) once a week is always a good thing- you can *really* get in al the nooks and crannies.



Personally I despise grates - they hamper a birds natural behaviour (just my humble opinion), so they lose more than they gain from being poopfree all the time.
Grates are there for people, not birds.
Grates are really not good for a birds feet and my parrots generally avoid the poop-places when they are on the bottom.
(so the covered in poop...maybe your cage is too small when that happens?)



Having the paper all over the place is no fun, some birds will use the paper as a nesting-excuse, so it can be a bit of a dilemma ...


If your bird is out a lot his feet will be able to stretch outside the cage, so it will not be such a terrible thing- and a lot of cages malfunction without that grate present anyway...


(The 'do not let the birds come in contact with feaces' stems from the time we had no real meds and getting parasites that way was a real concern. Most parrots these days are completely intestinal-parasitefree, so we can stop worrying about that. I have *never* seen a normal, healthy bird eat poop anyway.)

 

[Laurasea]

I use dilute vinegar and water to clean. I change the papers under the grate daily (usually) and clean the grate weekly, wipe down whole cage weakly, perches too. You can put a shallow box in the cage with shredded paper and foraging goodies and treats to play with. My fids are playing in a soda box tunnel right now having a blast with plastic bottles tops I put inside. When it gets dirty I just toss it.

 

[EllenD]

I agree, put the grate back in! Not only will this stop him from eating poop and messing with the paper, but it will prevent any unwanted hormonal behavior being caused from "nesting" in the paper...

You should be changing out the paper in the bottom of the cage, underneath the grate, at least once a week. More often is better, obviously, and it's best if you just remove the bottom, dump the days paper/poop, and put new paper in, then just put the grate back in and you're done, then clean/scrub the grate once a week.

You don't need to buy special liners or paper, newspaper is great, and I pick-up a ton of the free newspapers at the convenience store a couple of times a week, like all the ad-bargains/bargain-sheets/auto-trader papers that you can just grab for free and take as many as you want. Solves a lot of problems, and with the grate in he can't get down into the poop or the paper...

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Instead of paper towels try news paper...that's what I put on top of Amy and BB's grate. At times I will scotch tape the news papers together so only the corners can get ripped/torn. Amy will do that on occasion. I change them out every other day.


Jim

 

[Sandy19]

I put the paper towels over the grate and just change them daily. This is what works for us and what she's used to. She's not in the cage much, however. I work from home so I let her out in the morning and she's out all day most days. So the cage doesn't get pooped on heavily, it's the rest of my house that gets the poop bombs.

 

[noodles123]

Instead of paper towels try news paper...that's what I put on top of Amy and BB's grate. At times I will scotch tape the news papers together so only the corners can get ripped/torn

Did you mean under the grate, or do you really put paper on top of it? If so, I'm just confused as to the purpose of paper over a grate.
Also, to OP, if you do newspaper, I would stick with black and white ink (I have read that that is safer, on the off-chance that the bird fishes it out from under there). Also to OP, if using tape, be very careful, as some contain toxins that would be unsafe for birds.

 

[noodles123]

I put the paper towels over the grate and just change them daily. This is what works for us and what she's used to. She's not in the cage much, however. I work from home so I let her out in the morning and she's out all day most days. So the cage doesn't get pooped on heavily, it's the rest of my house that gets the poop bombs.

I see that you said you put paper towels on top of the grate too. I put mine under the grate (to catch poop out of reach) or my bird would just mess with the poop covered paper towel. I am just wondering if I am missing something.

 

[Sunnyclover]

I used to put paper towels on top of the grate too to save washing up but Ollie started eating them after a few months when I went away from the house while in his cage. So I had to stop that because I'm pretty sure he can get intestinal blocking or something if he would continue to eat the paper towels.

 

[Squeekmouse]

I highly recommend putting the grate back in there also. Two main reasons:
1. I would be scared of my bird eating poop. Can't possibly be a good thing. I'd rather he waste food than eat waste... (See what I did there? Ain't I funny? )
2.I'd feel a lot better about cuddling my bird knowing he isn't covered in poop. Also, it can't be good for his feathers to have poop that hardens into concrete all over him.

Any kind of paper works best as the lining in the tray. I prefer the nice pre-cut Cage Liner paper because it's easy and time is precious to me. Newspaper is super cheap and works just as well. Some say birds enjoy the changing patterns of text and pictures to look at also. I'd recommend changing the paper daily, but at least a few times a week. Wiping the cage/perches daily takes only a few minutes and keeps things in better condition to last longer. You can certainly do it just every few days or once a week, but then it's a lot harder to get the stuff off and you risk damaging the perch/finish doing so.

Use a bird safe cleaner, F10 is the greatest thing ever, Poop-Off works also but not as well and smells funky. Vinegar and water is also a good option and quite cheap.

Good luck!

 

[Sandy19]

I put the paper towels over the grate and just change them daily. This is what works for us and what she's used to. She's not in the cage much, however. I work from home so I let her out in the morning and she's out all day most days. So the cage doesn't get pooped on heavily, it's the rest of my house that gets the poop bombs.

I see that you said you put paper towels on top of the grate too. I put mine under the grate (to catch poop out of reach) or my bird would just mess with the poop covered paper towel. I am just wondering if I am missing something.

No, you're not missing anything. I've been putting the paper towels over the grate since she was a baby so she's used to them being there and does not mess with them. If I run out of paper towels she looks down at the grate with her head cocked like where are my paper towels. I line the bottom too with butcher paper to catch anything that goes through. I very rarely have to scrub the grates or the bottom. Obviously this wouldnt work for most birds, shes just used to it and expects her cage to be lined.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Well, the Rickeybird weighs in...
We use a grate, and newspapers underneath, changed just about daily (we sometimes have mice/ants, so I'm super-paranoid!). I put the grate in the shower a couple of times a week. The only cleaner I usually use is water. With just one bird and lots of time (I'm retiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired!!!!!!) it's easy to wipe a lot.

 

[Sunnyclover]

I also spot clean the cage constantly because I'm home a lot and do a mini cleaning each night before bed. I only use Poop-Off or water to clean the cage. Water during the week and Poop-Off for the weekly scrubbing. I like my babies to live extremely clealy as I prefer a clean house and I think they do also.

 

[SunnyGirl]

I'm using Poop-Off and it works really well, but I'm not a fan of the smell... what kind of vinegar exactly do you people use? the one for the salad? apple vinegar?

 

[noodles123]

White vinegar. Apple cider is okay, but white is the standard in cleaning. Not vinegar with any salt, sugar, herbs or wine.

 

[SunnyGirl]

thanks couldn't get any white one so applewill have to do till then

 

[clark_conure]

I agree with all the "grate" people. No self respecting bird is going to get it's beak caught in the bottom grate, and if it did...unless you only check on your bird once every couple days you'd be able to reach in and simply bend the bars apart.

The breeder is wrong.

 

[bigfellasdad]

Keep the grate in place. Cover grate in news paper, replace paper every 2 days at most. Recycle paper.