What bedding is Safe?

[kalphawk]

My Turquoise GC loves to take baths in his water dish every day. While this is fine it has caused an issue with his papers sticking to his tray to the point I have to scrape the majority of it off. I change papers every other day he has a fairly large cage for his size and honestly besides his water slinging tendencies he is not a messy bird so I don't have to change them that often but I like a tidy looking cage. I was wondering if there was a bedding I could use to help contain the water as well as helping to make tray cleaning easier where I don't have to scrape the tray everytime I change bedding. His cage has a metal grid above the paper pan I can slide in and out for easier cleaning when it needs it so he will not be able to get to the bedding at all. I know corn cobb is not good to use, but the main thing I was thinking about was the equine pellet bedding at Tractor Supply we use that now for our cats and rabbit litter and its cheap about $6 for 50lbss.

 

[Flboy]

My JoJo takes his baths in a big dish, on the sink. Never his cage!

 

[ChristaNL]

Do not use any loose absorbant stuf -> you will need to clean even more thorough because:
soggy material is THE way to grow fungus
(and we all know what fungus/spores do to lungs and airsacks)
and most of the small-bits-stuf is rather dusty as well (not the type of material you want to inhale).

saying this... puppytraining-pads?
there are one piece (so no mouldering left-overs) and since your bird cannot reach them...

What most people here do is to put a sheet of vinyl/linoleum-flooring in the tray (have several cut to size, like large placemats, so you can use them in shifts) and put your paper on top.
You have a removable non-stick layer.
Either is is much easier to wipe of the wettish paper off this stuf and/or you can just lift everything out and rinse it of (maybe even outside?) and since you have several: the drying can wait .
(you could even do without the paper that way - though I am lazy and like the "throw away and wipe later" option myself )



I mentioned the puppypads because I do not know just how much water gets spilled.
(of course you can also use towels/ cloth diapers etc. instead of paper, but not sure if you like having a lot of soggy poo in your washingmachine)

 

[Kiwibird]

Use newspaper or buy a big roll of newsprint paper instead. MUCH better and a million times more sanitary than any kind of 'bedding'. Also, you can easily see on paper if your bird is having abnormal poops, which can be one of the first indicators of illness in parrots. Get a plastic paint scraper (new and never used for paint) to scrape stuck on paper off the tray (also good for dried poop/food removal as well).

The BEST liners I ever used for my daily dish bath taker were washable fabric ones with a flannel top, backed in ripstop nylon with an absorbent layer in the middle (same material used in cloth diapers). Sadly, since moving to a condo with no yard to shake them out in before washing, I'm stuck using paper for the duration of our time here.

 

[EllenD]

Yes, please do not use any type of "bedding" at all, as it will only lead to bacterial and fungal infections, along with the bird, somehow, someway, pulling piece through the grate or getting a hold of it...Either way you can't use anything that is going to absorb the water at all, as the minute it starts to absorb water, it starts to grow microbes that are harmful to your bird...

***I hesitate on the "puppy pads", because the material inside of them is lethal to birds if they happen to eat any of it. There have been several instances of people who used them in the bottom of their bird's cage, and somehow the bird got a hold of one, of course chewed on it, ripped it open, and the stuff they put inside them to absorb moisture is toxic, and the birds have died. So I always advise against them, because the risk is too high and is always lethal if the bird gets into them...

And any type of regular "bedding", such as any type of wood chips, rodent bedding, pellets, etc. is lethal due to either the fumes they emit or if the bird gets a hold of even one piece of it...And corn cob bedding, or any other hard bedding, is again lethal if they get a hold of one single piece and swallow it.

Just use newspapers or butcher paper, or cage liners. They don't hold water and don't pose a threat to your bird at all. That's what most all experienced bird owners/breeders use, I know it's a pain in the butt, but birds are different than any other type of pet in that they are so sensitive to any types of scents/fumes, microbes, anything that they can swallow that will get stuck in their crops, they just aren't able to handle a lot of the stuff that is made in the human-world. Try giving your bird a bath each day outside of his cage and then change his water, or layer the newspaper so that it won't stick to the bottom of the cage...

 

[Sandy19]

Bedding is a pain in the butt to clean up, I know because I use it for my rabbits. Just line it with parchment or butcher paper, it's cheap, easy to clean up and won't get soggy and stick to the bottom when it gets wet. Thats what I line the bottom of my birds cage with.

 

[kalphawk]

Thank everyone for all the replies I never thought about tile or plexiglass to help along with papers to help with the scrapping issue. He takes a bath every night with me in the shower he actually throws a fit when he hears the water on and I havnt gotten him yet. I use a shallow bowl and put it on our showers seat/shelf and he has a hay day playing in the water. At this point idk if he is actually taking baths or just like a kid playing in a puddle.

 

[Owlet]

you could put a towel in the newspaper tray under his bowl and just change that daily-ish

 

[noodles123]

No "bedding" is the best...
plain, white paper towels, or black and white newspaper...or even white banner paper are all you should need. The rest is very hazardous.

 

[EllenD]

I actually got a PM regarding what I said about using "Puppy Pads" to line your birds cage-bottom; lol, apparently this member love their puppy-pads...I figured that I would repeat here what I said to them, and that is to go ahead a do a Google search for "my bird ate a puppy pad", and read the many posts that pop-up, written by former bird owners who used them to line their bird's cage bottom, usually under a grate, and their birds got a hold of them, pulled a bit of them through the grate (just like they will with ANY type of bedding, they'll get a piece of it quickly, I assure you), and then their birds were found dead, usually from actually being poisoned by whatever the hell it is they put inside those puppy-pads to absorb the urine, or simply from choking to death on the piece they got a hold of...Bottom-line is that puppy pee pads contain a toxic, poisonous substance inside of them that absorbs the puppy urine. I don't know what it is, but it's killed many, many birds.

And Noodles said it best, "No "bedding" of any kind is best, because no type of bedding is safe". Period. They will either choke on it, aspirate it into their lungs, breath-in fumes from it, or develop an infection from it growing bacteria and/or fungi.

Just use newspaper, butcher-paper, etc. I've been using newspapers to line my bird's cages for 32 years, and my mom and grandmother did the same for decades and decades prior to me even being alive, and my mom still uses newspapers to line my brother's cage, a huge, male, Congo African Grey who is just turning 33 this week, and who's droppings are the size of some of my Budgies!

I can't imagine that using any type of "bedding" or wood chips, etc. would be any better or easier than newspaper at all anyway, especially since we're talking about the stuff getting soaked with water from his "baths", lol. Most beddings/chips just become a soggy, awful mess when they get wet, yuck. Mix that with some bird poop and you'll be scraping AND shoveling/scooping it out...ick.

 

[EllenD]

Oh, I forgot something important:

FYI REGARDING THE MENTIONED "CORN-COB" BEDDING, AS WELL AS "CRUSHED WALNUT SHELL" BEDDING...

***Please do not EVER use either the Corn-Cob bedding or the Crushed Walnut Shell bedding, not for ANY SPECIES OF PET!!!! Both are extremely lethal if ingested, even a piece or two, and both have killed thousands of reptiles,
rodents, birds, and any other living creatures that are kept on it/in it/around it (specifically Bearded Dragons, a lot of their owners use the Crushed Walnut Shell crap and it causes bowel-obstructions almost 100% of the time)...They are both horrible and should not be sold in the first place, let alone have photos of lizards, hamsters, and birds on their packaging....

 

[LordTriggs]

Well said Ellen. I used wood chips under guidance from the breeder I got a certain mister from, and I can say it didn't seem to cause issues for him. But, EVERy. SINGLE. WEEK. when it came time for the weekly clean, I would have to spend 20 minutes cleaning wood chips off the floor. You know what's far easier and cheaper than that? Getting a newspaper on the way home from work, slapping it in the bottom of the cage and just once a day ripping out a page or 2 and throwing that in the bin

 

[Sandy19]

I use that natural eco-friendly paper bedding for the rabbits because they like the comfort of it, but no way would I use it under the bird cage grates unless I wanted to drive myself insane cleaning it up.

 

[ChristaNL]

Whoops, good point- no more puppypadsadvise from me, ever!!
- I blindly asumed that whatver you put in the tray underneath the grate cannot ever be reached by the bird!
(probably because if I ever decided to use the grates in my cages grate and tray would be at least a hand's width apart, so the bird would not be able to reach anything)


Japie loves to make a soggy mess of his cage and part of the living room when he takes a bath, so it's just a huge cagecleaning-session afterwards ( so he gets to take showers, like all the other birds, unless it happens to be cleaningday anyway).

 

[EllenD]

I use that natural eco-friendly paper bedding for the rabbits because they like the comfort of it, but no way would I use it under the bird cage grates unless I wanted to drive myself insane cleaning it up.

For Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Rats, Mice, Ferrets, etc., any type of rodent/small animal that really does REQUIRE a "bedding" that will absorb the urine/feces, the paper beddings, such as CareFresh, are definitely the way you want to go! A lot of people (including myself when I was a little kid and had hamsters and mice as pets) don't realize that while "beddings" made of different types of wood work very well as far as absorbing the urine and also for covering-up odors, most wood-based "beddings" or "chips" are at the least irritating to the animals, and at the worst they can make them extremely ill,
or even worse.

Whether we're talking about your regular old Pine wood-chip bedding, or the more-fragrant Cedar bedding, or "Aspen" bedding, any and all of these can cause a slew of health issues to the animals living in them. We have to realize that pets like Rabbits, Ferrets, Guinea Pigs, Rats, Mice, Hamsters, etc. are literally living directly IN the bedding their are in, with it constantly touching their skin, constantly getting into their eyes, their ears, and up their noses, and they are breathing in the fumes from these beddings all day long,
every day, without hardly a break. Eye irritations/infections, nose/nostril/throat/mouth irritations and infection, severe skin irritations, burns, and infections, and most-seriously they are constantly breathing-in those fumes 24/7, which can cause severe irritation of their Respiratory System, including their lungs, and cause everything from URI's and Lung infections to potentially-fatal Fungal Infections...Plus these fragrant wood beddings are just extremely irritating and cause burns to their skin, their eyes, and their airways.

CareFresh and other similar "paper" beddings are fantastic, they work just as well if not better than the wood beddings for absorbing urine and feces, and they are completely safe, cause no irritations or burns, and are soft and easy on their skin. Yes, they are more expensive than the cheap Cedar or Pine beddings, but that's what you take-on when you bring home a pet. And CareFresh/paper bedding comes in a much cheaper Generice/Store-Brand that is close to the same price as the Pine and Cedar/Aspen beddings. Never buy your CareFresh/Paper Beddings at any pet stores, as you'll be spending an arm and a leg. Instead you should buy them at farm supply stores and at stores like Walmart, all of which sell both CareFresh and their own Generic Store-Brands very cheaply...Incidentally, I have used the CareFresh/Paper Beddings inside of my Brooders for the baby parrots I bred, and it is perfectly safe to put a 2 week-old baby bird in. I got a huge, compacted/compressed cube of Generic CareFresh at Tractor Supply for under $5 (it was $6 less than the same size at Walmart actually)...

 

[EllenD]

Whoops, good point- no more puppypadsadvise from me, ever!!
- I blindly asumed that whatver you put in the tray underneath the grate cannot ever be reached by the bird!
(probably because if I ever decided to use the grates in my cages grate and tray would be at least a hand's width apart, so the bird would not be able to reach anything)


Japie loves to make a soggy mess of his cage and part of the living room when he takes a bath, so it's just a huge cagecleaning-session afterwards ( so he gets to take showers, like all the other birds, unless it happens to be cleaningday anyway).

Christa, I had never given a thought to the puppy pee-pads either, prior to reading a post on this forum I believe (it pops-up on the Google search) where a woman had found her Conure dead in the bottom of his cage, suddenly, he was perfectly healthy, did a Necropsy, and the Vet found small pieces of the puppy pee-pads in the bird's crop and throughout it's GI Tract. And it hadn't caused an obstruction or any type of blockage at the point that the bird died (it probably would have though, at least in his bowels, as it doesn't break-down), the bird actually died from being poisoned by whatever chemical(s) they put inside of those things. I never even realized that they contained any chemicals inside of them until I read that post. And since then this topic has come up time and time again, after being used in the bottom of bird cages, rodent cages/tray underneath the actual cage, and even in the bottom of Bearded Dragon/Iguana enclosures. It usually chokes them before it has a chance to poison them, as those pads are made almost entirely of different types of plastic, except for that absorbent material right in the middle section that the puppies pee on; in that absorbent material is some type of chemical(s) that are toxic...

***There is not going to be much that is better than good old newspapers or a huge roll of Butcher's Paper, both work great and are cheap or free; I get ALL of my newspapers for 4 extremely large individual cages, one huge flight cage, AND for the entire bottom of my indoor aviary (11 feet long by 4+ feet wide) FOR FREE! ALL OF IT IS FREE! I have never paid a cent for any of it...

I don't know if this is just a "central Pennsylvania" thing, as it is a very bizarre and unique area that is unlike any other (not in a good way ), but we have a TON of local newspapers and "ad newspapers" that are completely free, and that you can pick-up at any convenience store in the area....We have the Bellefonte Gazette, which is a full-size, weekly newspaper for Centre County, PA, that is totally free, and is pretty large. Then we have multiple Vehicle Sales Newspapers that are weekly. and then multiple "Bargain Sheets" and "Ad Bargains" that are weekly and free, and are HUGE. They contain thousands of classified ads placed by people (not free to place an ad in), as well as all of the car dealership ads, and all other local business ads. So I go once a week and make my rounds to the Sheetz that is 1/4 mile from my house, and then to another Sheetz that is about 1/2 mile from my house. I just walk in and grab a handful of each free newspaper, then go to the other Sheetz and do the same thing. I do this once a week, but honestly I get enough each week to last for months. So I have huge bins full of newspaper in my garage that I use for the bird cages, my Bearded Dragon's Vivarium, in my wood-stove and in my fire-pit in my backyard, etc. I have newspaper for years. And it's all free.

I change the newspapers in my bird cages and under all of their stands and their huge play-gym twice a week, and actually clean them all once a week. Works great...I would think that using any kind of "bedding" in the bottom of their cages would not only be WAY MORE MESSY, but also WAY MORE DIFFICULT TO CHANGE!

 

[ChristaNL]

Same here - I asked (and got permission) to take the weekly (whatever they are called) papers form the local supermarket, the new week with action-items starts on sunday, so I can grab whatever I need on saturday afternoon before they are thrown away.


But to get back to OP: scraping soggy and sticky paper from a tray is no fun - so any waterrepellent layer underneath will help
(a bit anyway)

 

[noodles123]

Not a good idea-sorry (because it's toxic)-- what's with the fondness for hamster bedding...? Please-- elaborate on its reliability..I'm curious.
You'd think you were talking about a truck or something.

Bottom line: arsenic is reliable too, but I don't fill my cage with it...