Cleanliness!
As we all know, birds are good at making messes, but NOT at cleaning them up. Of course, we all have our different techniques about keeping cages, floors, perches, water and seed clean. We line the inside of the bird’s cage with several layers of newspaper and day by day we take off the layers. When all the layers are gone, we change the tray and put down more paper. If your bird throws its messes onto the floor, buy a cage with seedskirts. They keep the mess inside the cage. You can do about the same thing by tying Plexi-glass to the cage. Mom drills holes in the plexi-glass and hangs it with rawhide strips. She says she is giving them more toys that way. She also uses those big black paper clip clamps to keep the plexi glass attached to the cage.
You should spray the cage down and disinfect it at least twice a month. Recommended disinfectants are...Poop-off, (is safe to spray on the bottom of the cage while the bird is in it) Kennelsol, bleach water, Avimate or VirkonS. I don't include Chlorhexi-derm (Nolvason) because it does not kill Polyoma. After you have washed off the cleaner, let the cage sit in the sun for a couple of hours, and that will kill off any remaining bacteria. Many viruses are dehydrated by sitting in the sun. Read what we use by clicking here.
I am especially careful when
buying used cages or bringing home toys or cages from bird marts.
Click here to see why.
How clean should you keep their feed and water? Well... you should keep
their water clean enough that YOU would be happy to drink it. Adding apple
cider vinegar to their water helps keep am acidic crop and decreases the
potential growth of bacteria. You may ask, “How on earth do you keep seed
clean?” I would say,” Observe your bird’s habits. If it likes to poop in its
feed dish... get a covered feed dish.”
You may wonder if your bird needs to be cleaned?
Usually birds come from humid areas and they love to take baths. They even
like taking showers with you. Baths help stimulate preening and make 1 shiny
bird. Mom surprised me with a PVC suction cup shower perch for my birthday
and my bird loves it! They suction onto the side of the shower and that way,
your little humidity lover can get all the humidity it wants!
Plucking birds
are really benefited by frequent baths. Read about Belleek and see him take
an immersion bath by clicking here. The humidity helps reduce the
itchiness when the new pin feathers are coming in. Besides, a wet bird will
usually not pluck.
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