Avoiding Cage Tail?

[clarousel]

Hi guys,

Just wondering how do you keep your birds' tails clean and beautiful?

I know cage tail usually happens from cages being too small or dirty, and if the bird is bored and climbing around a lot.

Preeno has a huge cage for her size and it's cleaned once a week (there's not much poop on the bottom grill). Perhaps she climbs a lot when I'm out but doesn't explain a slight soiling of the very bottom of her tail feathers.

Or is this just what happens?

 

[expressmailtome]

The solution would be different depending on if the tail is touching stool, or if it is just rough from hitting objects. Since your main problem seems to be the first situation, I would recommend moving toys and perches. Try to remove perches/toys that are positioned under her favorite perches and toys as the lower ones will very likely build up poop that will rub on her tail. Are any of her perches low enough for her tail to touch the grate? If so, I would suggest that you move them.

 

[clarousel]

The solution would be different depending on if the tail is touching stool, or if it is just rough from hitting objects. Since your main problem seems to be the first situation, I would recommend moving toys and perches. Try to remove perches/toys that are positioned under her favorite perches and toys as the lower ones will very likely build up poop that will rub on her tail. Are any of her perches low enough for her tail to touch the grate? If so, I would suggest that you move them.

At the moment her toys are either next to or above the perches. None of her perches are low enough to touch the grate, although she does end up at the bottom sometimes if she misjudges the distance. Should I be discouraging her from the bottom? She generally like walking around even when out of the cage so I tried to make a bottom foraging area for if she does end up there.

 

[expressmailtome]

You can try to discourage her from going to the bottom of the cage, however it will not be easy. Budgies are ground foraging birds in the wild, so it is built into them.