How to clean untamed birds’ cage

[GabiCV7777]

Hello all,

We recently brought home 2 green cheek conures. I am still trying to tame them as they are not used to human hands. How can I clean their cage if in order to remove them out of their cage I would be scaring them? I imagine it will also scare them to clean the cage while they are in it. I am still in the process of stick training. Please give advice as their cage needs to be cleaned. Thanks!

 

[Aviphile]

Hello all,

We recently brought home 2 green cheek conures. I am still trying to tame them as they are not used to human hands. How can I clean their cage if in order to remove them out of their cage I would be scaring them? I imagine it will also scare them to clean the cage while they are in it. I am still in the process of stick training. Please give advice as their cage needs to be cleaned. Thanks!

Hello Gabi, Welcome to the Avenue

Are your little green cheek conure's wings clipped? Do you know how to towel a bird? Do you think you would be comfortable catching and toweling your new little ones? So you can move them to another location, room, smaller cage, or something so that you can clean the cage.

 

[GabiCV7777]

Hello Gabi, Welcome to the Avenue

Are your little green cheek conure's wings clipped? Do you know how to towel a bird? Do you think you would be comfortable catching and toweling your new little ones? So you can move them to another location, room, smaller cage, or something so that you can clean the cage.

Hi! Thanks for replying back so quickly. Their wings are clipped, but we are trying very hard to get them to trust us. I’m afraid grabbing them with a towel and putting them in their carrier will break any trust we have gotten at this point.

 

[Mizzely]

I have had a couple untamed birds. I open the cage door, let them wander out, clean the cage while they are exploring, and then I make sure their next meal favorite food is inside the cage so they happily return to it

Make sure you have a blank schedule the first few times; it can sometimes take several hours for them to get back home!

 

[Aviphile]

Hi! Thanks for replying back so quickly. Their wings are clipped, but we are trying very hard to get them to trust us. I’m afraid grabbing them with a towel and putting them in their carrier will break any trust we have gotten at this point.

I can’t say that I disagree, I just look at it from a different perspective. I teach and in my experience most people learn from doing, same as with animals. When I get a new bird, say Oliver the one I got Mar 2023, he wasn’t use to being handled except when something was going to be done to him. Naturally he didn’t know me I just drove down and picked him up and headed back home. I needed him out of the travel cage so I could put him in something bigger. Wait??? I think not. I offered my hand he didn’t want to come to me so I grabbed the baby blanket, picked him up and held him close talking softly to him and put him in the bigger cage. Each time I had to move him to a different cage I did the same thing and by day 3 he decided that he would rather step up without the baby blanket. Every once in a while, I have to grab the blanket and then he decides he would rather step up without the blanket. I see it as a trust building exercise and trust works both ways. After he knew he could trust me he was fine and I can do anything to him now. The blanket that he didn’t want to use is now one of his favorite toys and he will get on it and rub his vent, right at the kitchen table while we are eating if its there. Its not allowed on the table anymore.

What ever you decide I do wish you the best