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Tips, tricks for care and cleaning

Ephy

Walking the driveway
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8/8/19
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226
Hey everyone,

Its been a long time since I last posted about my flock, Kiwi, my house sparrow and Baby my ringneck dove.

Life has been super busy and there never seems to be enough time in the day.

Which is why, I am starting this thread.

I'm always trying to find faster and easier ways to get my daily responsibilities completed and thought I would reach out for any tips and tricks as well as share my own.

Tips that make my life easier when it comes to these birds are,

1) Layer several pieces of newspaper on top of each other so i can just rip off the top layer of poopy paper and go. Saves time when you have multiple cages or when you change dirty paper more than 1x/day. Also, tip your paperboy for an extra weekly paper.

2) plug in and program it to run on a daily schedule for an automatic robot vacuum in the birds room before I get home. All the bird seed gets sucked up and the room is instantly cleaner. Totally worth buying, love my vacuum and the birds ignore it or call it a good bird.

3) Wifi smart plugs are great for controlling lights, tv, radios etc. I have the tv and their dim "ready for bed" lamp that i leave on until they snuggle into their night spots and then from my couch or out of the house can turn it off.

4) freezing or preparing their snacks ahead of time or night before. Just drop in cage and go. Pre washed veggies/salads are great.

5) wifi camera to spy on them during the day. Feel like I forgot to close their cage door or put their food dish in the cage fear no more..i can take a quick look and relax.

6) mix up my own bottle of bird wash spray using the vet recommended safe cleaner, to spot treat messes daily and keep on top of cleaning.

Most are obvious and I wish I could think of more.


If anyone has tips, for the any of the following,

- I really wish i could find the perfect tiny veggies chopping gadget that would cut up their veg and fruit quick and small enough for small birds. I hate chopping food.



Please chime in with your own tips, tricks and struggles. Maybe we can help make our bird care and cleanings quicker and easier.

Thanks!
 

Monaco

Rollerblading along the road
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Maybe a grater attachment for a food processor could be a good tiny chopping hack? Short chunks will get you short shreds. Still a little bit of chopping, but uniform finished product.
 

taxidermynerd

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I use a mini food processor for my budgie's chop, it works great. I just wash the veggies, cut into reasonable chunks (so they can fit in the food processor) and hit it. Great size for my 30gram budgie, who is missing half of his upper beak and thus requires soft foods.

Also, I keep a roll of paper towels under my bird's cage for easy paper changes, and a spray bottle of F10 (mixed 1ml F10 to 500ml water) for easy cleaning.
 

Nobirby

Jogging around the block
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711
All sound like wonderful ideas. Hope we get electricity to the cabin before winter, so I can try some of the ideas.
 

Ephy

Walking the driveway
Joined
8/8/19
Messages
226
Thanks for the replies. That food chopper is a bit expensive for all the mixed amazon reviews, but something like that will probably so the job.
Im gonna keep looking in the meantime, maybe it will go on sale. Fingers crossed! :)

i also used the F10 cleaner. I usually mix at the highest parts per water....is that a bad thing? I just assumed it would get everything the cleanest.
My bird cages are huge and I dont have the option to haul them outside for a good scrub down. So when I change their paper daily (or with my dove twice/day because he walks over his poop and then likes to stand in his food to eat) , i will usually spot treat the messiest areas and spray and wipe the entire cage every month or 2 months.

I might layer paper towels under the papers too, thats a good idea. Thanks!
 

Monaco

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About paper on the cage floor...

I've read and seen pictures of this method... Lots of people here use it, and I think Pam Clark recommended it somewhere too.

Am I doing it wrong? It means that the poo is now inside the cage, and I can't stop Monaco from getting on the floor to shred it and attempt to dig. (@mythic55 is it an ekkie thing?) Is it a good activity? She definitely gets more exercise. It's a little ocd, though, and not a little gross.

Thoughts?
 

Gribouille

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If anyone has tips, for the any of the following,

- I really wish i could find the perfect tiny veggies chopping gadget that would cut up their veg and fruit quick and small enough for small birds. I hate chopping food.
I prepare chop for half a week at a time using a small chopper. Had it to prepare my kids' meals were they were small, just perfect for the job.
I also bought freeze dried chop from Bodacious birds, and getting my birds used to it for them to eat it during my Summer holidays, since I won't be able to prepare enough chop in advance and I don't trust the bird keeper to do it correctly either. The freeze dried vegetables retain their vitamins, color and taste, they are chopped at the right size (you can choose between large beaks and small beaks size) and easy to serve dry, soaked or crushed in powder on top of other food.
 

Gribouille

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About paper on the cage floor...

I've read and seen pictures of this method... Lots of people here use it, and I think Pam Clark recommended it somewhere too.

Am I doing it wrong? It means that the poo is now inside the cage, and I can't stop Monaco from getting on the floor to shred it and attempt to dig. (@mythic55 is it an ekkie thing?) Is it a good activity? She definitely gets more exercise. It's a little ocd, though, and not a little gross.

Thoughts?
How is your cage designed? Does it have a grid so that the poo was landing under it before? Then I'd say: just leave the paper on the bottom/ under the grid...?
My birds don't eat the paper nor the poop so I don't have that problem... As for shredding, yes it is a good activity, but I'd give/make her toys to shred rather than poop covered newspaper...
 

taxidermynerd

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i also used the F10 cleaner. I usually mix at the highest parts per water....is that a bad thing? I just assumed it would get everything the cleanest.
My bird cages are huge and I dont have the option to haul them outside for a good scrub down. So when I change their paper daily (or with my dove twice/day because he walks over his poop and then likes to stand in his food to eat) , i will usually spot treat the messiest areas and spray and wipe the entire cage every month or 2 months.
There are two ways you can mix it- The first is 500ml water to 1ml F10, which is for general cleaning, and the second way is 250ml water to 1ml F10, for tackling nasty illnesses. The nice thing with F10 is that you don't have to rinse it off, you just let it dry there and you don't have to worry if your bird comes into contact with it.

About paper on the cage floor...

I've read and seen pictures of this method... Lots of people here use it, and I think Pam Clark recommended it somewhere too.

Am I doing it wrong? It means that the poo is now inside the cage, and I can't stop Monaco from getting on the floor to shred it and attempt to dig. (@mythic55 is it an ekkie thing?) Is it a good activity? She definitely gets more exercise. It's a little ocd, though, and not a little gross.

Thoughts?
I just use paper towels on Chirp's cage floor. He has a false bottom in his cage, so I just put paper towels on top. I change them daily. He doesn't chew paper and also doesn't really run on the floor much, so it's not really an issue for us.
 

Monaco

Rollerblading along the road
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Kelly Hill
How is your cage designed? Does it have a grid so that the poo was landing under it before? Then I'd say: just leave the paper on the bottom/ under the grid...?
My birds don't eat the paper nor the poop so I don't have that problem... As for shredding, yes it is a good activity, but I'd give/make her toys to shred rather than poop covered newspaper...
I guess I thought all cages have a grate on the bottom. Her day cage has one pretty close to the grate, and she will occasionally pull the paper through if a corner is within reach. The sleep cage has at least 6 inches from the grate to the tray. If it's available, she'll use anything to dig at... I really think it's more a nesting activity than for fun.
 
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