Just curious about your cleaning habits.

I try to change paper every day, but I really work at cleaning the cages (Srubbing and stuff) once a week.

I change the paper daily, I have a stack in the bottom and pull out the top one each day. I wipe down the poopies every other day or so. Once a week I pull the grate and pan to scrub. Once a month the whole works go outside for a tear down and major cleaning. Now that there are 5 cages I'll probably have to do 2 or 3 every other week.

I find if it's done daily it does not get as messy. Although Joey is not vessy messy!

I change papers daily and do a spot clean. I'll do a major disinfecting once a week...and with 5 bird cages, it takes me a good 4 hours to do it.

It is just so much easier, and quicker to clean, if it does not get built up. I clean all 9 cages about every other day, scrubbing grates and perches and changing papers.

Every couple of months, out on the deck, with the powerwasher, gets the spots that are overlooked and missed.

We do all our cages including play-gyms and stuff twice a day and that is one scrub,, and one throughly. Mister does this for me because of my asthma and COPD, but I help on the days I am not so bad.

We also spot clean through out the day to keep the cleanings to a minimum. We have our carpets lined with plastic you would use for a runner. We planned to put tile under the cages when we get our new floors done, and carpet where there are no birds. I think it will look awesome done that way.

You mean your supposed to clean cages??? ROFL...

Seriously, I change papers or the dogs do...every other day...and I take grates out and bottoms of where able once a week... Once a month I really go from top to bottom and clean...

The Quaker and the Conures are the messiest of my birds...short of the finches and theirs is a different type of mess...But Wembely and Paddie Wacks are by far the dirtiest on a reg basis...and they have the smallest cages and take the longes to clean...

Did I tell you, I HATE plastic bottomed cages! UGH!

1 have 10 of my own cages to cleam and right now 5 boarder cages to clean...So its usually no less than 3 or 4 hours and up to ALL darn day on the Thorough cleanings...WHEW...makes me tired just thinking about it...

I spot clean (vinegar and water) and change paper daily. Steam and wipe weekly ... the weekly cleaning is thorough but I think because I spot clean daily my weekly clean up doesn't take very long ..

Spot clean and change paper daily ...take outside to scrub and clean once a month....

I spot clean the cages 2 times a day. Once in the morning after the FIDS eat breakfast and at night before they go to bed, after dinner. Once a month do a thorough cleaning of both cages.

Now that I have my steamer, I change papers almost every day, at least every other day. I do a quick once over with the steamer every time I change papers as well.

I definitely take advantage of the "the more spot cleaning you do the less the heavy duty cleaning sucks" approach. I constantly have bird cleaning and towels on hard for spot cleaning the bars and paper tray. Then when the real cleaning day comes I can usally through the cage in the shower, spray it down with bird cleaner, let it soak a bit, scrub it down, and rinse it off in under an hour.

We do the cages once a week DEEP CLEANING and 2 times a week changing the newspaper and scrubbing the toys

Exactly! Me too!

I clean out the paper daily and clean it out in the tub once a week. With only one little guy it's easy to keep up. It's my fish tank I need to keep up on a little more, if they could squawk maybe I would remember more

I have a huge cage. It takes a long time to clean (normally at least 3 hours), you can certainly not put it in any tub, and also, the birds really see it as their home since we moved to the UK (they used to go into the play corner, before). That means the birds play a role in those decisions too, for me.

My aim was to clean it once a week. I realized a bit late that it is a lot more practical to clean a part of it well every day and I still do the entire cage too, from time to time (if they've had strawberry, I usually want to clean it!). All in all, it takes up more time, but per day, it is much easier to do and I really like it. That way, if I have to skip a day, it is not that bad. And the birds like the idea as well. I change the paper about every day or every other day; because the cage is very high, it is a little bit less of a danger, but it's easier to follow their droppings if I change it every day.

I tried steam cleaning on the cage, to see if that would save time. Nope, but it probably does clean it well (and desinfects at the same time).

I tend to try and park the birds in their play corner here while I am cleaning, but I often have to send them back a few times if they feel it takes too long. Depends on the time of the year, too. (I do have another cage besides a travel cage and sometimes I use that.)

Speaking of accommodations... mine are at the vet right now and they are being housed in an all-acrylic box (of course, smaller is better for sick birds and this one must be easy to clean and desinfect, too). In it, they seem to have Floridian conditions: high humidity and temp. Some kind of compartment next to it and under it that supplies heat and humidity. That is terrific! I noticed that the entire room is kept at about 25 degrees C (about 79 Fahrenheit).

I wanted to post this so that anyone ever looking for an avian vet in roughly southeast England, can drop me a note and ask where to go to.

Ange

Oh, and I do "ploop removal" in between. I holler "ploop removal" from time to time to tell them what I am about to do. They don't always want it.

Yea I spot clean every other day (the cage and the bird gym) with my steam cleaner. That thing is great for poop. lol! And I tear it down and stick it in the tub and let hot water run over it for 15 min once a month..well prob every 3wks. However I vacuum like twice a day cause some little green chicken makes messes constantly! lol!

Wow- I don't know if I have a cleaner bird or if I'm just lazy or more tolerant of mess or what... (Though likely the latter- I tend to leave dishes and laundry to right before I need to use it again). I change the papers once a week and daily just pick through all the bowls for misplaced poos and refresh the water and make sure the strawberry guts get flicked to the bottom and give perches and the grate a scrape daily... then every other week I take out the grate and give it a nice thorough wash in the tub.

Oscar actualy 90% of the time goes to the bathroom into his bowl of water (not his drinking water, his bath water even though he only actualy takes baths in his drinking water....)

He only started this habit recently but I love it because of how easy it makes to quickly clean his cage!

All I do is pull the bowl out, dump it into the toilet and flush it, then fill it up again and put it back. Of course he sometimes goes to the bathroom on his ladder and the floor as well but Its just so much easyer now!

I'll be honest. I clean the paper every 2 or 3 days. I clean the waste bar every day and i completely clean it once a month.[not includin clorox wipes]I feel bad for the bird who's owner put cages your supposed to clean them.