This is more to do with my Cockatiels, but I think you guys can help me

My tiels are SO messy Seriously!! They have a steady supply of pellets and when they bite into the pellet it goes flying in all sorts of directions, all of which accumulates on my floor. Now, I keep a pretty clean ship, but I have to sweep their area at least 4 times more then Max's or the Conures. So it got me to thinking...

Right now, their food dishes are set in the middle of the cage. Is there any reason why I can't move the dishes lower? I mean, they have NO toys on the bottom portion of their cages (cept foot toys) because...well, I'm not really sure, actually But looking at the cages, I could put some perches lower and add some toys closer to the bottom and move the food dishes lower. Basically, utilize the entire cage, instead of just the top half (tiels are ground feeders anyways, all my tiels spend a good deal of time on the bottom of their cages).

Now, my reasoning for moving the food dishes lower is because then I could add a homemade skirt-type deal. The cages came with skirting, but they are useless. It has never made one difference for my birds. But if I were to wrap a piece of cloth around the lower part of the cage and put the food dishes just slightly lower than that...would that work? Would it be okay?

Try Polly's® Mess Less Cup for Birds at Petsmart. It has the cup on the end of a perch so the cup is actually in the center of the cage and not on the sides. Works great for my keets, they are soooo messy, love to fling food. Also for my quaker I have his cups at all levels and if he wants whats in it bad enough he will go after it.

Thanks for the idea, but I'd like to avoid buying any new feed cups. I have 8 Cockatiels so I would have to purchase at least 8 dishes (more actually, as I like to have back-ups).

Carrie, to answer your question...It will probably help but won't eliminate....And expect the birds to chew holes in it if its wrapped around the outside.

When I had my parakeets I made a catcher that hung from the bottom and stuck out a ways from the sides and that worked well but their cage was hung from the ceiling.

Believe me, I've thought about inventing a vacuum collection attachment that attaches to the cage for that very reason...but I'm afraid I'd be sucking up birds too...and I haven't thought of how to make it noiseless....LOL...so you could have it going 24/7

I think its worth a try! Be careful not to put the dishes directly under any perches and you should be fine

they will probably chew through the fabric - all of my fids do. you can move the dishes lower and put plexiglass around the bottom 4-6 inches of the cage.

I'm not sure if fabric chewing would be a problem or not. The tiels have never chewed on the cage covers and most days the cage covers sit on the top, back half of their cages.

If the fabric chewing is the only downfall, then I think I might give it a go.

Ah fabrick chewing...Buzz's most favorite thing to do..I cant tell you how many holes are in the curtain behide his cage. My only thought about lowering the dishes is not to let any poo poo get mixed in with the food...Good luck with it!

All our birds except Tiko have their food right near the bottom of the cage. I find it really does help keep the mess down. In the cage room I only sweep once a week. Oh, it could use sweeping more often, but I have to move all the cages to get it done, so I wait for cage cleaning day. On our bird trees the dishes are right at the top, and it's just like you describe, sweeping all day long, as stuff goes everywhere. Skirting will help. All our cages have seed catching skirting that came with the cages.

As mentioned just watch out for perches overhead.

Carrie~Anne I was having the same problem with my tiels so I moved all food dishes to the bottom corners of the cage, kept water up higher, and it has gotten a lot better. I just make sure they aren't going to be perching overhead and seems to work a bit.

Thanks for the comments

This weekend I think I'll go ahead and redo the tiel cages. I'll just see what happens, I can always change it back

Hello..I have 19 Budgies in a huge cage and boy are they messy...we put plexiglass aroung the bottom, kept the water up and put the food bowls on the bottom grate and it has cut the mess down a good bit..maybe it work for you as well..good luck

Well it has worked like a charm. I've put a sheet across the lower half of the cage and arranged it so that I can use the same sheet to cover the cages at night

Problem is, looks like I am going to be getting new cages for the tiels which are stackable and that is gonna nix this solution!! Ah well...it is working for the time being.