Cage cleaning seems to be quite a project.
How do you do it, how often and what products do you use?

Its' easy ... but it's not !!

Take dirty paper out
Wash cage down .. in summer I take mine outside for a GOOD cleaning and just use lots of soap and water and spray them off with the hose (Can use safe cleaning products (vinegar, baking soda, [and I think] something like Simple Green)
Can scrub them down in the bathtub if it fits
or just wash it down with a rag and bucket as necessary
Let dry and put them back together (no i don't take them apart, just take the grates out, dishes out, toys out)
Wash food/water bowls in soap and water
Put clean newspaper in
Toys back in (cleaned if necessary)
Dishes filled and put back in
and then be prepared to have the fids go in and POOP to make it THEIRS again

Depending on how many cages you have, can take from 15 minutes, to a couple hours (or more)

I make it much less of a production or else i'd never do it I change the newspaper in the bottom of all the cages daily and once a week do a big cleaning.

Just mix up some warm water and white vinegar and get a sponge sopping wet in it. wipe over the whole cage with loads of the water/ vinegar mixture to let it soak. By the time i'm finished sopping the last part of the cage i go back to where i started and any "goo" is soft enough to wipe right off! Just wipe it all down and it's good to go

forgot to mention- before i start i put a few inches of warm water and vinegar in the sink and toss all the dishes and hard toys in to soak while i do the cage. By the time im finished they're sparkly clean

Is it safe to put their perches and toys, etc, in the dishwasher?
Bathtub is great idea. I've been doing the best I can at the kitchen sink.
Thanks!

Yep ...In the nice weather mine go out once a month for a good scrub down ....daily wipe over change paper , wash down with vinegar and water weekly and remove toys to wash ..

Mine don`t spend a lot of time in their cages so they don`t get very dirty , they have doors open 8.30am bed time 8.30pm and come and go to play in their cage during the day as they please they have playstands and play trees to hang about on as well as ME...

Piccy of the cages drying off in the sun and the boys in the small cage watching ....

I believe many here put their fids toys ect in the dishwasher ...

any toys or perches that do not have metal on them go in the dishwasher here. i save the big stuff like that for the dishwasher cleaning day, and put those in with a bowl of vinegar and run a normal cycle. when it's sunny they go in the sun to dry. in the winter, they go on a towel tent thing in front of the heat vent.

i have lost a lot of stuff to the dishwasher, so it's only the non-metal ones now. the smaller pieces (like checkers, beads, etc) go in the dishwasher too, but first into a baby bottle nipple cage. hard surface cage dishes go thru with the normal dishes.

i used to run all the perches and boings thru, but they got rusty so now those are done by hand. i have 2 boings for louie so that he always has a dry one. i mentioned to the guy at the bird fair where i buy a LOT of perches that his hardware gets rusty in the dishwasher and he looked at me like i had a 3rd eye.

for louie's deep cage cleaning, i use the steamer in the winter and outside with the hose in the spring/summer/warm fall days. goofy's cage gets steam treatment always because it's too big to fit thru the doors. for cleaning material, i use vinegar and water and a scrubbie pad. for general household cleaning, i use murphy's oil soap. all veggie materials, but smells oh so good. i looked for simple green but have had a hard time finding it in the stores around here.

kris

That's pretty much what I do too. The only thing different I do is blast the bigger cages down with the steam cleaner when I'm done. The smaller cages (which go into the bath tub), I soak down with hot, hot water.

With 8 cages, it can take a good 2 to 3 hours to do them.

I have to change Clyde's paper every couple of days and about once a week I take a wet paper towel and scrape off the stuff that didn't make it to the paper. I have to clean his mirror about once a week, too, because he likes to sit on it and always leaves a mess behind. His water bowl gets a good rinsing every day when I refill it, and his bathtub, which he continues to ignore, has to be cleaned every three or four days. He ignores it except for pooing in it. His other toys never need cleaned because he ignores them, too. He likes his ladder and sometimes he sits on his swing but so far he hasn't pooed on them. The beads and bells and stuff just sit there. I gave him a paper towel to tear up and he tore up one end a little and now he ignores it, too. What he really wants to do is pull hair -- head hair, arm hair, and in my husband's case, mustache hair. Maybe I ought to get him a doll wig or something and let him go to town on it.

We do a very similar thing as Carrie and Christy. Once-Twice a day we change the papers in the cage (which we put on top of the grate and that makes for less cleaning!) and every night I wipe down the top of the cage since she wipes her dirty beak on the bars! Then once a week I do a big cleaning where I wipe it down with a vinegar/water solution, let it sit and rinse off... I usually do it outside and rinse it with the hose, it makes it easier. I think if you do the inbetween cleanings each day it makes it a lot easier in the long run. I wash the perches and toys with a mild vinegar solution and then put everything back in the cage, but in a different way so that she has new things to explore. I try to do it fairly early in the morning so that everything that was washed can air dry throughout the day while she is out playing. We have bunch of dishes so they just go in the dishwasher each night and she gets new ones for the next day.

I'd like to get a steam cleaner though, I've heard very good things about them.

So many good suggestions! I just change paper once every night and about 3 times a week wipe off any poop from the bars or toys with hot water. And then on the weekends I drag the cages outside for a good soap and water scrub down, hose off, and dry in the sun. Most of my neighbors look at my funny except the ones who have a blue crown conure In the winter I fill a bucket with hot soapy water and scrub the best I can in the house..it makes a mess but the cages arent on carpet

One tip for cleaning those darn rope perches...I clean them in the sink with hot soapy water and then to let the dry I stick them in the dryer with the show rack in place. Just be sure not to put it on the hottest setting and to take them out before the glue on the ends starts to melt!

Very similar here..we change the papers every day and wipe down any messes on top of the cage from food etc during the day and do a very through cleaning once a week .. we rearrange everything and inspect the toys for wear and tear during this time too and rotate them to keep things interesting We need to get a second set of bowels for the cage though.. its a pain with one set...

It usually takes about an hour to do a good job of it..

I change the paper a few times a week but once a week I vacuum the crusty poop off of everything ... grates, bars, toys, perches and then use hot hot water and clean rag with a bucket. In the summer I take them outside every other week or so.

The vacuum first method is great for me because it doesn't leave much left when you wipe !
I have two decent sized cages and it takes me about 1-1/2 hours (but that includes vacuuming and wiping the floor all around)

I'm kind of a neat freak ... once I get going, I have to make sure every tiny little speck is gone!

I do a very similar cleaning as everyone else, I change paper daily and wipe the bottom grate with warm water and paper towel. But how does everyone clean their perches? Mollie has rope, wooden and the cement kind to sharpen her nails and beak, also a sisal boing any suggestions?

With the wooden perches, sometimes it's easier to take sand paper to them (as long as there's no squishy warm poops on them! )
The rope perches can be thrown in the washing machine or dishwasher.
The cement perches can just be scrubbed. I love those green scotch brite pads - they work very well.

I don't know about the boings with the wire in them ... I haven't tried yet. Usually I just vacuum them off really well. I think someone else said they put them in the dishwasher.

that might have been me. i did that ONCE and the hook part that held the clip for attaching it and the bell apparatus rusted. same with some of the wooden perches, the screw part rusted. in this house, any perches/things that contain accessable metal no longer go in the dishwasher, only the stuff that is completely free of metal that is accessable to the birds. like toys and rope perches that have plastic attachments. while i haven't seen louie or goofy chew or beak the metal attachments, it's not worth the risk.

the other stuff i scrub in the sink, by hand, and air or sun dry. i use a scrubbie on the smooth perches (like wood) but the cement ones i use a denture brush (toothbrush for cleaning dentures) because the bristles are more stiff, and i found that the scrubbies tend to disintegrate on the less smooth surfaces.

kris

I just soak the rope perches and boings in hot soapy water and scrub with a tooth brush rinse well with vinager and water dry well before returning to cage..

I just bought a McCulloch MC-1275 steam cleaner, mainly for the bird cage. I used it today for the first time and it really does well. It steams at 1500 degrees which instantly kills germs and bacteria. I wipe down the cage daily as well as change the paper so its never really messy but this thing sure makes it easy. Got it off amazon.com for $104.00 including shipping. I think it is well worth it.

Well Charlie just walked up to me for some play time so gotta go.

PRESSURE WASHER lol Hubby has a massive one that can actually take skin off (yep learned that the first time I used it by myself) So we use it about once a month, change paper 3 times a week and wash ALOT of the stuff in the dishwasher and he uses the pres. wash. on the cement perches etc..

I guess I'm pretty lucky with Coby then. Because he's not very messy. I put all his perches so that when he sits on them his poop goes straight down to the cage bottom. So I have very little to wipe down daily on the perches. I clean and wash the bowls daily, change the newspapers in the bottom, wipe down the bars with Poop-Off wipes (I use the spray if something is really stuck on) and vacuum any millet spray hulls or pellet dust on the floor or in the cage. His cage looks like brand new. If it he started sitting on top of the cage or hung out on the sides then I'd have to scrub the cage outside, I'm sure.

Same here. Plus my birds are out of their cage so much there is no real mess in the cages. I change the paper every other day and everyday wash the sheets on he floor that catch the poop when they are outside the cages.

Once a week the cages get a major scrubdown , outside,with hot water and vinegar. Then rinsed off wih hose. And I love those green scrubbie sponges too. They work great!

I change out the paper daily in the cages, and wipe down the bars with wipes. The tiel cage is the worst.. Raven likes to eat and travel at the same time, so his bars are ALWAYS a mess.

Every Saturday (Sunday if I have errands to run) the cages get the big clean. The happy huts and tents get washed in the washing machine, then hung up to air dry. I do that first so they are dry for bedtime lol.

In the warm weather I haul 2 of the 3 cages outside, and go nuts with the pressure washer.. I LOVE that machine lol. Flirt's cage is too big to move, so it gets done in the house with the bucket and sponge.

In the winter (yuck), I throw down thick towels, use the birdy wipes to give a quick wipe, then water/vinegar mix using a sponge to get the rest of the crud off.

Toys all soak in the sink in a vinegar/water mix, then get washed under running water, then rinsed, and hung up to dry.

Homemade boing gets washed by hand with warm soapy water, then rinsed, then hung to dry.

Then after drying and putting everything back in the cages, I clean the rest of the room because by the time I'm done, the livingroom is a writeoff

I bought extra sets of food and water dishes, so they get washed daily, and a replacement set it put in.

For all the cages, and getting everything back in order, it usually takes 3-4 hours. Thank goodness I do daily upkeep/cleaning or it would probably take the whole day

Funny thing is.. the fiddo's love Saturdays heheheeh. They have a blast playing with everything as soon as I get them back in the cages.

Definitely a labour of love

Deb

Hi Yogi's mom,
Can you describe the "Homemade Boing"?

I'm sure Deb will be around shortly to share more about her homemade boings. I'm pretty sure she used this site to make her boings. We made a pretty similar one, it's just a little more basic. We just wrapped cotton rope around the stainless steel wire (shaped like a boing) and left about 5 inches hanging on each end. Then we divided the rope into the three strands on each end and put different toys onto each strand and knotted the ends. Hope that makes sense, it sounds a little wordy when I try to explain it.

Hi there,

Casey's Mom is right..

I went to this site http://bellaonline.com/articles/art6814.asp

and it was super easy to make. We couldn't find cotton rope anywhere in our area though, so I used sisal to make all of mine.

I love that you can make them as long as you want. One of mine goes from the ceiling to about 2 feet from the floor. The quakers LOVE it

I'd love to make one like Casey's though.. could you post a picture of it Casey's Mom ??

I'd go to the trouble of finding the cotton rope to make that type. I like the idea of the toys hanging from the end.

The ones I made from bellaoneline use plastic chair caps, and the quakers are slowly chewing them up

Deb




Would love a picture to see it (hint hint). I'm not sure how you'd hide the wire at the ends.. I'm so confused..but in my defense it's been a long week

Deb

No problem Deb, I'll get some pictures tomorrow for you. We got our cotton rope from Parrotdise Perch, you can buy it online... but I think you should really take a road trip down here sometime to go toy supply shopping! Casey doesn't seem to like this cotton as much as the original cotton though... she completely shredded the last one so we just reused the metal wire and made a new one, but she doesn't like it as much for some reason! Here is the original boing, it's the 'sisal bungie perch' except hers was made of cotton...

I'll definitely get those pictures tomorrow for you!

Hmm.. road trip to Mississauga..hmmm..

Just checked out mapquest, and it's a 5 hour road trip from here

Who knows though.. I might just decide someday to make a weekend trip birdy supply shopping <chuckle>.

Maybe I could do the get up at 5am and head out. Get there around 10ish, do some serious shopping, and maybe check out the area. Distinct possibilities I think

Can't wait to see the pics of Casey's boing. The one in the parrotdise site looks pretty neat. I sort of see how you do the ends.. um well sort of lol.

I like the wood block on the ends instead of the plastic cap. That is very cool. Oh and the strands with toys.. I love that idea.