Customer seeking Mess-Less Bird cage

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We recently received this question through the  WindyCityParrot.com help desk

I purchased a prevue parrot cage from you a few years ago and it has not been a success story.  I wish to purchase an alternative and would like your suggestions.  The Sun Conures throw everything, especially food, out of the cage and the seed catchers around the bottom (4 metal hinges that come out about 6-8 inches on each side) do little to contain it.  Is there a cage with the food cups in the middle, instead of attached to the side of the cage?  I have tried various food and currently feed them a mix of cockatiel and parrot premium seed mixture.  One of the birds enjoys burying himself in the just-filled seed cup and sending it all out onto the floor.  I also find the large metal cage difficult to clean.

Any help you can offer will be appreciated.  I love the birds (I hand-raised one of them from birth) and want them to be happy, but they are making me very unhappy!  In case you were wondering, they are father and son and get along with each other very well, grooming each other etc.  One is estimated to be about 16, the other 12 years old.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Barbara


Hi Barbara -
 

We get this question a lot and I love answering it. I also love getting our customers involved with new cages BUT (and this is the hard part for me) a new cage won't solve your problem.

Lets start at the beginning, big picture. all God's creatures have a purpose. we marvel at their beauty in captivity but if you put a bird in context, the wilds of another continent (Only one indigenous to the US parrot that I know of - the Carolina parakeet)

Say a Blue Front Amazon parrot eating leaves and fruit in a tree in Brazil. As the fruit gets eaten, where do the uneaten parts go? It drops to the ground - spreading fruit tree seeds.

Today we think nothing of someone fishing in a small lake in the middle of nowhere. Ever wonder where the fish came from? Fish eggs - carried from else ware by birds (ducks, seagulls) and deposited wrapped in... bird poop. Get the picture?

PARROTS ARE MESSY PETS. That being said, here's some solutions to keeping the mess birds make, down in our homes.

Let's get this out of the way first. I'm not a big fan of seed skirts, I feel there're just more to clean and actually may pose a safety risk to small children and animals who tend to usually be as tall as a seed guard.

Now let's look at what we can do to reduce the mess our beloved companion birds make

1) Only fill your food dish 1/3 full. The more in a dish means more to sort through. Offer less and your bird(s) will get far less particular with what they feel is disposable thus ejecting less from the dish

2) Lower the dishes. If your bird insists on sorting through their dish, abandon the factory feeders with doors and either place a bolt on bird food feeder cup OR simply place some food in a ceramic parrot cage dish (any ceramic dish that won't tip easily will do) on the bottom bird cage grate. Keep it out from known poop areas. Wasted food will fall down to the tray where it can be removed regularly

3) Use less seed - If your not a fan of bird food pellets, (Although we love pellets because of their caloric economy, there are no pellet trees in the rain forest)  consider a hull free bird seed mix like Hagen Tropimix. A lot less mess

4) Don't forget the fruits and vegetables. Every morning for almost 17 years, Sunshine Catherine's RingNeck Parrot gets a small dish of frozen veggies (with double corn). We buy generic mixed vegetables from our local supermarket. They're kept frozen until we serve him breakfast in the morning.

We'll run cold water over them for about 10 seconds and put them in the floor of whichever cage he's in that day.
This means they start off frozen and will remain fresher throughout the day

As for cleaning the big metal cage - I recommend a hand held steam cleaner every week or 2 and some Poop Off Enzymatic cleaner Daily. Cleaning chores will become minimal

 

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