Cage Floor Grates - Yea or Nay?

[Finnie]

I think birds eat some of their poop if they want to, and there is nothing you can do about it. But I think they are smart enough not to eat very much of it. And smart enough to pick and choose the clean seeds out from between the poops.

Even with a grate, there will still always be some poop available to the birds.

As for birds drinking water that has poop in it, well, unless they have another source of water, they don't have much choice. Best to keep the water as clean as possible.

I like all the input this thread is generating. It's very interesting to see how other people do things.

[debbie276]

Birds and many other animals eat poop to re-establish gut flora. As disgusting as it may sound to some it's not going to kill them.

[rcirmele]

HQ double flight cage. I have the grates in there. A very thick layer of crinkle paper in the tray. Chip is handicapped and needs fairly firm surfaces to be able to walk. He was tossed by daddy and ended up with a bum leg and wing (probably from hitting the same grate. I only clean, fresh food, and fresh I water on Sundays. The crinkle paper is very absorbent and has a lot of surface area. It also lets seed and hulls fall down to the bottom of the tray where they can't be kicked up and out of the cage. They have 8 waterers, 4 large seed hoppers and get fresh millet, bread, and veggies every day.

One of the posts commented "they poop a lot". Yes they do. I use poop off for my weekly cleanings.

[Sally]

Birds and many other animals eat poop to re-establish gut flora. As disgusting as it may sound to some it's not going to kill them.

Two neighborhood dogs love to go in my pasture and eat horse poop. My dog thinks kitty poop is candy. None of these dogs are going hungry, so that's not why they eat it. I agree with Debbie, this seems to be a natural behavior for many species.

[mayble]

Looks like plenty of opinions on both sides!

So here's a follow-up:
How often do you clean your grates?
If you don't have grates, how often do you change the litter?
Do you have to change litter/paper more often if you don't use a grate, since the birds have better access to more funky stuff?

I wonder which is more labor intensive, in the long run. It seems to me that the grates are just one more thing to clean, catching a lot of poop that would otherwise fall in the tray, and you still have to clean the tray.

[rcirmele]

I have grates. I spend approximately 1.5 hours on Sunday cleaning the cage and grates. I only have one large double flight cage with 5 Gouldians. I put the grates in the tub, spray them with poop off, and scrub.

[mayble]

An hour and a half on one cage - wow!

[Tammy]

I have a grate in my cage and it's attached to the cage so, I'm stuck with it and I agree with sally. I once had a baby society fall through the grate and I didn't see it until the next day, it was dead, I felt horrible, I think society finches are super poopers but I love them anyway. I don't know if I could do the newspaper on top, my birds might freak out. - tammy

[dcompt]

I have the A&E cages and use the grates. I find that the finish on them is not hard to clean at all. I use a scrubber sponge - sponge one side, rougher texture on the other. I use the rough side first, dry, over the grate. That seems to get almost all of it off. Then a wet wipe down with vinegar water, or very occasionally if needed, poop off. This is the end of the cage where they perch most of the day. The other sections of the cage don't get as dirty and clean very quickly.

I have three linked cages. I use aspen chips under the grates in the two end sections (feeding/roosting areas). I change that out every couple of weeks, or sooner if needed in the favorite perching end. The middle tray is under the bath, and I leave it empty, because it catches a lot of splashed water. I mop that out as needed.

I wouldn't want them down in the aspen chips. They might think it was fun, but it be all over my carpet in no time.

Mine have two sources of fresh, clean, easily accessible water, and I still see them drinking the less than pristine bath water. It looks unpleasant to me if they get to it before I can change it out, but it doesn't seem to bother them at all and none of them have ever been sick during a year of doing it. We have much more sensitive ick detectors than birds.

[ac12]

The commercial cages with grates are used with grates, my home made cages do not have grates.
The one thing that grates prevent is the birds from ripping up the newspaper for nesting material. They can't reach the newspaper, so it does not get ripped up.

Grates also make it easier to clean the poop tray. I don't have to worry about a bird sneaking out thru the opening when I remove the poop tray. On my cages w/o a grate, I have to make sure to stuff the opening with newspaper, so they can't sneak out.

As for tosslings. Around the expected hatch date, I look both on and UNDER the grates looking for a tossling. And I've found several. You just have to look for them. I've had a couple tosslings die in ungrated cages, because I wasn't home to find the tossling in time.

The construction of some cages depend on the floor grate for structure. If you remove the floor grate, you loose some of the structure of the cage.

[Sally]

I think it also depends on the species of birds you keep. I have a lot of waxbills, and some of them are on the bottom of the cage a lot. In fact, my Strawberries that are in group cages like to gather together on the floor, like a football huddle. Others spend a lot of time foraging on the bottom.

For those who use aspen chips, I could definitely see using the grate. I tried using aspen chips one time without the grates, and I had aspen chips all over the room!

[Zebrafincher]

I clean my birds' cages daily - and its poop, poop, poop! They also flick seed everywhere - onto the floor, in their water (also filled with poop). I clean the floor of the grates in the two cages and wipe them down with warm wipes. Doesn't stop the birds pooping on them again. In some places, it piles up ! (Yech!). Gotta love owning birds!!!

[debbie276]

I think it also depends on the species of birds you keep. I have a lot of waxbills, and some of them are on the bottom of the cage a lot. In fact, my Strawberries that are in group cages like to gather together on the floor, like a football huddle. Others spend a lot of time foraging on the bottom.

My gouldians and owls do that too And at bath time as many as can fit jump in at the same time

[mayble]

Plenty of food for thought here. I really appreciate all the responses!
My trays will be in sections, due to the way the whole thing is constructed (it's a china cabinet conversion), so it should be easy for me to experiment with different types of litter as well as maybe having grates in one section and not in others.

[finchandlovebird]

debbie276 LOL .... I had 3 bathing together in a small 4" dish yesterday; cutest thing to watch