Share Tips = make finch keeping, cleaning birds abode easier

[Anne73]

How about sharing ways that you have found that make keeping your finches cage or aviary neater and easier to clean. The thing that I started using, that has helped much, is using the hopper type seed feeders with catch trays. They save on seed waste, so over time will save me money. They also cut down very much on the amount of seed hulls floating around. I wish I would have started using them years ago. I have also converted most of my birds over to the "Water Buddy" water bottles. They are now discontinued, so I just purchased a Lixit water bottle with the stainless steel valve to try out. I find that it takes longer for the water to come through, so I don't know yet, if it will be harder for my birds to use or not. These water bottles save having to clean and refill a water dish each day. I can then just put a dish in, when I want to let the finches bathe. What ideas or things have worked for you to make finch keeping easier.

[kathmcm]

Hi,

I made clear plastic shields for my rectangular flight cage, using a roll of 4 mil PET (polyester) film I had on hand from a non-finch related project. PET is an optically clear plastic that in this thickness flexes and can be cut with scissors, but does not wrinkle or sag. I cut two long panels 40"x30" and 40"x20" to cover the entire back of the cage and one side. For the front and the other side, I cut short panels to cover only the bottom half of the cage. I punched holes in the upper corners of each panel and tied them to corners of the cage, and secured the side and bottom edges with transparent tape. The top half of the cage is left open (unshielded) at the front, one side, and the top. Most of the time in ambient light the plastic film is invisible, but with glancing light or at night you get some reflection (as with window glass). I made a hole in one panel so that I could attach a LIXIT water bottle to the outside of the cage and insert the nozzle. This bottle with their small size nozzle works very well with my two green singers. They often shake their heads after drinking and spray the water around so at some point I will probably want to take that panel off and clean it, but that won't be too hard.

Unfortunately this kind of plastic film can be expensive in widths needed for panels on cages of this size or larger. But it really keeps down the mess.

[finchandlovebird]

Great topic I think the biggest thing I have learned here is to use newspapers on top of the grates on the cage bottoms.
But a question I have is how do you keep flight or double flight cages clean??? They're certainly too large to take outside to hose down; I can't imagine that (plus we just had our first snowstorm yesterday). And to me it would be too stressful for the birds to catch them all & put them in a small holding cage somewhere. Does one wipe down the cage bars; and if so, with what?

[Ursula]

In my aviary I put trays under the hanging bird feeders to catch the seed that gets scattered around. That leaves less for the quail, but I am saving a ton of bird seed that way that was always getting wasted.

My parrotlets are in a double-flight cage in the aviary, and that cage is way too big to take out for cleaning. (I would have to take it apart, actually.) I clean the cage (and all other surface areas in the aviary, such as the metal table and 2 chairs that are in there) with water + white vinegar. I also use that for soaking the fake plants in the bathtub, before I rinse them off outside with the hose.

[PrettyBird]

good ideas there.
well my small indoor aviary for my finches has wood shavings on the bottom. I built the cage myself so I added a lip around the bottom to catch anything if they are flying around.
when it time to clean the cage out I use a cat litter scoop to scoop all the shavings out. when thats done I wipe down everything with really warm water, and a splash of vinegar. Theres never any poop on the mesh of the cage (i still wipe it down anyways), just mainly on some wood perches and on the shavings. So cleanup is super easy and fast.
Also with the shavings I dont have to change it as often, and if there is some droppings I can scoop them out with the cat scooper.

For their dishes I just have ceramic shallow dishes or stainless steel ones that I put on the bottom of the cage. Ive never had a problem with any mess or seed hulls or anything going all over the place.
Its worked for me really well

My parrotlets have newspaper on the bottom, but I find with them it makes so much mess, and you have to constantly change it every day or every other day because they eat so much food for their tiny bodies.
I dont have the grate on the bottom because I HATE cleaning that, it always makes such a mess lol.
I switch between newspaper and wood shavings, depending on how much work I want to do with the clean up! ;)

[Anne73]

In my small aviarys = more flight sized, I have two plexiglass doors that open on the front. To clean them out, I slide a sheet of cardboard to divide it in half and then clean one side while the birds are in the other. That works good for our aviary design. We also have a drawer at the bottom of the aviary, so I can just slide that out to change papers, bottom food dishes etc. too.