FINCHforum

I need to decide on what to use on the floor of my new double finch breeding cages, not sure what is best to use, like if I should use bird sandpaper, or just plain old newspaper (costs nothing) or something else.

I use newspaper in the bottom of all my cages - double and singles.

I don't personally like that bird sandpaper. I use mostly newspaper--it is free. I have tried out various beddings, but I don't like grates in my cages, so that limits what you can use, too. I have used aspen shavings, and find them in the nestboxes, and they are not very soft. I tried the Carefresh bedding, and found it in the nestboxes, too. I contacted the company that makes it, as the directions say to put it under the grate, and they said that if I don't have grates in my cages, they didn't know if they would recommend using it. Some beddings are so lightweight that they wind up all over the floor, all over the room.

I have tried some coconut chip bedding, and I like it, but I haven't yet found an affordable source. It is attractive, heavy enough to stay in place, haven't found it in the nestboxes (except for a few pieces of coco fiber that came in the package with it).

I use compressed sawdust pellets in the parrotlet cage. It absorbs very well (some people use it as kitty litter or for bunnies) and it's heavy enough to not fly all over. I do use it under a grate but I am sure that you could use it without a grate very well and this is not something that they would be interested in using as nesting material.

I use newspaper.
The only problem is that the birds will tear into it to use as nesting material. That is fine if the pieces are small, but sometimes they tear off LARGE pieces, and that gets to be a problem in the nest. And when they splash water from their bath, the newspaper tears very easily.