FINCHforum

I have a pair of 2 birds in each cage, so 2 birds, they have anti-algi external water bottle drinkers, seed bowls etc. I use avigold plus in all of their water which kills bacteria and adds vitamiins to the water. How often should I clean the drinkers with disinfectant? It's not something I want to be doing every time I refill their water really.

Same question for the food bowls, how often to clean with disinfectant?

I have too many food dishes and water tubes to spend very much time disinfecting them. Plus I am basically lazy. I try to keep doubles on each thing, so I put water tubes and dishes in the dishwasher, and have clean ones on hand to use in the meantime. I rarely disinfect any of these, just use soap and hot water. If I suspect an illness, then I would disinfect the items from that particular cage.

I do the same thing, Sally!

I always swap out my feeders and water dishes about once a week.
I have surplus water tubes and terra cotta dishes (for sprouts and soft food) that are clean from the week before, so I empty the current water tubes and terra cotta dishes and replace them with clean ones.

I place the "dirty" ones in a bucket I got from Lowes, fill it with warm water and bleach (I don't measure, just pour in probably about 500ml [2 cups] or so) and let it soak for a good part of the day, then rinse and set out to dry over night, then stock them back up in the closet for use at the end of the week or if something gets extremely dirty in the interim.

Sometimes with the terra cotta dishes I will change them out more often because the birds tend to poop on these more often.

Sometimes I will scrub it with a castille soap mixture that has Thieves oil (disinfectant..) in it if I don't have any extras at the time to swap, then dry it and reuse that way.

I like the dishwasher because it takes care of any slime/algae that forms in the corners of my water dishes.....