Bird Litter

[wilkifam]

I use plain pine pellets - It is working great. I still use newspaper in my big flight cage, but I am thinking I will be switching to all pine pellets. there is absolutely no smell with these. Noticed that some of the pet stores with birds are using them too.

[nick86]

Great idea with the butcher paper

[FinchLady]

I've used pine pellets (kitty litter)- works well but gets expensive and holds the moisture more than paper. Now using recycled paper shreds- my birds like the plain brown but didn't like the pastel colors I bought last time....wouldn't go near it for an entire day. After a few days they started putting the white shreds in the nest and ignored the blue/pink.... Weird.
To stretch store bought litter, I add paper from our home office shredder.

[ranchnanny]

Boy I have been keeping finches etc. for about 2.5 years and I am still trying to figure out what is best for the cage floor. I have tried corn cob, wood pellets, neswpaper, butcher paper, care fresh bedding & cat litter and still haven't figured out which one I like best. The wood pellets don't smell but they do swell when they get wet and when cleaning cages( have very big trays that get really heavy and I have dropped one or two what a mess. I found that newspaper smells when it gets wet yuck. I have used care fresh bedding lately but went back to paper towels which I can change out quickly so right now my best bet would be care fresh bedding or paper towels (inexpensive brand).
One thing I like about the white paper towels is you can keep an eye on the bird droppings.

[Sally]

I too have tried just about everything for lining cages (different than lining aviaries). I got tired of products like kitty litter that are so heavy that cleaning trays was a real chore. None of my cages have grates, so whatever I use has to be safe for the birds to walk on or forage through. I recently saw a friend's setup, which I think is great for those who have lots of cages, and I'm trying it out. It is using butcher-type paper, with a holder/cutter that I ordered. So the paper roll is mounted on the cutter, I just pull out what I need for each tray.

And I still use hay in my breeding cages. Most of them have two trays, so one tray will have paper liner, the other tray will have hay. And the advantage to the white butcher paper is that it is very easy to monitor droppings.

[Sunbay]

Hi all,

I have tried the corn-cob, pine shavings, and pine pellets for the bottom of my 3 aviaries.
Winner HANDS DOWN is the "Care Fresh Natural". Made from reclaimed wood pulp. It is clean, not dusty, light and easy to deal with putting in, and cleaning up.
It is compressed, and a little goes a long way. You just break it up and spread with your hands.

It is available in a variety of colors. I prefer the "Natural". It looks, well, more natural!

Attached are photos of the white, natural and the bag it comes in.

Have a feathered-fabulous day!

Lauren

[debbie276]

Love your aviaries!

[FinchLady]

This should really go under the topic: 'You know it's bad.....'

You know it's bad when you sit and read 3 pages of posts about cage litter....LOL

[ranchnanny]

Very Funny.....

[mayble]

Winner HANDS DOWN is the "Care Fresh Natural". Made from reclaimed wood pulp. It is clean, not dusty, light and easy to deal with putting in, and cleaning up.
It is compressed, and a little goes a long way. You just break it up and spread with your hands.

I agree! I was using Cel-Sorb and was very happy with it until one day the store was all out of it so I picked up Carefresh. At first I thought it was awfully expensive for such a small bag, but when I saw how much it expands I was sold. A little bag of this stuff is like a huge bag of the other, and much easier to store.
And it is lighter - so it's easier to dump trays but also more likely to scatter outside the cage. I can live with that.

[fhgwgads]

I also used the Care Fresh and loved it but so did my finches. The morning after I put it in I woke up to a nest packed with it! My little boy picked tons of pieces through the grate. It is great though, conceals messes, doesn't smell, is safe, easy to clean up. I had to go back to paper or paper towels and occasionally absorbent cage liners though because my finches will pull just about anything through the grate. If I lean in close to the cage while talking to them my boy will start eyeing strands of my hair too!! Obsessive much??? Lol.

[Lylwhen]

Hello all,

I use newspaper that is shredded along with other paper products that is shredded in my cross cutting shredder!! I first line bottom of cage with solid sheet of newspaper then spread the shredded pieces everywhere. I have a grate to separate the birds and the paper. Good way to find a use for junk mail.

Linda

[wilkifam]

I love this stuff too. really takes care of the odor.

I use newspaper.
But for some places where they poop more "wet" poop, I put wood pellets. These are from PetSmart. I think they are cat litter. I get them in a 20 or 25 pound sack. I sprinkle it below the perches and it absorbs the urine from the poop, reducing the smell.

[saffronfinch]

After waiting many years to build an aviary I was finally able to and its now complete with Lady Gouldians, Owl Finches and a few Canaries. Now they've been in it only 2 days and i've encountered a HUGE problem. Today I lost 3 of the Gouldians and 1 Owl. I've been using Hartz corncob bedding in all my bird cages for the past 10 years w/no problems. Of course there was always a grate separating the birds from the bedding. Now in the new aviary they are able to scratch at it and I noticed they had been picking at it and eating it. Which has led me to the conclusion that the ones that died ingested it. I'm not sure what else it could be. So all the corncob has been removed. Now I wonder what could I use beside paper to line the bottom of the aviary. As for Carefresh bedding, the one time i used it back in 2008 I also had several Gouldians die after ingesting it. I was wondering if i put down TIMOTHY HAY would i have any problems or is it safe to use? or am I going to lose more birds? I like the idea of hay b/c it would look clean at the bottom of the aviary. I don't mind the mess as I clean up everyday.

[debbie276]

You have to be careful with the corncob bedding, it can get moldy if it gets damp. I think hay would work great and if you like the look of hay that's even better.