Safe sealants for cages and aviaries

[Stevie]

Hi

I am making my first aviary at the moment. Can anyone tell me? Is there a safe sealant I can use around the edges and bottom, will make hygiene and cleaning better to do this I think.

Would need to be safe for button quail as I will be getting some soon.

Many thanks for your help.

[Sally]

I can't remember where you are located, but I found this site (among quite a few others) when I did a search for low VOC sealants. You definitely want to seal all cracks and joints in the wood, as that also eliminates a place for mites to hide. If you put your general location in your profile, it helps when answering locale-specific questions like this.

http://www.osipro.com/greenseries.shtml

[Stevie]

Thanks Sally.

Will have a another look at my profile, thought I had put the location in must have got that bit wrong.

I live on The River Medway in England.

This is how it is looking so far

Found some low VOC varnish to seal the wall mural at the back now.

[Sally]

That is going to be great! So you are living on a barge? An aviary on a barge, really a novel idea, can't wait to see more photos.

[Stevie]

Yes we live on our beloved engineless barge which we are renovating, she was burnt out by a fire when a previous owner lived here - no one was injured apart from the boat, bless her.

Mine will be 'The Floating Finches

I have been going a little bit 'crazy and dizzy' from scouring the internet trying to find a low voc waterproof sealant available for sale here in the United Kingdom

If you or anyone else know of one then would be much appreciated.

[Smurf]

It's the first aviary i've seen on a barge, looking good so far, love the wall mural.

With regards to sealants it would probably be best if you contacted a supplier such as 3M

http://solutions.3m.co.uk/wps/portal/3M ... adhesives/

I'm sure they could advise on a suitable sealant

Alternatively you might get away with varnishing or painting over a sealant your unsure about

[Stevie]

Thanks Padraic.

Great idea to paint over it I get stuck for something, will try 3M they do good stuff.

What kind of finches do you keep? Is that Gouldians I see on your signature. These were some I wanted to try too.

[Smurf]

Hi Stevie

I just purchased the 2 pairs of gouldians about 2 weeks ago so not much experience with them yet, they were an impulse buy as blue gouldians are very difficult to get here.
Other birds i have successfully breeding at moment are red headed parrot finches, various canaries and bengalese finches. The Bengalese are a good starter finch to gain experience with as the're very easy to breed, never aggressive and can also be used as fosterers for other finches.

[Stevie]

Hi Sally and Padraic

Really appreciate all your advice, shame the products seem hard to come by here in the UK.

I just wanted to let you know I managed to solve the problem without the need for any sealant.

Not sure why I didn't think of this before. I used an old boating trick and used flexible wood in the corners which I butted/fitted close together, meaning no open gaps to fill. When this is all painted it will form a tight seal.

We often do this on boats because all joints move as you float and sealant has a habit of just cracking or falling out over time.