Cleaning new toys | cage question

[katie_fleming]

Hello,

I should be getting my shipment of new toys soon and I was thinking it would be a good idea if I cleaned them first? (just the plastic ones) Can I use regular dish soap and make sure they're rinsed really well? Should I use a specific type? I use Palmolive right now.

Also, I'm thinking about buying a small cage to keep at my parents house when I visit. I live 3 hours away so I obviously can't bring a huge cage back and forth. Would any small cage work? Or does it have to be a certain size even when "on vacation"?

I should be getting Jasper at the end of August, trying to get everything organized

 

[RavensGryf]

A general rule that I go by (personally) is if the toys or supplies are from a non-bird environment, I don't worry about cleaning unless they were visibly dusty. If I buy something from somewhere where birds are being kept or people's birds are being groomed, I will sanitize the heck out of it with disinfectant spray made to kill bird viruses and bacteria, and then rinse it off with water or dishwasher without soap. I won't buy shreddable toys from a bird environment (can't really be cleaned).

Places who sell bird stuff with bio-safety in mind, I wouldn't worry about. One of our sponsors here My Safe Bird Store.com is one of those places where you don't need to worry about washing off cooties

 

[Kiwibird]

I personally just rinse in very very hot water. Always have been a bit paranoid of soap residue being left on and Kiwi getting ill.

As for a cage at your parents house, so long as it's just visiting every so often (not long term housing) a smaller cage is fine. Kiwi would always stay in a smaller cage when he was at my parents (they used to watch him when we'd go on vacation). I would just add a few favorite toys and he was fine for a week or whatever. In fact, while I felt terrible about it, Kiwi didn't seem to mind when we moved cross country spending 3 days in his emergency/travel cage (which is basically a budgie cage), but there was no other option for that. Look at it like you could totally spend a few days in a camper or hotel room, but you probably wouldn't want to live in one long term

 

[katie_fleming]

Thanks guys! Much appreciated