I don't wanna...

[riddick07]

Sigh....of course the macaw room in the house was the only one not cleaned already when I got here....

 

[Kiwibird]

Thats a lot of macaws they have And we all know the mess level grows with the size of the bird

 

[Dinosrawr]

Hahahaha! I can only imagine how long that takes!

 

[RavensGryf]

OMG.... I cannot even imagine . It's hard to do 4 small/medium cages lol.

 

[Birdman666]

I've got five macaw sized cages, and my big weekly cleanings generally take about 3 hours... So, that looks like it would be an all day job...

 

[riddick07]

Those are just the macaws in the house minus the four in random spots in the house. The rescue has a macaw room then macaws spread out through every room except the cockatoo room out there...Then the cottage has a couple macaws too.

Jeanne and John are macaw people so they tend to take in more macaws.

 

[riddick07]

Haha well the cages don't get scrubbed down till they sparkle...the grate gets scrubbed real fast, paper changed, toys taken out that are a mess.

We have a power washer at the rescue and rotate out cages that get taken outside to get done.

 

[MyFlock]

Takes me a total of three hours each morning, to clean, feed, water all my birds and that's just the love birds cages as far as cleaning and GCC. Later in the afternoon it's another 3 hours or so to refresh waters, add pellets, clean the red bellies cages, Jenday and Sunday cages. It's full time job so anyone with MBS be prepared for the work and expense involved! Not for your casual bird owner I must say!

For me it's totally worth it though, I don't work outside the home, they all get out of their cages daily etc I don't have children.

Can't imagine cleaning that room in the pic, omg!

 

[GreatBlue320]

I wouldn't wanna either!

 

[SoCalWendy]

Do I really see 12 cages? I feel for you.

 

[Kiwibird]

Takes me a total of three hours each morning, to clean, feed, water all my birds and that's just the love birds cages as far as cleaning and GCC. Later in the afternoon it's another 3 hours or so to refresh waters, add pellets, clean the red bellies cages, Jenday and Sunday cages. It's full time job so anyone with MBS be prepared for the work and expense involved! Not for your casual bird owner I must say!

For me it's totally worth it though, I don't work outside the home, they all get out of their cages daily etc I don't have children.

Can't imagine cleaning that room in the pic, omg!

3 hours per bird EVERY DAY?! How do you find time for other things? I spend like 10-15 minutes (and maybe an hour on the weekend deep cleaning). Even my moms 3 birds only take up 20 or so minutes cleaning time on a daily basis.

 

[MyFlock]

Takes me a total of three hours each morning, to clean, feed, water all my birds and that's just the love birds cages as far as cleaning and GCC. Later in the afternoon it's another 3 hours or so to refresh waters, add pellets, clean the red bellies cages, Jenday and Sunday cages. It's full time job so anyone with MBS be prepared for the work and expense involved! Not for your casual bird owner I must say!

For me it's totally worth it though, I don't work outside the home, they all get out of their cages daily etc I don't have children.

Can't imagine cleaning that room in the pic, omg!

3 hours per bird EVERY DAY?! How do you find time for other things? I spend like 10-15 minutes (and maybe an hour on the weekend deep cleaning). Even my moms 3 birds only take up 20 or so minutes cleaning time on a daily basis.

It helps to have everything on a schedule. For instance, I wake up about 6 and don't finish until about 8:45 am 9 am. I should add I wheel the red bellies out on the lanai each morning so they spend their day out there getting fresh air and wheel them in, late the afternoon for cage time out and cleaning. I have three lovebirds so their cages get cleaned in the morning along with the green cheek.

While the red bellies are outside, I take the lovebirds out and spend time with them, after that the Jenday, Sunday and GCC come out for the rest of day. Yes, it's a big job, they don't live in one big space with a communal cup, that would be a lot easier I think. Plus, I'm meticulous with my cage cleaning, sweeping, washing floors etc.

 

[Kiwibird]

Takes me a total of three hours each morning, to clean, feed, water all my birds and that's just the love birds cages as far as cleaning and GCC. Later in the afternoon it's another 3 hours or so to refresh waters, add pellets, clean the red bellies cages, Jenday and Sunday cages. It's full time job so anyone with MBS be prepared for the work and expense involved! Not for your casual bird owner I must say!

For me it's totally worth it though, I don't work outside the home, they all get out of their cages daily etc I don't have children.

Can't imagine cleaning that room in the pic, omg!

3 hours per bird EVERY DAY?! How do you find time for other things? I spend like 10-15 minutes (and maybe an hour on the weekend deep cleaning). Even my moms 3 birds only take up 20 or so minutes cleaning time on a daily basis.

It helps to have everything on a schedule. For instance, I wake up about 6 and don't finish until about 8:45 am 9 am. I should add I wheel the red bellies out on the lanai each morning so they spend their day out there getting fresh air and wheel them in, late the afternoon for cage time out and cleaning. I have three lovebirds so their cages get cleaned in the morning along with the green cheek.

While the red bellies are outside, I take the lovebirds out and spend time with them, after that the Jenday, Sunday and GCC come out for the rest of day. Yes, it's a big job, they don't live in one big space with a communal cup, that would be a lot easier I think. Plus, I'm meticulous with my cage cleaning, sweeping, washing floors etc.

I guess that makes sense if your spending time interacting with them I thought you were spending 3 hours a day just cleaning Clean up time is first thing after he wakes and the only time during "daylight hours" he's locked up. I tend to get through it pretty fast or he starts hollering to come out.

I guess I'm a bit lazy with the cleaning though:54: Scrape up dried poop from floor. Vacuum. Spray poop residue that did not scrape up with water and let soak while changing cage liner (which includes shaking/scraping outside, along with the bottom of the swing and play stand liner). I also take the grate out and get the big chunks off. Bring everything in and wipe up soaking poop residue. Toss liners and poop cloth in bird laundry bin. Feed and let him out for the day (within 30 minutes flat, it looks as though I have done no cleaning at all, for a week). It all only takes 10-15 minutes (depending if I change the liners, which I only do every other day). I steam clean the cage and perches on the weekend, and wash the toys as-needed. I do bird laundry once a week with other cleaning rags (I use no household chemicals). I grew up with pretty much the same routine with my mom's birds, only she uses paper and paper towels and with 3 birds, one a food flinger, it takes a little longer. She only washes their cages once a month outside though, but spot cleans in between. Kiwi spends all day out of his cage though (never locked in during the day), and at least a couple hours hanging out with us away from his "bird area".

 

[MyFlock]

Lol three hours per bird would probably be 24 hours with eight birds! Goodness no! I scrub the cages down, soap water, vinegar, inside and outside. Plus there is the miscellaneous things I do, also my diabetic dog fits in that time slot as well with feeding and insulin shot. It all adds up

 

[riddick07]

If you try too hard to get everything clean here you get nothing done at all. It is something volunteers and part timers have trouble realizing at first. If you waste an hour trying to get 20 cages all sparkly it will take you all day to just do half the cages let alone food and water.

I think I might not describe very well how many birds we have at A Helping Wing that need homes. The small number I put on the adoptable birds list doesn't come close to how many we have here...so I took some pics to show almost all the rooms/cages that are here.

The building that we call the rescue. A large portion of the birds are in this building. I dread having to do the cages in here...most of them you have to squat done to get to the cages...good workout though...


In this building we have the macaw room. In here we have one amazon named Rocky that is a sanctuary bird. He had his beak ripped off by a macaw when his owner housed him with their new macaw. Instead of getting rid of the macaw, or you know getting two cages, they got rid of the amazon they had for 20 years.



Same building the small bird room. We have a few macaw pairs in here that are sanctuary birds since no one wants a pair of bonded macaws that aren't super fond of people. Mostly we have Lories in here right now since we have moved most of the small birds into the house.



Same building again the cockatoo room. I didn't really get the room very well but the walls are lined with cages of cockatoos. The big flight in the middle has most of our cockatiels and budgies. To the side of the flight is a double stacker with two doves in it...we can't even give those two away...


And the last room in this building the amazon room. The room also has macaws in it. Quite a few of our amazon pairs were moved down to the cottage. Honestly, we can't give our amazons away either...people are rarely interested in these guys especially after meeting them.

 

[riddick07]

The house. Quite a few birds in the house are personal birds of the shelter owners. Or birds considered theirs because the birds have bonded to them. If the right person comes along for those birds then they will let them go. A good example is Manny a greenwing macaw that loved Jeanne so was considered hers. Then, a young guy walked in and Manny fell head over heels and was adopted to him because Jeanne didn't exist when the guy was in the room. As we always say we look for the match.

The kitchen...it is a room next to the kitchen but we call it the kitchen. This room has two personal birds and a sanctuary Lory, KFC, that we use for expos. He is good with little kids and grabby hands. Plus, he loves all the people at the expos.


The living room. These are all personal birds in this room right now. Two of which are ones that bonded with the shelter owner...I don't ever see these two liking anyone else but them....evil evil birds...they try to eat fingers.


In the macaw room that you saw in the starting post there are personal birds mixed in with sanctuary macaws. Plus, two adoptable macaws are in that room. Mostly we put the macaws in that room because there is a door...and you can close it to drown them out a bit...if that doesn't work you stick them all outside in the flights!


The dining room. Sanctuary amazons, adoptable greys, and the little birds. There are two personal birds in this room an amazon and a cockatoo. Plus, Kelly is in the bottom cage of the double stacker since I brought him with me!



And the upstairs. The one macaw in this room is going to his new home this weekend!

 

[riddick07]

The cottage...this was supposed to be our quarantine. Unfortunately we don't have room to move the birds out of quarantine up to the house or rescue. Surprise we are a bit stuffed. Some of these birds are being transferred to another shelter. Two are ones that seem familiar and I actually think they are boarding not rescue birds since they are familiar but I don't recognize them as AHW birds.

 

[Allee]

Respect, Victoria! Lots of respect!

 

[riddick07]

Respect, Victoria! Lots of respect!

Honestly I don't know how Jeanne and John live here everyday! Let alone how Jeanne deals with looking after everyone everyday even with her part time help now. I'm ready to go home after a couple days:32:

 

[RavensGryf]

Looks like a nice place. So clean too !