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[GrullonZoo]

Hello Fello Parrot Lovers!!
I'm new to the site and looking for advice from other parrot owners. We have an African Grey and a Blue & Gold Macaw, who we love dearly ...along with the 4 dogs and 5 kids we have in the house. We need some advice on what we can do about the mess our beloved parrots make!! Our African Grey stays in the cage during the day (unless she is sitting with my husband watching tv), but our Macaw loves to sit on her cage instead of inside her cage. Our Macaw makes such a mess!! What do you other bird lovers put under and around your cages?? Our Macaw, Lola has a large cage but she doesn't like it, so I'm looking at buying her a bigger cage because I can't keep up with the huge mess that she makes. I just feel bad because she loves to sit outside of her cage and she like to interact with us during the day (not a night bird). If any of you have any advice I would highly appreciate it.

 

[Von1983]

Hello, welcome to this fab forum!

There's some really, really experienced wise birds here who I'm sure will help you better than I can!

My sun conure is very messy at eating but has only pooped once away from her cage.

I bought a wipe clean plastic table cloth to fold and lay down under her cage. I just wheel off her cage and tip the mess into the bin. Minimal food splattered on floor! I clean her water and base numerous times a day and wipe down perches with warm water on a cloth. I then do the same where she's wiped her beak on her bars.

I've also invested in a mini rechargable hoover lol.

I've read many useful posts about "toilet training" and it seems very easy. I will be trying it myself if Cal decides to start pooping around and about!

A very short example is this...

Pooping

With a Macaw's intelligence you should have her trained in no time at all!

I'm not an expert as my previous birds were strangely tidy!!! But this is how I combat Cal-mageddon in my lounge or in the shop lol.

 

[SharonC]

I use newspaper sometimes...

I have hardwood floor and I do find that a quick hand vac often solves my problem. I wipe up poop often, and then hand vac the rest. Several mini cleanups prevents the mess from getting all over.

 

[wildheart]

A warm welcome to the forum!

Here is a thread that Ben wrote that helps a lot.

http://www.parrotforums.com/do-yourself/5501-cage-aviary-maintenance-tips.html

 

[Aussie Ben]

We welcome you and your feathered friends to our wonderful community, you are sure to love it here.

lol, yea, go to the link wildheart posted, she saved me the trouble

You can also try getting plastic drop-sheets like Von suggested and hang them on the back of the cage with Velcro spots.

I have seen/heard of people using deeper/wider bowls (more like buckets) to feed their birds, this way more of the mess stays in the bowl. If you have a suitable location, placing the feeding bowls lower in the cage also helps (not under perches though). The higher they are, the further food will spread lol.

I also agree with Sharon, lots of small cleanups are better than one big one.

 

[Spiritbird]

Happy to have you aboard. I would love to put my bird in the bathtub to eat but she knows it as the shower.

 

[cnyguy]

Welcome to the Forum! I use a cheap, machine-washable rag rug in front of Quaker Ralph's cage. Discarded pellets and other "food mess" can be shaken out into the trash pail, and everything else comes out in the wash.

 

[triordan]

i bought a vinyl tarp, easy to hose off or just wipe up and shake out...i also looked at shower curtain liners

 

[sprice37]

Hardwood floors and alot of sweeping and mopping...

 

[nofearengineer]

Hardwood floors and alot of sweeping and mopping...

I will second that. At some point, I just gave up trying to outsmart Gandalf's mess. I found corn kernels at the front door, 25 feet away from his cage. Either he had a heck of a wind-up, or he was flying them over while I wasn't home.

The vacuum is your friend. Plus, it is a great trick for getting dirty little birds to take a bath. (I guess it sounds like thunder to them....rain's coming...everyone hit the showers!!!)