Question about cage floor

[JasmineGCC]

Hi everyone. Jasmines cage has a solid base with a removable wire grid about an inch above. She gets very frustrated when things drop through as she can't get to them. At the moment I put newspaper on the bottom but if course she can't get to it.

Is the wire bottom essential for her welfare? Is there a reason why she shouldn't walk on the base? Would newspaper harm her? Would bird sand be better? If she can get to her poops is that a problem?

Jasmine loves foraging on the floor of her travel carrier so I think she'd enjoy it - and I can put floor toys in

What do you think/ do yourselves? Many thanks

 

[LoveMyParrots]

Newspaper are normally fine, but some ink can be harmful to parrots. I don't know much about pineapple green cheeked conure, but some parrot like the galah naturally likes to be on the ground since that's where they find their food in the wild. Some parrots like Ozzie, my alexandrine parakeet don't likes to be on the bottom of his cage. But my two cockatiels Kiwi and Tweety spend about half of the day on the bottom. I think it does really depends on the bird. Every parrot has their own personality. Walking around on the cage floor does not do anything harmful to your parrot, unless they can touch their droppings.

With the toys, I don't have any toy at the bottom for Ozzie since he does not go down there, he feels safer when he's up high. But I does have a lot of toys down there for Kiwi and Tweety. They likes playing on the ground.

I use back 2 nature small animal bedding and litter for my parrots. Its made from recycled paper and cardboard. It works great. But newspaper, wood shaving, small animal bedding (like for rabbit, ferret, mice, etc) and bird sand are all fine. Depends on you and your parrot.

I would try to let your conure to stay away from her dropping. As it can make her sick. I know it is almost impossible to keep the cage totally cleen, do the best you can. I change my parrot's cage liner every 3 days, sometimes 2 depends on how dirty it is.

Hope you have a wonderful new year.

 

[Echo]

If you change the paper regularly(every day/ other day), you don't have to worry about droppings. I don't know about England, put here in the USA, printed newspaper has non-toxic ink. Just make sure that by removing the wire grid, you don't have a space big enough for your bird to squeeze through.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I don't have the wire gird on my galahs cage, she never goes to the bottom intentionally but falls off her perch sometimes Landing on the grid would be much more damaging then a nice padded floor.

Just make sure the bottom of the cage is clean, unless your bid was out all day and didn't poo in the cage change the liner every evening. Also try using newsprint rather then newspaper. Newsprint can be ordered online or bought from a art supplies store/department. It's the same thing but without print.

 

[MonicaMc]

My mitred conure typically doesn't go to the bottom of his cage anymore, so I prefer to leave the grate out - less cleaning!

That said, my cockatiels *love* to chew on the paper at the bottom, so I prefer them to leave it alone, and thus usually use the grates.

I use paper in both cages.



The main thing is, you don't want your bird eating their own droppings, or food that has fallen in their droppings. If you feed fresh food, you don't want them eating food that has been sitting out for a long time.