Birds are extremely messy pets. Even with products like seed guards they will still get food and poop everywhere. Here are some helpful tips to keeping your house clean.
Secure the Area
One of the first things I did after moving was start prepping the bird area. Even fairly neat birds can splatter food on the walls and that stuff turns into cement when it dries. Buy some cheap clear plastic shower curtains and tack them to the wall behind your cages.
Consider your floors. Poop is very annoying to remove from carpet, especially if it has had time to dry. For carpet I have used chair mats with great success. They are easy to take outside and hose/scrub. If you have a large cage you will need several to cover an area greater than your cage. This may cost a bit more but the mats last a long time so it’s a good investment. I have mats that are ten years old and still going strong.
If you have a flat surface like wood, vinyl, or tile it will be fairly easy to sweep clean and spot scrub. Still, it can be useful to protect these areas (especially wood). Chair mats also work for this (just make sure you get the kind meant for flat floors), but you can also go cheap with plastic drop clothes or more shower curtains. You can use painters tape or masking tape to keep it from shifting around.
Six mats to cover two large cages.
I hose off the mats, scrub them down, then let them dry in the sun.
Temporary set up in my garage prior to our move.
Shower curtains for the wall. Drop cloths for the floor.
Clear shower curtains behind the cages make a good incognito way to protect the paint.
I used drop cloths on the floor, but these became problematic over time.
You must leave a gap between the cage and the wall! Otherwise they’re going to be grabbing the shower curtain and chewing it. Also, the weights at the bottom of the shower curtain are magnetic, and will stick to your cages if too close.
The problem with drop cloths. They shift and bunch over time when your roll the cage for cleaning, even when taped.
Solution: leftover vinyl scraps from a remodel.
Vinyl scraps.
Done!
Preventing Food Splatter
High dishes will result in a wider “splash zone” from the cage. If your dishes are on the floor the the cage the mess is easier to contain with shielding like cage skirts. However, lower dishes are also more at risk from fecal contamination, so you need to be careful about placement. Most cages these days come with outside access feed doors about midway up the cage.
Covered feeders are another option, though one must be careful that a bird cannot get trapped inside.
Minimizing Poop Damage When Out of the Cage
Unless your bird is always on a perch or in its cage, you will have poops around the house and probably on your person. Some people train their birds to poop on a specific area. You can also teach your bird to poop on command, though this can lead to problems if it refuses to go when no command is given.
If your bird is allowed to perch on furniture like couches or chairs, a cover should be used. Towels and sheets will suffice but if you want to spend more on fancier covers you can do that too. We have a long runner style rug behind the couches to catch stray poops.
Shoulder Cape
For yourself, there are a couple of options. I personally use a “poop shirt.” It’s just an oversized t-shirt that I no longer care about that is worn over my actual shirt. This way my shirt is protected and I can just remove the poop shirt when I’m done carrying my bird. Many other people use a sort of shawl or shoulder cover like this.
© 2017 by Karen Trinkaus. May not be reprinted or used in any way without the author’s permission.
Feisty Feathers 