i bought an orange chested senegal......

[Teresauk]

hiya everyone

i have been searching for a baby senegal bird and i finaly got one, i cant have him for 2 weeks because hes only a baby, we are going to call him louis ( louie), we thought that as saint louis was the capital of senegal, it was fitting. ( i hope i got that right)

well i have bought his cage and its huge, its almost bigger then me. i bought it second hand for 40 pound, so if its too big, i can downsize, it has a play top too. only thing is, its stinks of smoke, im trying my best to clean the smell off, any ideas would be great

i cant wait to get him/her and post pictures, i will probally have a thousand and one questions. my breeder thinks its a boy by the way, because he has lots of colour on his chest. Is this true?

thanks everyone,,, oooo im sooo excited.x

[TheNzJessie]

diluting bleach in hot water and using that on the cage should get the smell off. you could also add some vinegar to the mixture

[MandyG]

Congrats on the new addition! Can't wait to see pictures when you get him/her home!

I'd be wary with using a cage that smells of smoke. There's been a lot of research on 3rd hand smoke lately and they're discovering that it's much more toxic than once thought. 3rd hand smoke is when the chemicals from a cigarette, such as nicotine, coat the surfaces in an area where somebody has been smoking. It's especially dangerous to young children and pets who walk/crawl on the floors and put contaminated things in their mouths. Since parrots use their feet and beak to climb around their cage and then use their feet to eat with it is quite harmful to them. Make sure you scrub every inch of the cage until there is no traces of the smell, and then maybe scrub it once more just to be safe. I'm not sure how well you have to clean something before the chemicals are removed, that might be something you should research. I once helped a friend clean an apartment that he just moved into where the previous tenant was a smoker. He had a tile ceiling with square foot tiles and it took about 15-20 minutes to scrub each tile until it was almost white.

Best of luck to you! Let us know what you find that works and if you find anything helpful with your research.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I think a good scrubbing should be able to get traces of tobacco products off the cage. Get rid of anything porous like wood or rope perches that came with it and replace those. It's really hard to get smoke out of fabrics and carpet, but not so bad with hard surfaces.

I wouldn't mix vinegar and bleach in the same solution. I have a good go with soap and water and then go over it with bleach solution or a cage disinfectant.

If the cage is VERY big, make sure the bar spacing is not too big for your bird. He should not be able to get his head between the bars. Aside from that, bigger is better.