Bird-Zerk Feeders

[Cage Cleaner]

http://www.bird-zerk.com/index.html

Has anyone used this or can comment on something like this? I'm thinking about getting it for my Sun because she has a tendency to take a dump in her food bowl. -.-

[liz]

I use something similar that I got at Pet Smart. It is a silo type that attaches to the outside of the cage and only the bowl part goes in the cage. Since I have a flock of tiels I also layer so the birdiebelow doesn't get pooped on. I have also used hanging planters for foraging and alphalfa hay for the bottom so the seeds don't bounce and the poop dries fast. Instead of changing paper every day I just scoop off the top then change the hay once a week.

o________fresh food

o_______water

o____pellets & seed

[Cage Cleaner]

This is a little different from a bird silo that you can find at petsmart. It's supposedly a self recycling set up. It is designed so that the bird theoretically doesn't drop any food while it eats perched on the feeder. The dust/food bits fall down into the collection area, without coming into contact with debris/droppings, which can then be recycled back as feed. The feeder is fitted to the size of bird.

[pfinarffle]

That looks very very tempting! But we get a moth infestation in PeeWee's food this time of year. I'm afraid moths would set up shop in one of those things. Grrrr....

[Cage Cleaner]

That looks very very tempting! But we get a moth infestation in PeeWee's food this time of year. I'm afraid moths would set up shop in one of those things. Grrrr....

I haven't had to deal with moths in the past... Does freezing help? Or does that kill off nutrients in the food as well? Do you feed pellets or seeds?

[Sarah]

My only thought on that is, my birds really only drop things they dont want to eat anyway. there are very few items that they toss on the floor or the bottom of their cage that they would eat. Some food gets dropped by accident, but I find that for the most part, they eat what they like and toss what they dont.

Is your conure dropping lots of food he does eat? If so, cant hurt to try it, for my birds though, I dont know that I would really be saving anything by purchasing the feeder. I can just see myself giving Sammy my senegal the food he dropped, and him not touching it.

[pfinarffle]

That looks very very tempting! But we get a moth infestation in PeeWee's food this time of year. I'm afraid moths would set up shop in one of those things. Grrrr....

I haven't had to deal with moths in the past... Does freezing help? Or does that kill off nutrients in the food as well? Do you feed pellets or seeds?

We do mostly pellets, though supplement with seeds as treats. I imagine freezing would kill the moth pupae/larvae. I know storing the dry goods in a freezer prevents the infestation to begin with. I've heard bird owners buy pellets/seeds in bulk then freeze. We just don't have the freezer room to do that, however. I think freezing kills some nutrients and doesn't effect others. Forgot which is which, though. I love the idea of an "automatic" feeder for our guy, though. Maybe when moth season is over this year....

[Cage Cleaner]

That looks very very tempting! But we get a moth infestation in PeeWee's food this time of year. I'm afraid moths would set up shop in one of those things. Grrrr....

I haven't had to deal with moths in the past... Does freezing help? Or does that kill off nutrients in the food as well? Do you feed pellets or seeds?

We do mostly pellets, though supplement with seeds as treats. I imagine freezing would kill the moth pupae/larvae. I know storing the dry goods in a freezer prevents the infestation to begin with. I've heard bird owners buy pellets/seeds in bulk then freeze. We just don't have the freezer room to do that, however. I think freezing kills some nutrients and doesn't effect others. Forgot which is which, though. I love the idea of an "automatic" feeder for our guy, though. Maybe when moth season is over this year....

So you get moths in your pellets? I'm only asking because I've never seen it in my life and want to know more.

[Sarah]

They sound like meal moths. Wikipedia it.

They eat grains and flour, and likely since pellots tend to be grain based and then fortified with other nutriants, im willing to bet thats what they are.

They are quite common in peoples houses around the world, We had a bad case of them in an apartment I lived in. They got into everything, it was awful. We tossed a lot of food out because of it. They were in everything. We tried just getting rid of grain products, but that was not enough! They were in my specialty teas, in the baking soda box, I mean, EVERYTHING.

If you have these moths the only way I got rid of them was to take all of my food products and put them in clear ziplock bags and in plastic containers. Anything that showed signs of moths got thrown out. Then anything that they got into, but you couldnt see them in showed signs of mothy activity once the larva hatched, which was fine since they were sealed in plastic containers and couldnt get out and infest other products.

[pfinarffle]

They sound like meal moths. Wikipedia it.

They eat grains and flour, and likely since pellots tend to be grain based and then fortified with other nutriants, im willing to bet thats what they are.

They are quite common in peoples houses around the world, We had a bad case of them in an apartment I lived in. They got into everything, it was awful. We tossed a lot of food out because of it. They were in everything. We tried just getting rid of grain products, but that was not enough! They were in my specialty teas, in the baking soda box, I mean, EVERYTHING.

If you have these moths the only way I got rid of them was to take all of my food products and put them in clear ziplock bags and in plastic containers. Anything that showed signs of moths got thrown out. Then anything that they got into, but you couldnt see them in showed signs of mothy activity once the larva hatched, which was fine since they were sealed in plastic containers and couldnt get out and infest other products.

That about summarizes it. We never had them until we brought the bird into our lives. They must've gotten in through his food somehow. But they're more annoying than a hazard. And they go away once the weather gets cold through the majority of the summer. In addition to sealing all food in bags/canisters, we use the pheromone-based moth traps you can get everywhere. They work wonders. I also heard freezing food works really well too. If there are any larvae in the food they die once their cells freeze.