Steam cleaner

[FeliciaWilliams]

We have 4 African grey 3-year-olds in our home. They are doing good now. My question is, how often should we have to clean their cage. Do we need to clean the cage daily? My colleague says so. We used to clean on a weekly basis with water,vinegar or bleach, and a towel. Before that, we remove the bird to another cage in another room. Is it good to clean the cage using a steam cleaner ?
He recommends me to get a handheld steam cleaner. He is using Pronto 100CH, bought from ‘Vacmasters’, ( https://www.the-vacmaster.ca ) Canada. Can they kill molds and fungus ? Is it worth to spend money on a steam cleaner ?
Thanks in advance.

[Wolf]

Many people clean their birds cages every day and that is probably the best, however, with my physical issues, I only clean my birds cages once a week, I use vinegar and water after using bleach water. I use the bleach water first and leave the cage for 10 minutes while the bleach does its thing and then clean it off with the vinegar water so as to remove the bleach residue.

There have been several post concerning the use of steam cleaners and the general consensus appears to be that while the steam is good it is not worth the time as it takes several hours to clean and disinfect a cage with a steam cleaner. The majority of those who have them say that for other than just a spot job that you should not waste your money on one.

[Pajarita]

I don't scrub their cages every day but I do scrape the bottom grids and perches with a stripping brush, change the paper, use clean bowls for both their breakfast and dinner and wipe whatever mess I see. I only clean their cages thoroughly once a week and, in all honesty, this seems to be enough because their cages always appear to be clean to the point that people have commented on it.

I don't use a steam cleaner and I don't see myself getting one for this, either. I have been doing this for many years and the cleaning routine has become not only second nature to me (to the point that I do without thinking at all) but also very fast and efficient.

[seagoatdeb]

I do not feed wet foods inside the cage, instead they are fed on playgrounds and I have unprinted newsprint under them that I change every day. My cages stay very clean that way inside so are very easy to clean. I usually use avi cleaner a safe for parrots enzyme cleaner, and when I do very deep cleaning then i make sure everything has been sterlized and rope toys and perches get hand washed. My cages have a grate, but i covered them with the unprinted newsprint because my pois lke to go down and pikc up pieces of nuts they dropped and it is easy to change the bottom often.

[mike12345]

We have 4 African grey 3-year-olds in our home. They are doing good now. My question is, how often should we have to clean their cage. Do we need to clean the cage daily? My colleague says so. We used to clean on a weekly basis with water,vinegar or bleach, and a towel. Before that, we remove the bird to another cage in another room. Is it good to clean the cage using a steam cleaner ?
He recommends me to get a best carpet cleaning in surrey. He is using Pronto 100CH, bought from ‘Vacmasters’, ( https://www.the-vacmaster.ca ) Canada. Can they kill molds and fungus ? Is it worth to spend money on a steam cleaner ?
Thanks in advance.

Hello Felicia,
You can clean your cage on weekly basis :

1. Empty the litter box. Wash with soap and water. Disinfect with a dilution of 1/4 cup of bleach to 2 quarts of water. Rinse well with clean water. For your safety and comfort, use the bleach solution in a well-ventilated area. Rubber gloves and safety goggles are also recommended.
2. Wash all bedding and fabric toys. Many can be washed in the washing machine, but make sure to follow manufacturer's instructions.
3. Clean all plastic shelves, toys and other plastic items (excluding any food or water dishes) in the cage with the bleach solution and rinse well.
4. Wipe the cage down with a ferret cage cleaner.

And you can also use handheld steam cleaner.

[Bird woman]

Anyone else see the advertisements in this post! sure seems to be a lot of plugs and scams invading lately, maybe I'm just hallucinating BW

[ParrotsForLife]

My 3 share a cage and it gets cleaned like never lol just joking but I definitely cant say I clean it every week but when I notice any dirt I clean and of course I always change the newspaper but my birds live outside the cage and only use it to eat out of.

[Wolf]

Well Bird woman, I do see the links that you are referring to, but it is not uncommon to provide a link to a product that you are asking questions about. Very often in the party does not provide such a link, someone is going to ask for one before they render an opinion about the product, this is often because there are so many different products available that we may not know anything about that specific product. Yes, it is possible that this could be someone just trying to plug a product, but it is also likely that this is a bona fide question, that deserves an answer.