Of course, I've always been cleaning the cage for my birds, and I think that it turns out really clean after the whole cleaning. I set up 2 bowls filled with room temperature water. One of the bowls (the larger one), is the one I place all the toys and water/food dishes in to soak while I scrub the rest of the cage. The bowl with all the toys and dishes is only water, doesn't contain any soap mixed with it. The other, smaller bowl is what I use to dip paper towels in to make them wet for the scrubbing of some parts of the cage. I also have a sponge which I have made specifically for the cleaning of the tray and parts of the grate. So, what I do is first empty out the bird's dirty litter (I use some sort of Corn Cob bird and small pet litter) from the tray. Then I scrub the tray completely with regular water (no soap). I then remove the grates, and scrub them with the sponge, and then use wet paper towels to get in between the spaces of the grates. I set both the tray and grates aside to let dry. I then remove all toys and water/food dishes and place them in the larger bowl to soak in water (no soap). Then I remove the perches and scrub those down to remove any droppings and other yucky stuff, as well as scrub any bars of the cage that need cleaning. Once everything is done soaking and drying, I place everything back in the cage, add new, fresh Corn Cob litter, and let the birds back into their clean home! It takes me about 40 to 90 minutes to clean their cage, and I do it once a week.
My question is: Should I be cleaning the cage with soapy water or anything else added to the water? I've always been afraid that the soap or any other cleaning stuff will harm the bird if they decided to peck at washed toys.