Fully Cleaning Your Parrot's Cage

[Maria]

The initial post in this forum also referred to that - you can also use the same solution to clean your foraging tree, activity tree, play stand, or play gym.

So ! My question involves what is the best way to clean my parrot's perch tree stand? - BECAUSE!

Hose down with garden hose outside, to rinse it thoroughly clean! - wooden tree stand, after scrubbing it down with mild soapy water and scrub brush (mild liquid dish soap).

Seems to break down the wood off of the screws! (wood pieces coming loose).

So some tree stands were not meant for rinsing? If not, then how do you thoroughly clean them?!

Sprayed the safe cleaner (non-toxic, safe for birds, non-rinse, which loosens up all the poo first, to where it just wipes clean very well). Sprayed that on first. Then used scrub brush with soapy water. Then rinsed clean with hose. I don't feel that it's clean unless all that yuck is rinsed off thoroughly. All pooey, soapy watery stuff. Get it? Plus, soap is really not good for birds, so you need to make sure there is no soap residue left, meaning rinse extremely thoroughly. As we know, cold water does rinse soap off squeeky clean too !

Get it? I don't want safe bird poo cleaner and the poo left on the perches on the stand either! So, if you just use a bucket of water with this safe bird poo cleaner mixed in it, and a scrub brush or sponge - only - then how do you rinse the wooden perches of the stand, after you scrub them down with this solution? I want to find an easy, thorough way to rinse! If you keep rinsing out a clean sponge, to "rinse-wipe" this "now kind of pooey solution" away, seems kind of the long and hard way, and doesn't really seem like thorough rinsing to me. Furthermore, it doesn't get the rinsing down into some of the cracks and crevices in the wood that also need to be rinsed out clean. Is that the only way these things can be rinsed? Because apparently they're not meant to pour water on them; that breaks them down and can start rotting the wood inside, and that's, then, how the wood comes loose from the screws, and comes right off the screws. What a bummer. Because I feel that's the only way to thoroughly rinse it clean. I thought these things were made strong and solid enough to withstand good rinsing!

Thanks for your help, so much! I'm so glad ya'll are here! Just stumbled across this forum when looking for best way to clean parrot tree stands! So just registered! Hugs all around the room!

Love Maria and her Parrot

[Michael]

My trees don't get too dirty but it's probably more because my parrots rarely go on them rather than the way they use them. The seem to prefer their Parrot Training Perches and there are newspapers under those to catch their poop. They don't stay more than a few minutes on their trees. Luckily I picked trees where branches don't overlap much so that helps a lot too.

As for cleaning them, I just put them in the shower. I shower them down with very hot water and let it get steamy by keeping the door closed. This helps loosen poop even that the water doesn't come in contact with. I scrub down with soap and rinse back off with shower. I don't end up scrubbing hard or running water under high pressure. It's more gentle. It's the time it steams/soaks the poop the helps get it off more than the scrubbing or the pressure. That way there's no damage.

For spot cleaning I'll just use a moist paper towel or my steam cleaner which blasts steam at it.

[Maria]

Michael:

Thank you for your reply; I don't think it's the answer for me. Here is a URL for an image of my kind of stand. And I don’t have one of those small like table top stands which can fit into a bathtub; that’s not the kind I’m talking about. My tree stand is very large and heavy, and wooden, and on wheels. When rinsed by running or pouring water on these kinds, (see the image), the bottom part of the tree comes off of the base. The base is secured to the bottom part of the tree (the trunk) with a large screw. The screw feeds inside the bottom of the trunk. The wood inside the bottom part of the trunk breaks down slowly, rotting away, when water is poured or ran over the tree for rinsing. Eventually this results in the tree coming loose, off of the screw, tree wobbling, etc. This seems to happen, apparently, with water seeping in, where the tree trunk meets the base which it's secured to. The base even starts to bubble like and kind of warp, and come apart at the seems also, due to rinsing with water, after scrubbing clean. It's the water running on/over the stand which you have to be careful about. If water is run over the stand, eventually it will break down this way; there's no way to keep the water getting into where the screws are, apparently, which hold the stand together. So rinsing them with water running over them is a no no. So there's got to be another way.

I’m not using very hard scrubbing or high pressure water, with the way I’m doing it.

This URL will take you straight to the photo. (when I put the "Img" coding with this url, it did not show the image, don't know why at this time.) Just go to this URL.

http://www.treetopbird.com/PhotoGallery ... anita%5F55

Now, this steam cleaner thing I've seen people mention about at a glance, I know nothing about, and had never heard of it before. Steam cleaner which blasts steam at it???? Maybe that's the answer? Can ya'll teach me about that and how it works? This way I may can get a good clean on the branches and also the trunk if need be, without running into the problem of the thing falling apart?! Can you direct like a steam cleaner hose thingy directly only where the poo spots are on the branches? And at times, his poo splatters down the trunk too, which needs cleaning. As long as you don't get much running moisture around the screws, especially at the base, it would be ok. On these large stands, there are screws which also secure and hold the branches together. Is there rinsing involved and in what manner? How does it work? Does it get all the stuff out or are there poo stainings left on the wood with this process?

With just spraying on that poo loosener stuff, then wiping the branches down with a damp sponge or moist paper towel, there are still poo stains left on the wood. That's not clean to me! - again. I don't like that at all. That tells me there's poo in teeny tiny little pores and/or crevices in the wood, that you can't get to that way, which need to be cleaned out. That can only be accomplished with scrubbing. The bird can get infections that way, and they can be fatal infections. Not good. Not clean. If this steam cleaner thing gets a bit deep into the pores of the wood, like the light, gentle scrubbing I'm doing does, that could be the mission accomplished. I would need to thoroughly and detailedly have descriptive postings about this, explaining the process, and the result - like, ya know? - in order to consider buying one. And I am researching to find the answer, so please tell me about this. It's like cleaning a wooden cutting board, which you use to cut up food in your kitchen. You have to scrub the food out of the little pores and crevices a bit, or else it becomes a breeding ground for bacterial growth. I scrub my cutting board with a scrub pad, and then rinse "also the pores" very thoroughly. Do you want to eat bacterial growth and soap? Rinse very well. Similar principle.

Just wiping off is not clean enough for my baby!

Maria

[Michael]

Hmm, well sounds like poor design on the manufacturers part if it really can't stand getting wet at all. I haven't had that problem with mine, I'm just gentle cleaning them but don't have to hold back on water.

I'll try to blog and post a video about my steam cleaner soon.

[dusty]

wow...great ideas...i learn something every day...thats michael this is a great site and very helpful to somewhat rookies like myself...i especially like the ideas of the steam cleaner and the baby bottle brush...i have six cages to clean, should be easier next time...i change cage liner paper every other day...wife's orders, so i can't do it twice or three times a week like some of you do....lol


dusty

[Michael]

Most of what ends up in my parrots' cage bottom is bits of toy and pellet crumbs. Either of these are harmless so I don't find it so urgent to clean. Both of my birds do the vast majority of their pooping outside the cage and that goes on newspapers under their stands. The potty training I did saves me loads of cage cleaning!

[dusty]

i am working on the potty training with CAG, she is doing well so far...question (off topic) how do i keep my sun conure on his perch...as soon as i walk away he flies to me...sorry to go off topic

dusty

[Maria]

wow...great ideas...i learn something every day...thats michael this is a great site and very helpful to somewhat rookies like myself...i especially like the ideas of the steam cleaner and the baby bottle brush...i have six cages to clean, should be easier next time...i change cage liner paper every other day...wife's orders, so i can't do it twice or three times a week like some of you do....lol


dusty

UHEM !! Breaka-one-nine - - - breaka-one-nine - - - Ok, Mr. Michael, you have DEFINATELY been ELECTED to post that VIDEO regarding this STEAM CLEANING process LOL! And we are not going to let your forget about it. You should'nt have opened your mouth about that, cause now you have to work it into your calendar in order to keep that COMMITMENT LOL (huggin' Michael) .... Please, regarding the Parrot Tree Stand, do video on cleaning it with the steam cleaner. And we also want to see how clean it gets the wooden perches on the stand, without leaving "poo stains"! My bird and me will love and adore you, pretty please and thank you.

Maria

[Michael]

Except you're gonna have to wait until my parrot decides to poop on his tree which isn't often!

[Maria]

Except you're gonna have to wait until my parrot decides to poop on his tree which isn't often!

LOLOLOLOL