Cage setup: the chronically pooped perch scenario

[lotus15]

I personally have not done it, but I know people who wash perches with metal cores in the washing machine and swear it works!! I would probably put it in a pillow case first.

Entranced, would you be able to post a photo of Scotty's cage set up? I am always looking for Cape cage set up ideas

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Entranced, would you be able to post a photo of Scotty's cage set up? I am always looking for Cape cage set up ideas

Sure but it might not be till end of next week, leaving on a business trip soon..

[idlepirate]

I usually clean my rope perches in the sink with one of those shoe brushes under running water. with the course ends, it brushes all the poop off nicely. Not the soft brushes, more like the bristles that are also used in nailbrushes.
I have the same crisis on moving things around the cage and them still being pooped on....the dreded "goodmorning" poop is the worst! always over a freshly cleaned perch or the side of the base of the cage lol.

[Michael]

Truman is still pretty bad but Kili totally has this down. Her cage is tall/narrow so you would think that she'd be more likely to poop on perches below yet she doesn't. That is because she mostly holds her poop in and drops a big one when I let her out of the cage. She flies over to her training perch and does her business over the newspaper.

Another factor I think though has to do with the thickness of the perch. It seems that poop rolls off of narrower perches more easily than the larger ones that Truman has. Anyway, for these reasons I try to have fewer perches and more to the sides at the bottom and a web of perches higher up.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

The problem with Scotty's cage was that we had this great java wood perch we bought when we bought the cage, but it covers a huge area. We initially put it low in the cage, and he adopted one of the higher ones as his nighttime roost perch. He's not big on cage changes, so we don't really want to swap out the roost perch for a very different one... and it took 5 placements to find tweaks on the roost and java perch so he doesn't bullseye it every morning... and then walk through it to go eat... with his feet! The roost had to be far enough in to avoid the food dishes, but the java perch couldn't go into the doorway.... Sigh. Now that it works, I'm not changing it!

[Becco Lunatico]

I've washed horse boots in the dishwasher as well as horse bits, so I might not be the right person to ask! I would worry if the plastic in the thing was safe at dishwasher temperatures. And if I was feeling particularly sanitary, I'd probably wash the offending thing by itself rather than with my dinner dishes. I might even do an empty load in between.

However, if the machine has a "sanitize" setting or indicator and all the organic debris has been removed from the dishes and silver in the machine, it should be perfectly safe to eat off of them, they will have been heated sufficiently to kill off most of the bacteria etc. And yes, I have eaten off dishes washed in dishwashers in which I have washed horse boots that got dirty in arenas with plenty of horse poop.

Anyone wanna come over for dinner?

I LOVE your style! Washed the perch this morning in washing machine alone, it came out fantastic! Air drying of course (:

[Shani]

I've been forbidden from putting things that have metal in them in the washing machine. A while back I was washing a jacket of mine that has a zip, and the zip broke off during the spin cycle and lodged itself somewhere in the internal workings.

Blowing up a washing machine isn't cool, kids. I'd be too chicken to try washing a rope perch

[zazanomore]

I've been forbidden from putting things that have metal in them in the washing machine. A while back I was washing a jacket of mine that has a zip, and the zip broke off during the spin cycle and lodged itself somewhere in the internal workings.

Blowing up a washing machine isn't cool, kids. I'd be too chicken to try washing a rope perch

LOL!

[CheekyandMalolo]

I would happily wash my horsey stuff in the dishwasher and washing machine if mum would let me

[Michael]

How does one parrot manage to get poop all over every perch in his cage with just a single mud monkey? He walks in it and then goes about his daily parrot business.

When I uncovered Truman this morning, I was welcomed to the sight of an excited parrot and the stench of poop. Truman went to sleep last night on a perch different from the one he normally sleeps on but I uncovered him this morning on his normal sleeping perch. So there must have been some climbing around at night. Furthermore, his rope perch which traverses the cage was covered in poop the entire span.

Even the top sleeping perch was covered in poop. That never happens because his butt hangs past the perch and there is nothing above it. Yet I spent all morning steam cleaning and scrubbing perches because he pooped all over them. Before cleaning the perches I had to get Truman out but his feet were invisible as they were covered in his own fudge. I grabbed him instead and carried him straight to the bathroom sink. I proceeded to rinse his feet with water and even had to clean his beak too.

I never have these problems with Kili. Her cage is smaller yet it stays much cleaner. I don't even remember the last time I had to clean poop off her feet. Is this a Cape thing or is Truman just such a klutz?