Exactly when to change litter?

[Zooey]

I recently got grass-fiber pellets as litter for Perry so that it wouldn't be so disgusting cleaning up after him. It's a biodegradable kind, so when I clean I just take it out, dump it in the garden, clean the tray, and let it decompose into humus. How often do I have to change it? Is it longer or the same time as newspaper?

[marie83]

I think changing of litter would depend on what type it was, how much time your bird spends in the cage, size of the cage and number of birds in the cage and if the bird spends time on the cage floor.

For a bird that doesn't go on the cage floor I doubt cleaning the cage daily in needed for hygiene/odour reasons, probably more like twice a week depending on circumstances listed above but I don't think this allows for proper monitoring of the birds faeces. If your only cleaning out on a sunday and wednesday, how do you know on the tuesday that your bird hasn't passed as many as usual on that day? because when you have other days poop still in the cage it makes it so much harder to tell.

[GlassOnion]

I don't know. I use newspaper because I like to check their droppings and replace the newspaper daily.
I don't really like the idea of having poop sitting around for a couple days.

Probably every few days?

[Zooey]

Is there something I can change daily less messy than newspaper? It always rips, no matter how often I change it. And it's hard to get all black-and-white pages. I only get either one or nothing in each newspaper.

[Polarn]

I use the paper used to cover floors when painting, cut them into the right sizes and puts em in, just spend an afternon cutting and you should have plenty of sheet suited for your cage to make the daily change easier, apart form the afternoon very now and then you spend cutting. Actually right now I am using up a roll of tablecloth (made out of paper) becouse they sold em wery cheap so was cheaper to buy that, and to be honest i quite like it... its a bit brighter than the brown paper used to cover floors, however droppings was easier to check on the brownpaper instead of the white, and it is a bit thicker.

[Shelby]

There are paper cage liners you can buy, or you could use paper towels. Around here at most grocery stores and gas stations, they have free weekly classified ad papers you can take. They are usually only printed in black and white - try snatching a few of those the next time you're out.

[Zooey]

I use the paper used to cover floors when painting, cut them into the right sizes and puts em in, just spend an afternon cutting and you should have plenty of sheet suited for your cage to make the daily change easier, apart form the afternoon very now and then you spend cutting. Actually right now I am using up a roll of tablecloth (made out of paper) becouse they sold em wery cheap so was cheaper to buy that, and to be honest i quite like it... its a bit brighter than the brown paper used to cover floors, however droppings was easier to check on the brownpaper instead of the white, and it is a bit thicker.

What paper to cover floors? That sounds good.

[Bobioden]

Litter??? What do you have a bird or a cat?? Use newspaper, it is SO much easier.

[Zooey]

I have a bird.
I heard that there was something bad with colored newspaper ink, is it? Because if there wasn't I would definitely use newspaper. If I can only use black and white... it's going to be hard finding that. I went through two or three newspapers daily and only found about 2 all black and white pages.

[marie83]

Two or 3 newspapers daily? How much are you using or do you have an aviary? Even in my biggest cage I only get through about 6 sheets of paper at a time. I use a double layer. By the way to stop the paper ripping and everything falling off I lift the paper slightly at one end and roll it up rather than lift it straight out. That way if anything does fall off or the paper rips it's in the tray which can then be tipped straight into the bin.

I do use any newspaper on my cages including colour but none of my birds have ever chewed it up. If they did then I wouldn't use it. If your worried then you could try getting hold of the end of an unprinted roll. Sometimes the companies sell them off cheaply or so I've heard, not sure how true that is as I've never tried myself.