by entrancedbymyGCC » Fri Oct 29, 2010 2:22 pm
I don't get these baking soda/lemon juice mixes... mostly the acid juice will neutralize the alkaline baking soda, so you get some fizzing and it may foam or fizz but it is fairly pointless except for show. It won't be an effective disinfectant, but maybe you just need to get the cage clean. Soap and water is pretty effective up to a point. But if you really want to disinfect the cage, use bleach or a commercial cage disinfectant and wait the appropriate amount of time before you put the bird back. And be very careful using disinfectants on porous surfaces like wood, as they will tend to soak in and leach out over time. Better to use mild soap and water on these and toss them if you suspect they are really contaminated (or bake them out if they can take the temperature).
Garden variety steam cleaners can't be relied upon to thoroughly disinfect cages either. The expensive ones that produce superheated steam are more likely to do so. They will clean, and they probably kill a fair number of the beasties, but if you have a need to make the cage [img]sterile[/img], don't count on them. You'd have to work pretty hard to get the surfaces hot enough to rely on the steam disinfection. (When you boil bottles to sterilze them, you do it for several minutes and they are immersed in boiling water -- regular steam cleaners produce steam at the same temp as boiling water, so you'd have to hold it a comparable period of time to be comparably effective.)
Scooter
Death Valley Scotty