How to keep house clean in spite of pet birds..?

Question

We have two cockatiels in a cage in our dining room. I am constantly cleaning bird seed, feathers, dander from the shelves and tables and vents in that room. How do most people deal with pet birds and still keep the house clean. My house feels disgusting...I dont have time to dust and wash that room everyday...any ideas from other bird owners???

Answer 1

I had a cockatiel which we allowed to fly around the room. He would sit on the window ledge much of the time. Because his mess was spread around it wasn't so obvious, so a good weekly clean up was sufficient.

Lovely birds aren't they!

Answer 2

1) Buy a good vacuum with a HEPA filter in it (about $200) and vacuum the room the birds are in every single day.

2) Buy a good HEPA air purifier (about $100) for the room the birds are in and run it 24/7. Make sure the air purifier is just a HEPA filter. You don't want an ionizer feature because there is evidence this is harmful to birds and maybe even people!

3) Change cage paper daily and wipe any obvious poop or messes in/on cage or on floor, etc, up on a daily basis. Ten minutes every day means that you don't have to spend an hour once per week after the mess has built up.

4) Offering the birds a bath several times per week can also help reduce the dust on them.

Your cockatiels, like african greys and cockatoos, are the only hookbills with powder down feathers. These are special feathers that crumble into powder as the birds preen. this is where all the dust is coming from. I have a Grey so you can imagine the dander in my house. The above things have helped a lot.

Answer 3

Getting a good air filter helps immensely. As others have suggested, a cage skirt is useful.
Misting your birds keeps a lot of the dust down as well as being good for them.
Being "Proactive" with the mess works wonders:
Keep a vaccum cleaner plugged in and on hand all the time and use it on the small messes before it becomes a big mess. Or get a hand vac and keep it near the cage.

Wipe down the cage bars with a damp, not wet cloth every other day or so.

Change the papers in the cage frequently. This will remove the dust, seeds and feathers from getting stirred up and flying around your room.

If you are in an area of the country where the weather is still good, putting the bird cage out on an enclosed porch or deck for a time during the day will help immensely. I have 4 finches and put them out on my screened in front porch during the day. The breeze blows a lot of the junk out of the cage, and they like the view, the sunshine and the fresh air. But you have to keep on eye on them and only put them out when you have good weather.

Lastly, please be tolerent of the mess and learn to simply clean it up as it happens. It is a fact of life that these things occur with companion birds...it is a natural behavior and occurance. They are nature's "mulchers" and aren't doing anything wrong. And I'm sure that the happiness that they give you far outweighs the inconvenience of the added housework. A clean house doesn't care about you. But I'll bet your birds care about you and love you very much.

Answer 4

I have a bird room my kids moved out of when they grew up and left home. I have a cieling fan in there that goes 24/7 I also use a UTILITY SHOP VACUUM to keep my place clean with. I use those dust buster wipes to wipe things down for dust every 3 days if it needs to be. I have 34 birds in my home and I vacuum every 3 days depending on the need for it. I clean as needed before I go to sleep at night time. I change out the water and food if they need it as I see it needing changed. There is nothing you can do about the dander floating around but try to keep a spray bottle of water to spray them at least once a day in the morning to keep them grooming themselves. Once they become accustomed to being sprayed everyday, you should notice a difference in the dander laying out all over the place. A wet bird has less dry dander because they lack moisture intake into their feathers without being sprayed on a regular basis. Every other day should work after you notice the dander layout change. I have raised birds for 20 yrs now.

Answer 5

well we have a cockatiel and we love her to death she is the baby of the family (that is her name Baby) , we have this plastic sheeting that is on the bottom of the cage , and it works well , and when it is cleaning then we can just take off the plastic sheeting , and then dump the seeds and other stuff in the garbage , and then put it right back on .. We let her out everyday , and all we do is just make sure that you wipe up messes , and dust at least once a week , or you and the bird will be getting sick .
Hope you have a good experience with your bird ,,

Answer 6

There are a few ways to help this:

Get not only hepa filters for your a/c system, but get a separate one just for their room. Keep the filters UPDATED! A dirty filter won't help your air much.

Get a seed guard for around the cage. My budgies can fling seed and shells about 4 foot from their cage, but the seed catchers do get most of it. You will still be vacuuming a few times a week.

Speaking of vacuuming: I would invest in those plastic runners that people like to keep under their desks. It makes clean up as easy as sweeping that off. You will still need to vacuum two-three times a week.

To keep the feather dust and dander down: Give them spray bathes a few times a week (2 is good, more is better). Get them used to it gradually, but in the end you want to be able to soak them to the skin twice a week. This not only keeps their skin and feathers moisturized but it helps rinse the feather dust from building up. Keep them away from cold drafts while they dry, and don't wash them right before bedtime.

Change their cage papers every day, but take the cage out to really hose it down once a week or so. Again this helps prevent build up or seeds/poop/feathers.

Good luck!

Answer 7

Welcome to the wonderful world of bird ownership.
This is part of the territory. There really is no getting around it.
You can try those cage skirts, but it doesn't help for the feather dust.
Cage skirts are elastic and fabric bands that go over the lower portion of the cage to help keep debris inside. They work a little, you will still have mess though. And birds like to eat them, so not always the best solution.
Even with the skirts you will need to clean everyday to keep the birds healthy. They can't be left in that mess.
You should have done more research BEFORE you got the birds.

Answer 8

They are very messy. My husband insisted on us getting a cocktail and a Quaker. The only thing to do is to buy the extend feeder at Petco. The seeds land in the bottom of the cage instead of all over the floor. Also a long time ago they made a plastic bottom that went on the bottom of the cage to catch all seeds and feathers. I'am still looking everywhere for that.

Answer 9

they sell plastic covers that are about 4 inches high that go on the bottom of the cage to keep seeds in. another idea is to switch them to the nugget style food that is not seeds. may take some doing to get them to switch though (personally my keet resisted so I gave in). I have the bird cage set in a box about 3-4 inches high. Not very attractive, but keeps in alot of the seeds until he decides to flap his wings.

I also take my bird out and bathe him - no water, just rinse him in a shallow pan. gets off alot of the dander about eveyr 3-4 weeks. my birds a pig and won't bathe on his own.

Answer 10

Welcome to the wonderful world of birds! I have had birds for over 30 years and dusting and cleaning is a losing battle. I have cockatoos, so you get my drift. (dust!) That is way most serious owners have what they call a bird room. Yes, it is a room for the just the birds! That way you can just shut the door.

I have wore out 6 dust busters and numerous brooms and dust pans. I now am on my 3rd shop vac.....