My Personal Cleaning Routine
Keeping our parrot’s environment clean is essential to optimal health. Having the right routine will help you save time, decrease fatigue after cleaning, and keep you on a schedule to be sure the conditions stay pristine. Also, understanding the dangers of some cleaning products to our parrot’s sensitive respiratory system can be the difference between life or death. This post is Fluff and Feathers personal cleaning routine that is used for 11 rescue parrots. The birds in our care are in flight aviaries and our most special needs birds are kept in normal cages of an appropriate size and set up for this special needs.
To start, Lets go over the schedule of cleaning. I clean my parrots’ cages completely once a week. This means wiping down all the bars inside and out, cleaning the floors or scrubbing grates, and even sliding aviaries around to clean under them, as things get stuck under there. This once a week deep clean brings the cages back to pristine condition everywhere. Throughout the week, about every other day, I will change papers, wipe down the high traffic bars, like on their doors, feeding areas, and the bottom bars near the floor or grates, and clean the floor for the aviaries. The reason for the spot cleaning is to remove dropping waste and food waste. There are a few birds, like Calvin my disabled Mealy Amazon or Rukkas my disabled Red Lored Amazon, who fall sometimes off their perch at night, where I will clean their papers every day, as they come into contact with it more than my other birds. I would recommend spot cleaning everyday if your bird is a bird that would be interacting more with their waste.
Next would be my routine. I will describe my deep cleaning routine first, as the spot cleaning routine is a very similar process, just not as involved. First are materials used. Every single cage has their own broom head, dust pan, putty knife scrapper, plastic bristled scrub brush (grout cleaning brushes and car tire scrub brushes I enjoy the most), steamer scrub head, and rags. All of my cages have their own cleaning supplies because I do not want to cross contaminate cleaning supplies between cages. If you sweep through droppings from one cage and use the same brush to sweep through droppings of another, that means the birds are sharing germs, which can be problematic. It also allows for me to sanitize the supplies after each use easily. Side note, make sure that you use a plastic scrub brush and not the metal wire ones like for grills because the wire ones are known to shed and rust easily. The shedding pieces are very sharp and can lead to injuries, ingestion, metal toxicity, and death, as plastic is less likely to shed. Other materials that I use are my steamer unit. I have a lot of birds and clean a lot; therefore, I have a steamer that is a little extra. I have this steaming unit from Mcculloch, and they have smaller sized units available too. To state the obvious, you’ll also need some hand sanitizer and microfiber cloths.
Next on the materials list are chemicals and disinfectants to use that are safe for parrots. Most chemical disinfectants are not safe to our parrot’s sensitive upper respiratory system. A generalized ideas as to why our parrot’s respiratory system is so sensitive is by checking out our other blog post here. I invested in a steamer unit because it kills bacteria and viruses just with water. It is incredibly cost effective in the grand scheme of things, very powerful, can be used on all surfaces, and does everything chemicals do while being 100% safe for our parrots. But I do still use chemicals to support the cleaning of the steam. First is white vinegar and water solution (I do 50/50 ratio). This is a great, cost effective and completely safe option for cleaning for our parrots. It kills bacteria, but it sadly does not kill viruses. For some, bacteria are all that you’re after, which is completely, fine, but when I deep clean. My standard is sterilization and getting as close as I realistically can to that. So, I want something to kill viruses. This means I will also use a product called F10. It is a veterinary cleaner that you can purchase online that kills bacteria and viruses while being safe for our parrots. Be sure you get the clean solution and not the green solution. The green solution is not as safe and needs to be washed thoroughly off of surfaces to be safe for parrots. The clear solution does not have to be rinsed off of surfaces.
One other cleaning agent and material I use is a 5-gallon bucket and bleach. Beach is unsafe to use around our parrots, and should not even be used in the same room. The fumes from the cleaning agent are toxic to parrots. The purpose of this in my cleaning routine is actually for the cleaning supplies themselves, not to be used around my parrots. I will fill up the bucket with water and the correct bleach ratio and put the used cleaning supplies in the bucket to clean them for the next use. In the winter, the bucket goes in my bathroom with the door shut and fan on. In the summer, I put it outside. I put every cleaning item in there to be sanitized, then once I am done cleaning, I rinse them all very well with hot water and let dry.
Now that we understand the materials, lets go into the deep cleaning process. To start, I remove the birds from their cage or ask them to sit on their stations. This is so the bird is out of my way when I am scrubbing, using hot steam, and using chemicals that are not dry yet. To start, I sweep and scrape. For my normal cages, I will take the putty scrapping tool and remove as much droppings from the grates. For my aviaries, I will scrape up the droppings from the floor so they are not stuck on there. Next, I will sweep outside and around the cage. For my aviaries, I start outside where there are no droppings, since outside the cage is a communal area, then go inside where the droppings are. This allows for me to not cross contaminate. Once the area is clean and as bare as it needs to be, I will take the dust pan and broom head and put them in the bleach bucket to soak, keeping the scrapper.
The next step is to work on the bars inside and outside of the cage. The outside bars being clean is for our parrot’s health and for our aesthetic, but the inside bars are what your parrot always comes into contact with, therefore it is equally or more important to clean the inside bars. Normal cages are difficult to clean the inside bars, but not impossible. Contorting myself to clean the inside bars of a normal cage fared up my chronic pain constantly; that was a factor as to why I transitioned to aviaries among other reasons. To clean the bars, there are a few options. Soaking a rag in cleaner, like the vinegar and water solution of F10 clear solution, spraying those solutions on the bars then wiping, or using the steam cleaner. What I do is usually have a rag soaked in F10 and then use the steamer for where there are droppings or anything else caked on to loosen and remove it. It is important if you use soaked rags that you do not ever put a rag that has touched a cage back into the cleaning agent. This is again for concerns on cross contamination. It is also important when you grab a new one to soak and wring out that you use hand sanitizer before you pick up the new rag to also avoid cross contamination. When the rag is used and you feel like you need to dip again, either grab another rag or use a spray and wipe option. Cleaning the bars also is important to remove dust from the environment to help improve the air quality.
Once the bars inside and outside of the cage are done, then comes the perches. There are a few different ways to handle perch cleaning. One is to remove them and soak them in water and dish soap and scrub them. Remember that if you put a cages perch in the sink, drain the water, and want to put another set of perches in from another cage, it is best to disinfect that tub area to avoid cross contamination. Another option if you have a dishwasher, I do not, is to put the perches in alone on the sanitize setting with no soap. For ropes, putting them in the washer machine is also a great way to clean, no soap needed. Just put it on the high heat water setting. Putting rope perches in the dryer is 50/50. I have quite a few times and sometimes it has ruined my perches, some it doesn’t. You can hang dry them, or sometimes I put them right back in the cages wet to dry there. I personally use the steamer to do perches. Just run over them with the steamer till they are cleaned, and wipe away with a microfiber cloth.
Lastly comes the grates and the floors. We start from the top and work our way down in the cleaning routine. With the cage grate, I keep them inside the cage to start to decrease the mess. I will either spray it with f10, wait 3-5 minutes for the chemical to do its job, then go over with the plastic brushes to remove droppings. Then, remove the grate from the cage and put it in upside down and repeat on the underside. For those who cannot go in upside down, especially corner cages, you will have to remove them, flip them over, and scrub on the floor outside of the cage. Be sure once scrubbed to remove all the droppings from the floor and spray with F10 or hit it with the steamer to be sure the communal areas stay clean. I will also sometimes take the grates and put them in the utility sink and scrub there with the brush. Another option is skipping the brush and only using the steamer on the grates. I find that the steamer is not as powerful on the grates as they are on the floors, therefore I usually use the above method rather than this, but it depends on how I am feeling that day. Trays can be cleaned with F10 or the steamer.
For aviary floors, you can use F10, but I find that it is the easiest to use the steamer. The steamer is extremely hot. So, it loosens the droppings so there is no scrubbing needed. It also gets the urates up really nicely, which can be super difficult to remove with other cleaning methods. The trick is to keep the steamer on the area for about 5 second intervals to allow the heat to melt off, while not melting your floor depending on the floor type. I have commercial grade vinyl plank, so I do not have to worry about melting my floors. Rely less on the scrubbing and the brush head to the steamer and allowing the steam to work for you. You may need to use the scraper on the feces part of the dropping if it is stuck there to help expedite the process. For that process I put the steamer on for 5 seconds on the area, scrape, and repeat if needed till it is off, then use the brush with the steamer going to massage the area to get every last bit up. I will also use the microfiber cloths used for the bars on the floor and for the grate to help reduce the number of rags I am using. Lastly, I will push the metal aviary over about 2 inches anyway to clean under the aviary. I use the same methods as I do with the floor. There is always stuff hiding under there.
Lastly, I will be sure everything is 100% sanitized. For the grate, I will spray it with F10 and let dry. For the floors of the aviary, I will either spray with F10 like the grates, or I will use a mop head feature for my steamer and go over the floor area. You can also put F10 in a mop bucket and use that. I be sure to always use hand sanitizer when going in between any step or going from touching something from the bird’s environment and touching something communal. Then is to take care of the cleaning items in the bleach bucket.
About every other clean, I will take extra steps to clean the outside environment. This includes cleaning our air purifier filters, taking a mop bucket filled with F10 and wiping down all the walls and baseboards with the mop head, and cleaning cabinets and anything else in the bird’s immediate environment. Also, I clean trees and play gyms.
For the spot clean, it is much simpler, but I do it more frequently. I start with the sweeping and clearing the floors, exactly the same as the deep clean. I also still use the bleach bucket. Then, I will look over the bars and wipe them in the same fashion as above where there are food, droppings, or dirt of any kind, but I do not do all of the bars. For my dusty cockatoo, I will also go over any areas with dust accumulation, which usually is just about all the bars for his cage. I also go over the perches if there is any buildup; generally, this is only on the food perches next to the bowls. Finally, I do the floor and grates exactly as above. The only difference is I do not move aviaries the 2 inches out of place and back and save that for the deep clean, as the birds do not have access to what is under there.
Overall, my focus with cleaning is to eradicate all germs, not cross contaminate, and make it as easy for me as possible. I have 4 normal cages, 2 smaller flight aviaries, and 3 large aviaries. I can do all the spot cleaning in under 2 hours and the deep clean around 4 hours, maxing out at 6 hours if I do everything in the environment. I save deep cleaning for the weekends when I have more schedule flexibility and evenings for the spot cleaning. There is also a mindset of doing the task you are least looking forward to doing, that is the most challenging, or the most time consuming first in the day so all the other tasks after it are simpler and easier to get through. I fully agree and try to use that mindset to my advantage all the time with cleaning.
If you have any questions about this cleaning, you can always contact us and we would be more than happy to answer all your questions!