Birds tend to throw food around.
They are perhaps the messiest eaters in the pets world, and they don’t just trash their cages. Your birdies will paint your walls with bellies and smear your floor with all kinds of food debris.
And there is no single bird, more so parrots, that won’t make a mess. Maybe a lesser mess, but you can rest assured there will be a mess.
Granted, this is a challenge almost every bird owner comes across, and most have honed failproof skills to keep their feathery friends from creating a mess every time feeding rolls up….
…, and that is what we will delve into in this post.
We’ll see what, when, and how to feed your bird without making too much of a mess.
But before we get into the nitty-gritty, let me share my hacks.
To keep pickle (my GCC) from making a mess, I use a big feeder with a hood right in the middle of the cage. Because his pen is sizable, it helps keep as much food from flying across to my walls. The little guy is not the best thrower😊🤷♂️.
I’ve also installed a bird’s cage mesh cover-seed catcher combo (cage skirt) to keep my walls and floors clean. It fits securely around the pen, plus the cover is a white nylon mesh, which does not block out the light.
See more information through the length of this article.
How To Stop Your Bird from Throwing Food Around
I know this is unsettling, but it’s natural for birds to be wasteful, and there is nothing much you can do to change this behavior.
It’s a crucial part of the adaption of many birds that function as agents of seed dispersal.
One parrot owner argues that birds are like arboreal monkeys. They are foragers presented with an abundance of food in the wild. As a result, they have adjusted to eating the best parts and throwing away the rest.
You will notice this even in house birds.
For instance, Pickles (my GCC) will eat the fleshy part of a fruit and leave the rest lying around, and if he is feeling mischievous, he will fling the reminder about and leave me to clean it up.
Most birds are also pretty picky.
If they do not like the food you’ve offered them, they’ll only nibble on it and leave the rest untouched.
So, one way to keep your bird from wasting food, or at least reduce the wastage, is to learn what he likes and only offer them that.
I suppose you could stop wasteful behavior by feeding your birds less food, but you’ll need to err on the side of caution because it can easily do more harm than good.
You should also try to understand how much food he consumes in a day because, if he has too much, your bird will most likely waste the excess food.
Even so, keep in mind there only is a thin line between what is excess and what is enough. You do not want to starve your birdie while trying to make him less wasteful.
How to Keep Bird Seeds from Falling Out of Bird Cage
The most effective way to keep your pet bird seeds inside the cage is using seed-catching-skirts, also called birdcage seed guards or catchers.
They are devices that look like a giant funnel with a nylon mesh that goes on the side of the cage and a plate-like base that goes at the bottom of the pen to catch spilled seeds before they hit the floor.
Seed catchers are available in most bird stores and online, but if you love a good DIY project, you can make one yourself. You will only need a few supplies and some free time.
Another hack that works well is to install a barrier on the side and under the cage with acrylic sheeting or stainless steel mesh.
Attach the mesh to the cage bars with a suitable adhesive or drill holes through the panels, and using small, smooth head bolts and nuts, attach your meshing.
Clean plexiglass sheets attached to the side of the cage also serve as perfect barriers to bits of food and water that your bird might fling on the walls, so use them if you can’t access a seed catcher with a side mesh.
The alternative for the seed catcher would be to place a towel under your bird’s food bowl and pull it across your cage on each end. Any stray seeds will drop in the middle of the towel, reducing debris reaching the floor.
Instead of a towel, you can also use a clean, clear table cloth.
Make sure you frequently clean up the little pieces that still make it to the floor to keep them from accumulating and getting stuck on your floor or carpets.
What Do You Put at The Bottom of A Bird Cage
Now, no matter how much you try keeping your bird from making a mess, there will always be some dirt that falls through the cage floor to the ground.
As such, it helps to line the bottom of your cage.
From experience, an ideal material to place at the bottom is disposable paper such as newspapers or paper towels that can be changed every day.
Papers are cheap, readily available, and easy to line your bird’s cage with.
Some bird owners prefer wood chippings or sawdust, which is a decent alternative and one that you won’t need to change as often, only that they are not as readily available as newspapers.
You are less likely to find any wood chipping or sawdust, especially if you live in and around the city. They are not as many millers as they are in rural areas.
Litter material, such as newspapers, wood shavings, and sawdust, serve as mops that take up all wastes, more so liquid ones, passed out by you bird.
Given the option between newspapers and wood-shaving, I prefer the latter to the former since they provide the optimum comfort for your birds.
Wood shavings are also absorbent, which means they can soak up all liquids in the cage without needing a change as often.
Having said that, please note that you may still need to line your cage with newspapers before placing the wood shaving or sawdust bed to keep the pieces from falling through the holes at the bottom of the pen.
Cage liners, rice barn, kenaf stern, groundnut husk, and such materials are perfect litter bedding alternatives to wood chippings and sawdust, only make they are toxins-free and do not host pests that will attack your feathery pal.
Lastly, sand, high fragrance material, tiny wood shavings, and corn cob parts all create a danger for your bird if inhaled or ingested, so be careful when you use them to line your bird’s cage.
Thats all for this post.
Happy birding🐦🦜.
