Rust On Bird Cage

[kimmyc1308 0]

Hi all!

 

I have a question about the quality of my bird cage, and how to prevent (if i'm supposed to be preventing) rust on my budgies' cage.

 

Have had this problem with two new cages I have bought for the birds, and am worried it is something that I am causing.

 

I am pretty sure the cage is powder coated, has a mix of green/grey colour. Prior to this I had a solid black painted cage, and that one has worse rust on it then the current one right now, although I have only washed this one a couple of times -.-

 

Anyway, the people at the pet shop (who has birds) told me they'd had it for three years, and his hadn't rusted, so I am not sure whether I am doing something wrong, or if the cage has a problem with the coating and I should return it. Or, if I fell for the sellers scam telling me it's fine.

 

There is no rust in obvious areas more in tight places I guess that I could not remove water from, tried air drying first time and that caused rust, and the only thing I am using to clean it is detergent and water.

 

Is there any way to repair/get rid of rust that is safe for my birds? Or, even a way to prevent rust from occurring? Right now I have tied tea towels over the rusty parts as a precaution for my birds -.- it does not look pretty, but at least it is safe!

 

Any help/advice would be appreciated! To have a safe and secure home for my birds is one of my priorities, don't feel I can relax until that happens, and thank you for reading.

[Finnie 0]

Hi kimmy, welcome to the forum!

 

My guess is that if your cage is rusting after just a few washes, then there must be a defect in the manufacturing. Perhaps the manufacturer changed their process in the three years that the seller had his cage, and now they are making cheaper cages that rust faster. Or perhaps you just got a substandard one. I'm not sure I understand about the black cage you had, though. Was it new, and it rusted, so they replaced it with the green one? Or did you just have the black cage for a long time, and that's why it was worse than the new one?

 

You should be able to hose your cage off and allow it to air dry, without having to worry about it rusting.

 

Now as far as making it safe for your bird, the only rust that is harmful to birds is when there are huge chunks of rust flaking off that the bird could ingest and get heavy metal poisoning from having a large piece of iron in the gut, or if the chunk causes a blockage.

 

You will read all over the place that rust is toxic to birds, but that is pretty much an old wives tale. I asked a similar question on a finch forum that I belong to, and there was quite a discussion about rust toxicity. Here is the link to that :http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=27536

Edited December 9, 2014 by Finnie