As it looks like I'm going to be adopting a cockatiel very soon (give or take a couple of weeks because of my childrens very short-lived promises of caring for it) and also a budgie (I have become very attached to one of my babies ) I will be keeping them inside and will no doubt have seed husks scattered everywhere. Especially on dark carpet I am vacuuming every 5 minutes! Anyone got any ideas on how to keep the husks inside the cage and not all over the place? Please give me some ideas as I dont think my partner is all that keen on them being inside!

try getting one of those stretchy seed catcher things, its like fabric that goes around the bottom of the cage, should hold most of the seed in the cage and put the tops on your seed bowls, also mabye put newspaper under the cage or dont put them on carpet as to make it easier to vacuum, ive got Bing on my cork and it takes like 30 seconds to vacuum round the cage each day.

 

good luck!

Clear contact on the outside of the bars hahah! make them stick to it...

Who knows, no matter what I do I always have the mess from inside birds, luckily mine are on slate though

Go buy some of the plastic hall runners from Bunnings and put that under the cage if it's kept on carpet makes clean up a little easier.

A lot of the bird mess comes from flapping of wings in the cage blowing seed debris out so seed catchers dont help much in that case

I just vaacum nothing really works, plus seed catchers the seeds fall in there and then you have to clean that out all the time when you remember.

I was given advice by a friend to use fly screen to cover the sides of the cage with clips to hold it in place to stop husks from escaping out of my indoor cage for my 4 budgies.

 

I trialled this for a few weeks and it works to some extent and keeps some of the husks inside the cage rather than out. But I found that after a while some husks would be stuck in between the fly screen and cage and so the fly screen would have to be removed to clean. The birds also enjoyed chewing on the fly screen and it looked a little untidy.

 

After the trial I find that I prefer not having the fly screen because this involved cleaning the fly screen as well but my friend who gave me this advice finds that it works for them with their birds. So, I guess it depends on the person and how much mess their birds make. It's a good idea to try advice/suggestions given and see what works best for you.

I find also that nothing really works. Mainly due to what seems like constant moulting and the carpet being covered in their "underwear".. also the flapping of excited wings makes husks, feathers and seeds fly around the room and land on the carpet that has just been vacuumed. No amount of "seed catchers" would do the trick. Guess I've just accepted that its a messy business, I have two budgies, in separate rooms and if one is not moulting the other one is however its only a 5 minute job to run the vacuum over it daily.

I custom made my seed catcher for my cage and its made from a silky material too to help any feathers and husks slide to the bottom under the cage where they lie trapped until the weekly clean out. I find it very effective along with a cloth to protect the floor from any stray bits - i don't have to vacuum every day and i have 5 birds (2 tiels and 3 budgies) inside. Cockatils are FAR messier than budgies as their feather dust gets EVERYWHERE and there poos are much more noticeable!

Hey Jenene, if you give me the dimensions of your cage base I'll make you a really good seed catcher and post it up to you, I have found it great for keeping the mess inside, even when I had a lorikeet in one of the cages!! I have tried to buy them the same but can't find them anywhere. no matter what there is still a little that gets out due to the flapping of wings, etc but I found this meant I could vacuum a couple of times a week instead of every day.