Solution to dirty walls?

[incubus1310]

I looked at the other threads and found this one to me the most fitting for my problem. I know African Greys are messy eaters but I've been living in my new house for about a year and I've been trying to come up on my own a solution but haven't found any and I'm hoping one of you can help.

 

I have Ruby's cage situated in a corner of my house where two sides of her cage are against a wall. Whenever she eats, she makes a MESS and those two walls are literally covered in small bits of food residue. I have to wipe off the walls daily but in doing so, it removes along with it parts of the paint. The paint is not wipe friendly. I mean, my house is only a year old and I wish I could provide you with more details of the type of walls I have but I don't know.

 

I've been looking into getting some backsplash plastic tiles to stick on the wall around her cage to make the cleaning process easier. That way, if she makes a mess, she dirties the backsplash and not my actual wall. Only problem is the ones I've come across have too many ridges and I think it'll make the cleaning process harder.

 

Is anyone experiencing the same issue? Have you come to a solution?

[SRSeedBurners]

Having fought the same mess issues in various places within our house I am always coming up with ways to battle it. The best way I've found to deal with their mess is newspaper.

 

Try putting up some kind of peg board, decorative pin board or something that you can pin newspaper too. Newspaper is cheap and easy to replace on a daily basis. We have feeder cages we use underneath our hanging perches in the living room. You could replace hanging sheets of paper in minutes. I keep grocery store baggies available to stuff it all in.

 

I have a table cloth on top of a coffee table, followed by one layer of newspaper, then the feeding cages. Inside those cages I cover the lower tray with one sheet, then the grate inside the cage gets a sheet. I do the same in their bird room cages. Each area takes me about 5 minutes to change out. I got tired of scrubbing dried bird shit off of everything. Once it dries it's a nightmare.

 

That's my idea.

[Acappella]

I've seen people hang sheets of plexiglass on their walls. It's pricey but the good thing is if you ever have to take it down, like if you move, you just have to take out the screws holding it up and fill the holes.

[kittykittykitty]

My daughter put Plexiglas behind Precious' cage. It works well. Also Method Bathroom Cleaner helps remove dried food but it might remove poor quality paint. I have used vinegar and water as well.

Howardine

[murfchck]

Seventh Generation multi cleaner. The best thing ever! Spray and wipe, very rarely do i have to go over anything twice!

[incubus1310]

Thank you for all the suggestions!

 

To those that said plexiglass, how do I go about actually sticking it to the wall ?

 

Murfchck, I'm gonna look into the multi cleaner.

[Muse]

I've seen people hang sheets of plexiglass on their walls. It's pricey but the good thing is if you ever have to take it down, like if you move, you just have to take out the screws holding it up and fill the holes.

 

I've seen the same thing done with whiteboard-type panels. They wipe off pretty easy. My fantasy is a tile-covered room with a drain in the floor. This will happen. Someday.

[Muse]

Thank you for all the suggestions!

 

To those that said plexiglass, how do I go about actually sticking it to the wall ?

 

Murfchck, I'm gonna look into the multi cleaner.

 

I've not seen plexiglas attached to the wall yet, but we've had several birds come in with it attached to 2 to 3 sides of their cages. This was done in each case by drilling holes and using different fasteners - some used washers and bolts (preferred IMHO) and some used twist ties and wire (those came off immediately). We actually eventually removed all of it because it was harder for me to steam the mess from inside the cage than it was for me to just hit the walls with the steamer.

 

Megan makes, without a doubt, the second biggest mess here - oddly Ife and Adom are the worst! Jungle manners, I suppose. No one out there in the wilds of Africa to urge them not to throw food everywhere, LOL. I hit the wall with the steam cleaner, knock of the chunks and sanitize it, but if the paint peels or stains remain, well, it's part of the decor - right along with Romeo's carvings in the French door, lol. I do wipe the pink sticky off the walls (constantly) during pomegranate season.

 

The main bird room is a HORRID dark maroon color any way. I'd love to be able to paint (or in my fantasy world, TILE) it, but there are so many more pressing priorities (generator, finishing the aviary, enclosing the porch for outdoor flights, building a flight onto the back where the deck is.... ) that any aesthetics are still way out there in fantasy land. Appearance? Not so important, as long as it's sanitary. I think if it were just us and our birds and I was trying to keep a nice looking home, I'd go with either whiteboard behind the cages or a tiled wall. Maybe that faux tile board stuff they line showers with?

[Acappella]

As for attaching the plexiglass to the wall, I would drill holes in the corners of the sheets, then attach them to the wall with screws. You will probably have to use drywall anchors if your walls are drywall. Depending on the size of the sheets of plexiglass you may have to add a screw in between the corner screws to keep them on the wall, but you shouldn't need more than 8 screws total. Like I said, the advantage of the plexiglass is that if you ever move you just take the screws out, fill the holes, sand them down and paint and voila, damage to the walls is gone and you get to take the plexiglass with you to your next home.

[birdhouse]

Soda bottles are made from High Density Polyethylene Extrusions (HDPE). It's cheaper, weighs "nothing" & obviously stands up to a bit of abuse. The clear will eventually yellow some w/age. Faster if exposed to sunlight unless it's the brand that has an ultraviolet additive.

 

Bought mine too long ago to remember the exact name it was sold under, anymore. But I just looked it up in the Yellow pages & bought several huge sheets & the stuff worked well for me. The company offered a lot of different size & thickness sheets. Much cheaper than plexi & easier to work with. I think I got 6 sheets of 4' x 8' that were thin enough to all be rolled together when I picked them up. It can be cut w/sheers or a mat knife & simply hung w/any wall mounting used for picture frames, incl the removable kind. I used adhesive velcro squares because they were handy at the time & I don't really worry about the yucky paneled walls.

 

I could take it them apart to clean if I wanted. But generally I would spray w/vinegar or a bit of Dawn & water, let sit for a couple of minutes & wipe. E-Z

[LNCAG]

11 years ago, I thumbtacked shower curtains around my bird room. It kept parrot splatters from touching the walls, but when I moved (recently) I took them down and discovered that's where the seed moths were laying larvae. The seed moth mess mostly brushed off walls easily, but still, disgusting. Kept me from having to paint though.

 

Current solution: Since my CAG expects to be covered at night, I just leave the cover on (basically a black flat bed sheet held onto back/top of cage with clothespins). I just roll the sheet back 85% or so to uncover each morning. I find that sheet on the back of his cage really keeps down a lot of splatters. Plus, the sheet is easily laundered.

Guess this trick only works if your cage is against a wall anyway.

[kittykittykitty]

My understanding is most plastics are toxic, as in table cloths and shower curtains. I know they surely smell like chemicals.

[LNCAG]

True! There is definitely off-gassing! I prepped the room before we moved in. It was the same for painting and having Orkin do a good spray prior to moving in -- everything needed to air out first. Plus, I am asthmatic (which isn't a great combo with birds) but really, if something isn't good for parrots, it probably isn't that good for us either.

I also lined the hard-wood floors with shower curtains duct-taped together before putting a rug over them. Those floors looked good when I removed the rug/shower curtains (well, floor was a bit dusty) but undamaged.