eco-friendly parrot keeping

[TinyTimneh]

well, like a lot of people these days, i do care about the environment, it's a pretty scary path we're headed down if people don't snap out of it.

anyhoo, got me thinking, is there any way at all to be an eco-friendly yet still loving parrotkeeper? i suppose I could not give my grey those cardboard boxes he adores so much and put them out for recycling instead but, then, i would be compromising my grey's happiness (and in turn his feathers) and I wouldn't dare do that...

if you think about it, imagine how much newspaper, wood, compostable food etc parrot keepers put in the garbage, now yes, we've no choice, we've got to keep our fids clean, but i wonder if there is a balance? what does everyone think?

[pmaholm]

I see giving my parrot newspaper and other things to play with as a form of recycling.

 

Plus if you think about it the things we throw away from our birds are(for the most part) easily biodegradable, most of the food/paper will be gone in a few months to a year or so. Not like the 10,000+ years a plastic bottle takes to break down.

 

Also the breeder we got Refund and Joey from has a good idea about wasted food, she collects all of it from her birds and then gives it to the chickens! And I'll tell you what those chickens lay some of the best eggs I've ever had. :woohoo:

 

Just a couple of thoughts

 

-Patrick

[siobha9]

I line the bottom of the cages with newspapers. When I am cleaning out the cages I bring it to the compost bin and tear it up roughly. All of the waste, chewed up pieces of wood, paper, pellets, fruit and seed go in. I cover it with grass clippings etc.

 

Every now and then I pick any germinated sunflower seeds out of the compost and put them in my veggie bed. When they ripen I hang them upside down to dry over a large sheet of paper. The dried seeds land on the paper which I then feed to my birds.

 

Any waste parts of our veggies I feed to the greys as well. I steam broccoli leaves, turnip greens and cauliflower leaves and give it to them. They love it.

 

When I empty my budgies and cockatiel seed trays I tip it onto a concrete footpath. The sparrows, robins and wrens pick out whatever hasnt been eaten, and the chaff blows away.

 

I transplant any lettuce plants which have bolted into pots in the aviaries for the little birds also. That way they always get it fresh and there is no waste.

[Tycos_mom]

I collect all the food my birds waste and give it to the wild birds that way I don't have to buy wild bird seed and as for the cardboard boxes I recycle them anyway I gather up all the chewed peices and what is left of the boxws and sent them to the recyclers they clean everything first anyway so the little bit of poop doesn't matter mind you my birds are very clean about the things they play with and don't poop on their card board anyway they will poop off the side of their cages or play stands and then go back to chewing their box cardboard is cardboar chewed or not it can still be recycled

[Lyric]

This is a good topic and I'm interested to read the other members ideas for being more green. I feel like I'm recycling when I use the newspapers I've read to line the bottom of the cages but Siobhan takes it a step further by composting it after it is used. Lots of containers that food comes in is recycled around my house because the bird first gets to play with it, then when he's done he throws it on the floor for the dogs to play with. By the time everyone is done with it, it's already broken up into pieces!

[TinyTimneh]

lol well... hmm.. maybe I can start a compost pile.. depends if i can convince the people i live with, they're not too green (plus the dog might get into it). i wish i lived in a area like yours Tycos_mom, because the recycling here won't touch anything unless it's absolutely clean, whether what's on it is bird poop or not, or else they won't take it. and unfortunately all of my three fids have proved to be very very messy poopers, and they're sneaky too !

and yeah i guess in a way even if we throw it out if it's compostable it will decompose.. so it's not really permanent garbage... makes me feel a lot less guilty

wonder what else people have come up with? It's so interesting and helpful to see all of these ideas

[TinyTimneh]

here's food for thought:

 

what about lining the bottom of the cages (in the trays and only with a grate separating of course) some stick-on vinyl flooring?

seems to me it cuts down on a huge amount of waste (no newspaper, and the bits of wood, food etc aren't all that huge or hard to dispose of, again, I could very well just scatter them a corner of the yard or something) and all the poop should wipe right off it and it would be easy to disinfect. what do you guys think?

[Sallas]

I was looking into these bird food recyclers, as we all know the cost of that stuffis not cheap, but there is no way i would do it if there is any chance of contaminated food.

 

http://www.bird-zerk.com/