The vast majority of cages come with feeder doors of some sort to make food and water changes quick and easy. There are some parronts out there, however, who would like to use something a little different for a myriad of reasons. Whether your bird is a messy eater and likes to fling seed far and wide, or you worry your parrot’s water will be dirtied immediately after you leave for work, there are solutions at Bird Cages 4 Less for nearly every parrot predicament!
Parrots and other birds are messy creatures by nature; usually, this isn’t fully understood until you have a bird living 
in your home. It’s very ecologically friendly, and neighborly, for wild parrots to drop half-eaten food to the forest floor so other animals can eat, too! This “wasteful” tendency can even help propagate some species of plants across the forest floor. Unfortunately, we don’t live in the forest – and we just have a regular floor – so this natural process makes our homes very messy. While some parrots tend to fling more food than others, we’re lucky to have feeders like the Seed Corral and Awesome Parrot No-Mess bird feeders. Using a No-Mess feeder has many benefits aside from just containing food, such as keeping the food away from droppings and, when mounted outside the cage, freeing up interior room that regular food bowls would occupy. Since your parrot has to perch on the No-Mess feeder in order to reach his seed or pellets, it’s unlikely that he will carry the food back out of the feeder and drop or toss it around the cage. Instead, he’s more likely to perch on the feeder and eat his fill – leaving the mess right inside the feeder. For birds that eat differently shaped pellets, they won’t be able to eat their favorites and fling the rest, so you’ll save money and waste fewer pellets! Cleaning a No-Mess feeder is simple – just detach it from the cage, dump the seed hulls or pellet dust in the trash, and wash with soap and water as you would any other food dish.
Does your bird love his pellets so much that he likes to play Master Parrot Chef while you’re away? My Amazon 
parrot Murphy’s favorite recipe is 3 to 5 pellets to one bowl of water and – viola – you have a stinky bowl of Pellet Soup! Not only does it dirty his water, but it wastes quite a bit of perfectly good pellets in the process. One possible solution to Pellet Soup is training your bird to use a water bottle! We carry a Quick Fill water bottle with a stainless steel, non-drip spout that is perfect for our feathered friends! The Quick Fill bottle comes with hardware to attach it to nearly any cage, and has one flat side so that it will mounts firmly. The top of the bottle flips open so you can refill the bottle with barely any effort at all – just make sure to clean the whole bottle thoroughly at least once per week. Training birds to use the water bottle is typically easier for young birds – but old birds can learn new tricks. You’ll want to leave a bowl of water in the cage while training your bird to drink from the bottle so they’ll always have an easy source of hydration. A few tips to get started: put your bird’s favorite soft treat on the spout so they’ll be interested and beak the tip. Soon, they’ll realize that the spout dispenses water. You can also sit your parrot near the bottle and manually dispense water with your finger so that they see water flow from the tip. Some birds – especially tricky conures – will attempt to shove food into the spout to make Pellet Water Bottle Smoothies. Check the water bottle daily to ensure it is functioning properly, and always leave the bowl of water if you’re unsure your parrot is actually drinking a sufficient amount from the water bottle.
How have you coped with a particularly messy parrot in your life? We’d love to hear about your solutions in the comments section below! Check back with us all month long for more clever solutions to keep your feathered friends healthy and happy.
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