Bird Bedding
What You Need to Know About Bird Bedding
There are two main considerations to make when considering bird bedding. The first of these is safety for your bird and the second is the ability to see and monitor your bird’s droppings. The consistency, color, frequency, shape, and volume of droppings should be observed every day. There are many different materials on the market that are meant to be used as bird bedding, but many of them are simply not safe for your bird for a number of reasons. After all, no matter how hard you try to prevent it, your bird will get at the bedding in the cage and can ingest the material.
So what shouldn’t you use as bird bedding? I will go through these one-by-one. The first is corn cobs. Once ingested, corn cobs will stay in the bird’s system for years and can cause major illness over time. The corn cob can also grow mold in hot, humid climates and can cause bacterial infection in young birds.
The next thing to avoid is walnut shells. Your bird can also ingest these and if it does, then the shells can damage internal organs and cause internal bleeding. They can also promote the growth of bacteria.
Pine and cedar shavings should also be avoided. Cedar shavings, even just their smell, are actually toxic to your bird. The cedar shavings can cause allergies, dermatitis, and irritation in the digestive tract. Pine shavings are not toxic, but can cause infections in chicks that ingest them.
Another thing to avoid is cat litter, both the regular and the clumping types. Cat litter creates dust that, when inhaled, can be harmful. In addition to this, the clumping kind of cat litter absorbs liquid and swells in size, which means that if ingested, it can cause internal damage and death to your bird.
All of the above bird bedding materials also make it extremely difficult to observe your bird’s droppings. So what is the alternative? Paper products, which are the safest thing to use as bird bedding. You can use printed or unprinted newspaper, paper towels, paper bags, or any other kind of plain paper you can think of. Paper is absorbent, non-toxic, and makes it easy to see your bird’s droppings. Paper is also the least expensive alternative.
Even when you use paper as bird bedding, it is important to change the bedding daily. This results in a clean cage that is healthier for your bird and that also allows you to see the fresh droppings every day. Of course, changing the bedding in your bird’s cage is not the most enjoyable task, but it is one that will help keep your feathered friend healthy and happy for a long time to come.