What is the best bedding for pet birds?There seem to be so many options out there for bird bedding, but which one is right for you and your bird?

What is the best bedding for pet birds? The absolute best bedding for your bird is newspaper, recommended due to its cheapness, non-toxicity, and ease of utilise. It isn't the only bedding that can work with your bird, however.

When thinking most what bedding to use first, consider how information technology might bear upon your bird. Fifty-fifty products that you can buy at your local store could be harmful to them, fifty-fifty if the packaging says that it is safe for birds.

Read further to learn what makes good bedding, what you can use, and also what you need to avert.

The best bedding for your bird

There are several options to choose from when you get a bird. Not all of them are created equal. Bedding must see specific criteria to ensure information technology is safe for your avian friend to use.

Any bedding needs to be:

  • Easy to use for daily cleaning (You might also desire to accept a look at our article about birdcage cleaning tips you just have to know hither!)
  • Material that your birds won't eat
  • No fragrance or heavily perfumed bedding
  • No Dust

It sounds hard determining which is the best to apply. After all, nosotros can buy the bedding at the shop or so and so uses that, and information technology works out for their birds.

Due to the bedding that they use, they might non know if the litter is really the best for their birds. Below is a detailed list of the top 4 bedding that y'all can use for your avian friend's muzzle.

ane. Newspaper products

Sometimes elementary is the best pick when it comes to bedding for your pet's cage, and paper is the simplest and frankly all-time choice for your bird.

It is:

  • Cheap
  • Easy to clean
  • Doesn't harm your birds
  • Birds will non swallow it

Paper products too allow y'all to monitor your bird's health, by well, paying attention to their waste.

Since there is a language barrier betwixt the two you one of the first ways yous discover out there is an issue with your bird is past a alter in their droppings.

With the flat surface of the newspaper, you quickly cheque on your little friend to make sure they are feeling ok.

Out of paper products paper is the 1 most often used. It'southward is hands accessible, sometimes you tin get it for free. Since you will exist using this every day, it'southward best to look for something inexpensive to buy.

If you don't have any paper products readily available or for cheap, try to get artistic. Maybe someone you know reads the newspaper or y'all can make a deal with a local shop to have that pack of unpurchased papers off their hands.

For owners who have an untidy bird, y'all can place a stack of pages at the bottom of the cage and just pull the elevation layer off if your friend has fabricated a mess of information technology.

If you have a reasonably tidy bird, then other paper products are ok to use. If you don't accept any paper products readily available or for cheap, attempt to go artistic

Other paper products yous can use for your bird:

  • Paper towels
  • Patently paper
  • Brown paper bags
  • Packaging newspaper
  • Butcher newspaper

Make sure to avoid glossy ads or paper that seems to accept a treatment since the ink or treatment might not be rubber for your bird. However, the print on the newspaper itself is not toxic to your birds and that almost that it will practise are dye your avian friends' feathers.

Remember, you will exist changing the bedding every day, so it's best to avert anything too expensive. Included in that toll is the corporeality of layering you are going to take to practice to ensure the bedding is doing its task.

If you want something on the bottom of the cage for your bird to play around in, there are other options besides newspaper.

Go along in mind due to the uneven texture of these products, you cannot view your bird's droppings as easily, which might cause you to miss any health issues they might take.best bird litter

two. Clean Straw

Although straw is typically used for chickens, you can too use clean straw for your indoor bird. If you lot have someone who sells straw locally or you live in a more rural area, then you can use that.

The residual of us who are less lucky tin can buy straw bedding at a local pet store or feed store.

When using a straw, the keyword is cleaned. Harbinger can acquit parasites when it gets baled upwards, which can make your bird sick.

Annihilation that you lot give to your bird needs to be sanitary. If you lot are buying the straw from a retailer, and so make sure the package states that it has been cleaned.

This type of bedding is specially useful if you have a female bird that is brooding and needs a location to lay her eggs. Also, if you have younger bird'southward harbinger will be softer and feel safer to them.

You might assume that using straw volition give you time in between cleaning, that isn't the case, and the straw makes the job a little chip harder too.

Full general daily cleaning is still necessary for your bird. If y'all don't, the lesser of the cage will be a cumulation of droppings and straw being a natural production tends to mold. Some other drawback with this tow colored fiber is the texture.

While it might experience suitable for your bird straw doesn't let you to find their droppings so you cannot safeguard against any issues your friend might take.

three. Birdcage Liners

Bird liners made of various materials and are available at any pet shop or online. These are keen for people who don't want to use paper but also desire to accept a flat surface at the lesser of the cage.

Bird liners tin can be bought in assorted sizes to fit your cage exactly. They also come up in large packs, which makes information technology easier for pet owners.

Liners are fabricated of varied materials, and not all are ok to use for your bird. Avoid the ones that are substantially sandpaper.

The sand on the newspaper tin can be picked off by your bird to swallow, and coarseness of the sand will dull down their talons if they walk effectually on the bottom of the cage. Bird liners that are quilted similar a dog pad are the best type to apply.

They offer the benefits of using newspaper due to the flatness, merely they are much more expensive.Is newspaper safe as birdcage bedding?

4. Aspen Woods Shavings

Aspen wood shavings piece of work well for your bird due to their low fragrance and lack of chemicals that can irritate your bird's peel. These can be purchased to make sure they are Aspen woods chips explicitly made for birds.

Become the larger woods chips so that your bird is not tempted to eat them. The drawbacks on Aspen woods shavings are the same for clean straw. You will nonetheless demand to clean this every twenty-four hours, and it will prevent you from making sure their digestive tract is working right.

If your bird loves a little bit of something at the bottom of the muzzle, yous can likewise create an area for either straw or the wood fries without information technology filling the entire bottom of the muzzle.

What not to use equally bedding

It might be easier to understand what y'all can't handle and so that y'all are enlightened of what you can use. Don't apply anything that will foreclose you from cleaning the lesser of the cage daily.

Dropping, food pellets, and the water that they inevitably throw around the pen does not brand a very healthy environment. Something hard to motion around makes cleaning a hassle on y'all and will y'all're your bird's muzzle smell.

Speaking of aroma, while it might sound enticing don't apply anything that has a strong fragrance or odor. Maybe people use fragrant materials to annul the smell of the cage, but if you clean out the bottom daily, there should non be any odour.

The aroma from the materials that you lot are using for bedding is blocking your ability to recognize health issues in your pet. If your bird cage smells, and their cage is clean, then information technology is time to take your bird to the vet.

A good for you bird's cage should not smell at all. As well hiding sickness, heavy fragrances irritate their sensitive skin. A telltale sign is crusting near your friend'southward neb, eyes, and sores on their legs.

Small bits at the bottom of the cage don't just hamper your power to gauge your bird's health, and they might eat the fabric. Sometimes that is ok. Even so, some products peachy in your avian friend'due south stomach, causing them digestive stress.

Do not use anything that throws up a lot of dust when moved around, another irritant for your bird.

Some everyday items not to apply for your bird:

Bird Litter

Bird litter is typically either discarded corn cob parts, walnut shells, or paper pellets. All of which create a danger for your pet if eaten.

Corn cob and paper pellets cause digestive problems in your bird, while corn cob and walnut shells are jagged and could crusade pregnant damage to your bird'due south digestive tract.

They are likewise an uneven texture, which makes a more laborious cleanup and prevents you from gauging their health.Is sand safe as birdcage bedding?

Sand

Some people practise utilize sand for their bird's cage to act as a trivial box at the bottom of the enclosure scooping up any mess. That would be fine, but birds tend to try to eat or chew on anything that is effectually them so they volition try to swallow the sand.

Also depending on how messy your bird is the location where y'all proceed your birdcage will be covered in sand.

Cedar or Pine Woods Shavings

Due to the high fragrance in these 2 particular copse, the chips and shavings are also overwhelming to your birds. They mask whatever health problems that your friend might have.

Then they crusade peel irritation if your bird comes in contact with them. To be on the safe side don't utilise any woods shavings or chips unless it is Aspen wood, even then they need to exist made explicitly for birds.

Kitty litter

A logical option if you are trying to avoid a messy cage, all the same fifty-fifty low dust kitty litter is besides dusty for your bird. Also, another affair that could cause them issues if they swallow it.

Fabric

Some people use fabric at the lesser of the cage and then wash the material in one case it needs cleaning. This is a bad thought for several reasons. Showtime, the cage needs to be cleaned daily.

And so if you use a slice of fabric for your bird's enclosure depending on when you do your laundry, you will take several pieces of cloth with bird debris mixed with your own laundry.

Then what practice you lot wash them with? Regular laundry detergent is fragrance heavy, which will mess with their peel, and you take no idea how they will react to more natural products.

Unfortunately, most of the bedding that you tin can buy at the store is frowned upon by people who own birds. When purchasing annihilation for your pet commencement, yous must ascertain their habits and how they behave.

If you feel that something isn't right for your pet, so pay attention to that voice. That goes for generally approved products to those on the naughty list.

Related questions

Is hamster bedding safe for birds? No, the grit, aroma, and small size of the hamster bedding causes respiratory and digestive distress in our avian friends. Fifty-fifty if the package says that it is condom for birds exercise your due diligence and read the dorsum to make certain it doesn't contain any materials that might be unsafe to your bird.

How do you disinfect a birdcage? First, rinse it down with water to dislodge anything that is stuck to the cage. Then clean with a natural disinfectant such as vinegar or dishwashing detergent, scrubbing if needed. After that, you can clean whatsoever toys, perches, and bowls. Leave it outside or a sunny spot and then that it can air dry.