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The Great Bedding Debate: Part 1 - Liners

© Mary Wilson

When it comes to the bottom of our birds' cages, all bird owners look for one thing: something to keep the mess in check. For that, bird owners use a variety of different products to line the bottom of their bird's cage. Each owner swears by whatever product she or he uses, which leaves the novice bird owner in quite a quandary.

Material to cover the bottom of the cage comes in two different varieties: liner and litter. Within these two categories there are a myriad of products from which to choose.

I'll begin by talking about liners. In my personal experience, liners are the best thing to use on the bottom of your bird's cage. The flat surface, as opposed to a depth of litter, such as shavings, gives the bird owner a clear view of the bird's droppings. Recognizing abnormal droppings (to be discussed in a future article), is an early indication of sickness.

My personal favorite liner is newspaper. Newspaper is inexpensive, readily available, and more papers are being printed with soy ink, an environmentally friendly, soy-bean based ink. For the single bird owner, the Sunday paper lasts a long time.

However, newspaper is not perfect. I do not use the slick ads to line my bird's cage, for I am uncertain of their toxicity. Some birds, such as lovebirds, like to shred the paper bottoms of their cage, so it is doubly important with those birds to ensure the newspaper is printed with soy ink.

Probably the perfect cage liner is white butcher's paper. This is the white paper used to wrap meats and can be found by contacting a local meat market. You may also purchase rolls of freezer paper. The white color of the paper makes it easy to check the bird's droppings.

Bird supply catalogs, such as Pet Warehouse http://www.petwhse.com/ carry precut liners for their cages. These white liners come in a stack, so that the bird owner only needs to slide out the used paper. I've also seen cages designed for large parrots that have a roll of white paper attached to the bottom. The bird owner simply pulls out the used liner, and the roll automatically brings new paper into place. The owner then simply tears off the used portion.

Discount stores, such as Wal-Mart, also carry precut liners. Gravel paper used to be the mainstay of bird owners. This consists of a heavy paper, upon which gravel or grit is glued to make a rough surface. The prevailing thoughts at the time stated that the bird would peck the gravel off the paper, and thus meet its need for grit.

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