My apologies if I seem to be spamming threads on this forum, but this is a thing I actually need some help with.

Having to clean seed up off the floor has become increasingly tedious, especially with Alex here, because he has a thing for playing with small food cups. I had two small seed cups in Alex and Lucy's cage, but since they both picked up the habit of taking one of them off the side of the cage and dropping it along with what was in the cup, I had to take it out.

And it wasn't just any old seed cup. I had a pink and yellow one in there, and they always did it to the pink one... Then again, the pink one was near the top of the cage, and Lucy has done the same exact thing to a small food bowl tat used to be in the same location, that I used for treats. But I digress.

Lucy eats the pellets just fine by herself. She'll choose to eat the pellets at one point, and the seeds at another point. She doesn't really act like she has a favorite between the two... At first.

Alex also has no problem with pellets, since after I syringe feed him, I put him on the pellet bowl, and first thing he does is grab a pellet, even with the seeds being in his reach.

But if I take the seeds out completely, Lucy starts screaming bloody murder, acting like she's gonna starve to death when there's food (aka the pellets) right in front of her. And when she starts screaming, Alex starts screaming, and once they're both screaming, Dudley starts screaming, and it all just becomes unbearable after that.

I would like to use the seeds as an out of cage food, so thr mess would at least be in a more manageable place than the floor (try sweeping seed off of a tile floor). How can I at least wean the tiels off of in-cage seeds, without Lucy starting a 3-bird riot?

Convincing them to eat just pellets in the cage might be difficult. Another alternative is to get a shallow ceramic dish, put seeds in it, and keep it on the floor of the cage in a spot where hopefully it won't get pooped on too much. That will keep most of the mess in the cage, and unlike lighter dishes the ceramic dishes are too heavy for the birds to tip over or throw around. I have some nice ceramic dishes made for cats that I found at Petco a few months ago, I think for $4 each. They have pictures of kitties on them lol.

Great idea Carolyn im actually gonna go buy a nice dish for the bottom of the cage that way the seed hulls will go at the bottom of the cage and not on the floor.And its Rocko who has a habit of lifting his head out of his dish and making a mess and Loki keeps her head in the bowl eating.

Most cockatiels like to eat with their head out of the dish. I think it's because they can see more that way.

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= the cleanest cage and house in the world!

I suppose you could attach a bird bath to the cage it would look similar and act the same way that dish does.

Actually, putting seeds in an open bowl (like a bird bath) will just let the cockatiels step inside of it and shake it off everywhere.

Oh, I meant to put this in the diet and nutrition section. Oops. XD

We tried the ceramic bowl on the bottom. Somehow they still make a mess of some sort. Granted, I think half of it might actually be from Joey, since he literally gets in his food bowls, and because of the design of the cage, putting a dish on the bottom won't help much... His food bowls are already on the bottom of the cage.

I think this is what Brandon is talking about, B.

It's sold as a bird bath, but I've seen people use it for food. I wonder if it would work just as well.

I like both that feeder and the stretchy hull catcher. Unfortunately, I don't think I could use the latter at a length for it to be effective, because the doors for the cups are on the bottom part of the cage. With the exception of Dudley's cage, I seem to have cages with the worst designs. Although, the seed catcher wouldn't work for Dudley either, because the door of his cage matches the height of the cage itself (minus the stand part). That's really inconvenient, because Dudley is by far the messiest. He throws it out on purpose.

I could change the type of bowls Lucy and Alex have so I won't have to use the small doors to get them out. Then I could put the seed catcher far above the bowls, eliminating the chance of it falling out.

But I'm planning on getting them a new cage soon, so I might have to wait and see what happens.

Sometimes you just have to embrace the mess lol. Birds are not good pets for finicky housekeepers.

Zorro dosent poop or eat pellets in his cage or seed n still manages to make a huge mess. Infact he pretty much stopped eating pellets period other then bite here or there.