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I really like for Eli to be outside of his cage, but there's so much dander! Will spraying him with a mister everyday help at all? Should I give him a birdie bath? Though I doubt he'll use it...

Absolutely!! They must be bathed, misted or showered several times a week. I bring Luna into the shower with me. She just stands in the water if I put her in a pan of it, and she acts like she is being tortured if I mist her - crazy bird!

It might take a while for Eli to get used to it if you haven't done it, but soon he'll enjoy it. Plus they are so darn cute when they bathe!!

One thing I do to try to keep the dander down is when my tiels are out of the cage I spray down the bottom of the cage with a spray bottle of water a few times a day when I am home....it helps a lot to keep the dander from flying all over if they flap around in the cage.

And I also spray down the papers in and outside of their cage (the ones around the perimiter of the cage) before I change the papers for the next day. It really helps to keep the stuff from flying around during the cleanup!

I don't know about ya'll, but after my kids take a bath or get wet, the feather problem is much worse. As they dry, they preen and shake, and you can see the thousands of little tiny feathers floating up from them. We don't have a problem with dust per-se, but I know its there; we just don't see it, or ignore it Daily vacuum does help keep it to a tolerable level, at least the stuff we can't see, and I have no idea where all those near microscopic feathers eventually go.. like everything else in this world, sooner or later, it turns to dust!

Good idea to mist the paper - thanks!

Mine don't like bathing or being misted, and I'm too nervous to take them into the shower. I just get the spray bottle out. They hiss at it, and then they preen for a long time, which is the point. My male tiel hardly leaves any feathers or dust, but the female only needs to flap her wings a couple of times to make the room look like it's snowing. I bought a hand-held vacuum, it really helps.

Just a thought - could be diet related. She may be reacting to something in the diet by causing more dust - sort of the way a person could get a rash from some foods.