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Ok. you guys, here's a good question for you. I have 5 parrots that produce a HUGE amount of mess.(Like you don't know this ) I clean cages, changing papers nearly every day. You know what falls to the bottom..... flung food, wood scraps...chewed toys , feathers.... blah blah... My question is... WHAT do you do will all the discarded cage bottom stuff. I am beginning to feel guilty just adding to the garbage collectors truckful that's headed to a land fill. Most seems recycle worthy but my city wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Sometimes I burn it in a small firepit....but I really don't like to put smoke in the air ... you know birdies around,etc.
Any suggestions?
Cheryl

We empty bowls of uneaten pellets in a container. We sometimes use them as "sprinkles" on the dog's food. She loves them. The rest we put out for birds and squirrels. Wild birds seem to like zupreem natural.

I try to pull out the wood and toy scraps..and I put the leftover food, seeds etc out for the wildbirds...my goats and geese...I have the shiniest geese....I know...you do feel guilty throwing away food the is still good...I know there are some feeders...I forget what they are called that kind of recycle the foods....large plexiglass....maybe you could sift through it and put it in bird feeders...

Hi everyone
Thanks for your replies....
I do sort throught the food on the bottom and put it out for wild birds, squirrels ,etc..... the part that takes up the most space though is all the cage papers and wood shreds.... I also try to save toy parts that could be rebuilt but as you know lots of it is just firewood. So.. what do you do with that stuff? Papers and woody scrap in the garbage??? I guess it would readily decompose... I was feeling guilty about filling up the landfills... escpecially putting in plastic garbage bags what really could be put in a recycle process.
Just part of the logistics of having birds, I guess. But something that does bear thought. Thanks again for suggestions
Cheryl

I take it you don't have room to compost? Newspaper is fine to compost. I know that dog and cat poo aren't, but I don't know about birds'. Perhaps a local community garden would accept some of it.

If you have a fireplace...the cleaner wood shreds make great starter...Sometimes I toss them in the ash bucket and just take out some to use...The newspapers..that is something that does take up a lot of space....Hmmmmm....do they still sell those really large paper bags..those would at least biodegrade....Guess we can't offer old bird papers on freecycle...LOL...