Maintain a clean, fresh environment with our bird safe bedding and cage liners. Easy to change materials help control odours and make daily cleaning faster. Suitable for a variety of cage sizes and bird species.
📰 Cage liners + bedding
The biggest mistake new bird keepers make is "loose substrate" — wood shavings, walnut shell, corn cob — that hides droppings (so you change less often) and breeds aspergillosis spores that kill birds slowly. The boring answer is the right one: plain newspaper, changed daily.
The gold standard. Cheap, plain, easy to monitor droppings (essential health check). Replace whole sheet daily. Modern soy-based inks are bird-safe; avoid glossy magazine paper (chemical inks). Cheap, hygienic, what most vets recommend.
For small cages + nest boxes. Soft, absorbent, throw-away daily. Slightly more expensive than newspaper but no ink concern at all. Useful for very small finches + breeding pairs.
Used by some breeders for absorbency. Bird-safe IF KILN-DRIED + dust-free. Avoid cedar (toxic resin) + raw pine (resin + dust). Can hide droppings = monitoring loss. Better for stand-alone perches + flight cage trays than primary bedding.
Cheap, popular at pet shops. Notorious for harbouring Aspergillus mould — fatal lung disease in birds. Multiple vet associations advise against. Same for ground walnut shell (sharp pieces, dust, mould). Avoid both completely.
Aspen-only is bird-safe — no resin, low dust. NEVER pine or cedar (volatile oils damage respiratory system). Mostly used in nest boxes, not cage floor. Floor use hides droppings = miss illness signs.
Birds hide illness — droppings are the #1 early-warning sign. Healthy: dark + firm portion + white urate + clear urine. Watery, all-green, all-yellow, blood, or crystal-shaped = vet. You can ONLY monitor this on plain paper. Loose substrate hides everything.
Whole sheet of newspaper out, fresh sheet in. 30 seconds. Bin the old. Wipe pull-out tray with hot water weekly. Disinfect tray monthly with bird-safe (F10, Avian Defender). Cage bars: hot soapy water, not bleach.
Corn cob, walnut shell, "natural sand" + cedar shavings: respiratory + fungal risk. Pet shops sell these because they hide soiling = "cleaner-looking cage" — but the bird pays. Stick with paper.
Some keepers scatter mineral grit on the floor as "cleaning aid" — birds eat it (crop impaction) and it harbours bacteria. Mineral grit, if used at all, should be a small dish refreshed weekly. Most parrot species don't need grit (they shell their seeds).
Damp bedding is mould + bacteria heaven. Cage location matters: dry, well-ventilated room (not bathroom, not kitchen). If liner is damp by evening, change twice daily. Hairspray, perfume, vape, candles — anything aerosolised — moves toward birds, can kill within minutes (Teflon especially).
Most cages have a wire grate above the floor tray — keeps bird off droppings. Some birds (ground-feeders, finches) need access to the floor for natural foraging — remove grate but increase liner change frequency. Always keep liner ON the tray, never directly on cage bars.
Our bedding & cage liners range goes live as we vet suppliers — we won't list anything we wouldn't use ourselves. In the meantime, our calculators, breed guides and AI vet tools below are free and don't need stock.
Sold doesn't mean safe. Corn cob is notorious for harbouring Aspergillus fungus, which causes a slowly fatal respiratory disease (aspergillosis) in birds — one of the top mystery deaths in pet birds. Even "kiln-dried" cob develops mould in humid Irish homes. Avoid completely. Plain newspaper is safer + cheaper.
Yes for modern UK + Irish papers — they've used soy-based inks since the 1990s. Avoid glossy magazines + flyers (still use chemical inks). If you want zero risk, use plain kraft paper or paper towel — slightly more expensive but pure white.
Daily liner change. Weekly: hot-water wipe of pull-out tray + cage bars. Monthly: full strip-down with bird-safe disinfectant (F10 SC is the gold standard). Quarterly: deep-clean perches, scrub-replace toys, check fixtures + hardware. Skipping the monthly is how aspergillosis takes hold.
Small amounts of paper-shred are fine — birds love to chew. If you see ink on the beak or feathers, switch to plain kraft paper or paper towel. Persistent paper-eating sometimes indicates pica (mineral deficiency) — check the diet, particularly calcium + cuttlebone availability.
