# Pigeons in apartments and cleanliness?



## angopop (Mar 30, 2012)

Pigeons in apartments and cleanliness?

We've had Angie for about 2 months, our first pigeon, and are still getting used to keeping a pet bird. We tried a few different places in the house to keep the cage [kitchen (bad idea), hall near our bedroom (kept us awake at night)] then wound up in the den/2nd BR on the other side of the house, which seems to work for all.

We keep Angie in the cage when we're at work, but most of the time when we're at home we try and keep the cage door open so she can have some freedom. We've been giving her a bath every weekend, which I believe helps keep down that pigeon dander.

Our place is fully carpeted, except for the kitchen. We use a sneaker cleaner which nicely removes any poop stains.

One question for you guys is how much you clean? We've noticed that when she flaps her wings, we can feel a lot of dust get kicked up, most likely a combination of dust, and unfortunately probably some dried poop, and we sometimes feel congestion in our lungs and heads for a short while afterwards, which I find worrisome. Most of the time she'll flap her wings and we don't feel anything, a few times we have.

We've decided to clean more often, change the papers at least twice every day, vacuum the room Angie is in every day, and run the air cleaner more often.

I worry about not picking up every molecule of poop which might land on the carpet and us traipsing it throughout the house on our shoes and socks.

What have you guys experienced, and how do you deal with these issues?

Thanks,
Arthur


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

I would vacuum and dust more as you are doing. I would definitely run an air purifier every day also. The particles of dust can cause breathing issues. 

Keep windows open to get fresh air when you can and if possible keep Angie confined to one room (door closed) while you are not home, a room you do not use much.


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## Lefty07 (Dec 30, 2009)

*Air Cleaners - a good idea in any house with birds / pets*

I run my air cleaner (in the room with my birds) 24 hours a day. It's worth the expense when you have birds.

Also, don't get too freaked out about the mess - and comments you may get from people who don't "approve" of pigeons. Remember, a lot of people have parrots that are larger and probably_ proportionally _more messy than a pigeon.


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## nycpigeonlady (Jan 22, 2012)

I currently have a feral rescue who'll be released soon. What has helped enormously, is giving him his bath dish as often as he likes. He likes to bathe daily and that really helps to keep down the amount of feather dust. But as Skyeking already said, good ventilation is very important - for both the bird and you. Mine uses his cage only for sleeping in at night and has 3 or 4 favorite spots where he likes to hang out. Those I line with paper towels secured with masking tape and change daily. I find it all very easy to maintain, but I have a high tolerance for mess, which doesn't sound to be the case with you.


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## Michy (Jul 29, 2011)

Pigeon diapers!!!!


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## meganistkrieg (Jun 1, 2011)

We have an apartment-pidge also and the best remedy I've found for bird-dust is bath salts. At least once a week, I fill up a big plastic pan with water and sprinkle in a few pinches of bath salts (I got a big container of it from Foy's) and it makes all the difference in the world. I even tried going salt-less one week and the dust was noticeably more than when we used salts. They're not expensive either, so maybe give that a shot.


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## angopop (Mar 30, 2012)

Thanks for your comments. We're working on cleaning/vacuuming more.

We just got some PigeonPants, so we're going to try those out and see if Angie will tolerate them. 

We do keep the windows open, and we will install a window fan, it's a good idea.

-Arthur


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## Michy (Jul 29, 2011)

Good luck! I know that the PigeonWear I got for our pidgies has been a godsend. Makes pigeon ownership that much more enjoyable!


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