Cigarette Smoke & Cages

[FoxersArtist]

Tonight I decided to scrub down one of the cages that used to belong to one of our fosters. The cage was pretty dirty when we loaded it up on the truck so Andy sprayed it down at the power washer on the way home, but there was still a lot of built up junk on the bars, so we had just dumped it in the garage until we could invest the time into cleaning it.

I ran into an interesting discovery. Poop was not the only thing that had built up on the bars! I started scrubbing and quickly realized that my water and the sponge was turning black. Sometimes really dirty cages will turn the water brownish or dark green. I kind of wondered for a moment if maybe the powder coating was coming off on my sponge but that seemed silly. Then I remembered that this bird's last owners smoked regularly inside the house where the birds were kept.
By the time I was done, everything was black with cigarette residue.
Take a look!

The left side is unscrubbed, the right side has been scrubbed. I think the poop build up caused extra smoke particles to become trapped.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/DirtyCage.jpg

The cage after disinfecting. I usually use vinegar and water to clean cages but on really messy cages I use bleach and dish soap to be sure to disinfect.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/Cage-1.jpg

The floor! that's a lot of smoke!
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/Floor1.jpg
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/Floor.jpg

Pouring out my 4th bucket of soapy bleach water...
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/Soapy.jpg

This is what my RINSE water looked like after wiping the cage down AFTER every inch of it had already been scrubbed with disinfectant.
http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Fosters/Rinse.jpg

Here's a video. See where my thumb was holding the sponge?
http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa154/Foxersartist/Birdy%20Videos/?action=view&current=MOV04215.flv

-Anna

[Larry, Baby and Me]

Anna,

That is beyond belief. How horrible.

The bird that was in that cage - is it a plucker?

[CrystalinNC]

Nicotine is usually orange when you scrub if off. I used to clean houses, and we had a man that smoked like a chimney...and we scrubbed his walls, the water was solid orange...like a dirty orange color. Then again...maybe it sitting for a while caused it to change color...I dunno.
What's really sad, is that there was that much of ANYTHING on there. They apparantly didn't bother cleaning the cage on a regular basis.
What kind of bird was in there? The cage looks narrow...
poor baby! =(

[too&me]

I think what we are seeing here is where the tar settled out of the smoke on a dirty sticky cage then more dirt stuck & it just built up. Can you imagine what the lungs of those people & that birds air sacks look like? I have seen the placenta of a dog that belonged to smokers & it was blackened & had what looked like dead spots. Runty puppies too.

[Chrissy and Flock]

That is so nasty I bet it took a long time to clean it. By the way Anna if I were you I would wipe it down again in a few days just to be sure you got it all. I used to smoke and I thoroughly cleaned everything when I quit, at least I thought I did. I actually took a few cleanings to get it all off..... at least my walls are okay, we bought this house right after we quit and its never been smoked in...

[too&me]

Good for you!
Chrissy, that is a difficult addiction to overcome! Showing a great deal of strength on your part.

[Chrissy and Flock]

Yes it was but I am glad I stuck with it.... I certainly feel better for it...

[FoxersArtist]

The bird that lived in that is a very light eyed umbrella cockatoo. Not plucking, but dirty. We moved her to a bigger cage right away. We have the same cage in a different color for Loretta, our old amazon, but he can hardly move around and bigger would not be better for her. I honestly can't imagine putting anything amazone sized or up in that thing. At the smale time, the bar size and spacing looks like it was meant for a horse! ;)
-Anna

[FoxersArtist]

Well, I don't know for sure that what I was scrubbing off was cig smoke, but I can say that i have scrubbed cages that were just as dirty in the past, who had belonged to non smokers, and I have never noticed black stuff like that. I really think that the poop piling up must have cought all the particles in the air...
-Anna
Nicotine is usually orange when you scrub if off. I used to clean houses, and we had a man that smoked like a chimney...and we scrubbed his walls, the water was solid orange...like a dirty orange color. Then again...maybe it sitting for a while caused it to change color...I dunno.
What's really sad, is that there was that much of ANYTHING on there. They apparantly didn't bother cleaning the cage on a regular basis.
What kind of bird was in there? The cage looks narrow...
poor baby! =(

[CrystalinNC]

yeah...that's what I mean...it's entirely possible that with age and combined with other things...that you did have a nicotine build up...which would make it VERY hard to get off...Nicotine is a VERY sticky stubstance, so i would agree that you might want to go over it one more time. you're going to be surprised at how sticky the bars feel still.
It's sticky, and yes, you're right, it could very well have captured dirt, poop, and everything else in there that caused it to turn colors.