I know, shame on me. :( Algae in bird bottles.

[kage no neko]

The cages sit right in the path of sunlight from the back sliding glass door.. and of course their water bottles have started to algae. At first rinsing them out was okay, made it go away, but then it just started coming back faster. The opening is way too narrow for me to be able to actually clean inside.

Right now I have one of the bottles soaking with about 1/3 bleach 2/3 water inside. Just to see if it'll work. I have a spare bottle in case this doesn't work and I have to throw it away.

Blah, where did this stuff come from!? And how do I get rid of it!? I tried vinegar, then I read that only works on hard water stains.

Boyfriend says I'll probably have to throw the bottle away now, since bleach slime coats things, and I can't actually scrub the bleach off. Frustrating. sad  

[kage no neko]

Okay. After an hour of it soaking with the bleach mixture, I rinsed it out and the algae remains! I guess it's probably dead, but I want it gone! So now I'm trying a little bit of dawn.

If the dawn works to get rid of it (since it apparently lifts hard stuck on stuff), once I throw this bottle away, do you think I could use it on one of the other bottles and have it all rinse out nicely, or... I'm trying to find a way to get rid of the algae and still be able to use the bottle for my keets.  

[Vanilla eXee]

Get a bottle brush.  

[Moth Feathers]

Eep, that's a really strong bleach solution. If bleach should ever be used for cleaning bird materials, it should be a one part bleach, 9 part water solution.
But I honestly really, really dislike using bleach. There are much more safer and gentler cleaning solutions besides bleach. I would be very frightened to use a bottle with such a strong bleach solution, that can't be scrubbed away, with my birds.

Algae can and will form in any (usually stagnant) water exposed to sunlight. Algae is pretty unsanitary for birds to be drinking, so it is important to get rid of it.
The best solution is prevention. Any water container- from dishes to water bottles- need to be cleaned and rinsed out every.single.day. Just because something is in a water bottle doesn't mean it doesn't need to be cleaned as often. If you don't consistently clean out all dishes and bottles, every single day, this /will/ happen again. But, if you do clean out the water bottles every day, it's highly unlikely it will. Besides the algae issue, it's just the most hygienic thing to do.
If you do get algae problems, vinegar /will/ work, not just for hard water stains but for getting rid of algae as well. A paste made with baking soda and water then scrubbed around will also work. Algae isn't too hard to kill, really.  

[kage no neko]

Blah. We've so many, but none fit. Well, one fits, but it's too short, it came with the feeding bottle we got for the bunny. crying Maybe we will have to just go buy a new one... no clue where we'll find one that's thin enough though.  

[Vanilla eXee]

kage no neko

Blah. We've so many, but none fit. Well, one fits, but it's too short, it came with the feeding bottle we got for the bunny. crying Maybe we will have to just go buy a new one... no clue where we'll find one that's thin enough though.

0.o how thin are these water bottles? A bottle brush should be able to squeeze into just about anything  

[kage no neko]

Vanilla eXee

0.o how thin are these water bottles? A bottle brush should be able to squeeze into just about anything

The bottles themselves are pretty thick, but the opening is tiny. Or maybe my bottle brushes are actually something like glass brushes... I dunno.  

[ladycrotalus]

Sand or fish tank gravel works. Put some in the bottle with a tiny bit of water to make a paste, stick your finger to plug up the end and shake and swirl it around. The sand or rocks are abrasive enough to scrub inside the bottle and just dump it out in a cup and reuse the sand or gravel every time you clean the bottles.  

[Vanilla eXee]

kage no neko

Vanilla eXee

0.o how thin are these water bottles? A bottle brush should be able to squeeze into just about anything

The bottles themselves are pretty thick, but the opening is tiny. Or maybe my bottle brushes are actually something like glass brushes... I dunno.

A bottle brush basically looks like a coathanger twisted into a straight line with bristles all around one end.

Something like this. The bristles fold back to let it get into tight openings.  

[kage no neko]

Vanilla eXee

A bottle brush basically looks like a coathanger twisted into a straight line with bristles all around one end.

Something like this. The bristles fold back to let it get into tight openings.

That's like the one that came with the feeder bottle.. so yeah, I just gotta look for a bigger one I guess. smile