Please Advise Birdbath (1 Viewer)

[budstone2023]

Hello friends
My name is Cindy and i m new to birds. I heard it will be 110 in Sacramento next week. My roommate offered her concrete birdbath. It hadnt been cleaned in sometime. I am scrubbibg and cleaning. What you do is fill it up wth about 5 gallons water and it recycles. My question is should i paint it inside and out to make sure its good as new. I dont want any birds getting sick. Thank for your advise it is surely needed and appreciated.
Cindy-here

 

[KC Foggin]

Hi Cindy and welcome aboard. Happy you joined us

Personally, I wouldn't advise you to paint it. If you want to feel good about your cleaning it, I would pour some bleach into a full bath and leave it for an hour or so and then empty it and give it a good water filled flooding. That should make it safe and germ free.

If you could have seen birds bathing it muddy puddles like I have you wouldn't be over concerned. I usually put fresh water in mine at the start of my day. Have fun and enjoy

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum. I hope you enjoy your visits.

It’s not a good idea to paint the bath. Once it’s been cleaned it will be fine.

 

[delia todd]

Hi Cindy and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators. I'd follow KC's advice, just flood it afterwards until all smell of the bleach has disappeared, thus ensuring nothing remains.

I think you can buy cleaners from pet stores, but bleach would be much cheaper.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.

 

[Brad Hacker]

If your first bath goes well, you might try adding more baths with different depths of water, and/or a small fountain inside a bath; these can attract different species and lead to entertaining behavior (hummingbirds in particular like fountains). Planter saucers (those things that go under flowerpots to catch water) are a cheap and easy way to have a lot of baths. Try them at different heights--e.g., we find that thrushes (mostly winter birds in Calif) like baths nearer to the ground than, say, finches that prefer elevated baths. You can use concrete blocks to underpin the saucers or hang the saucers from trees with a bit of fine chain/wire.

 

[Fritz73]

Hola! Welcome to Birdforum

 

[Chris G6 UXU]

Hello and welcome to the forum, enjoy and all the best.

 

[Lisa W]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I think you will find us a friendly and helpful group.

 

[Elkhornsun]

You want something that is easy to disinfect with a bleach solution ( a couple tablespoons of household bleach and 1 gallon of water) every couple of weeks. There will be algae and the birds' poop in the water. Water depth is also important as greater than a couple of inches and most small birds will not use it.