Why birds need a gentler cleaning standard
Birds climb with their beaks, lick at bars and breathe air from close against the cage surfaces, and their respiratory systems are far more sensitive to fumes and residues than ours. That rules out the strong sprays and scented disinfectants used elsewhere in the home anywhere near cage parts. The good news is that cage dirt is mostly dried droppings, food and mineral scale, and all three yield to the unglamorous combination of hot water, soaking time and friction. Gentle methods take a little longer, but they leave nothing behind on a surface your bird will put its tongue on.
The soak does the heavy work
Take the grate and tray out and soak them in a tub or bathtub of the hottest plain water your tap gives, for at least twenty minutes. Dried droppings that would take ten minutes of chipping soften and lift almost whole after a real soak. While they soak, wipe the bars in place with a cloth wrung out in hot water, working top to bottom, and use a stiff brush or an old toothbrush where droppings have dried in the corners and around the door latch. Change the water when it clouds; scrubbing in dirty water just redistributes the mess.
Gentle helpers for stubborn deposits
For deposits that survive soaking, a paste of plain baking soda on a damp brush adds mild abrasion without scratching most cage coatings, and a spray of diluted white vinegar left for a few minutes loosens white mineral crust around water cups and bath splash zones. Use one helper at a time, not both together, and follow either with a thorough plain-water rinse until you can run a finger along a bar and feel no grit, slime or residue. Never use oven cleaner, bleach sprays, scented products or anything containing strong solvents on cage parts, and never clean with the bird still inside.
Rinse, dry and inspect before the bird returns
Rinsing is the step people rush and birds pay for. Hold the grate under running water, turn it, and rinse the underside and feet as carefully as the top. Let everything air-dry fully, or dry with a clean towel, before reassembling; damp corners grow mould quickly. As you rebuild the cage, run your eyes along the bars for rust, flaking coating or sharp edges exposed by scrubbing, because a damaged coating is a chewing hazard in its own right and a bar your bird can flake is one to replace, whatever cleaning method you use. Pay extra attention to the welds and corners where bars meet the frame, because dried droppings lodge there out of sight and a cloth alone will pass over them while a brush tip reaches in.
Keeping the full sequence in the routine
Because the safety of this method lives in the finishing steps, the written routine should name them explicitly rather than just saying clean the cage. KinsLe's Care Teams lets you list soaking, scrubbing, rinsing and full drying as the assigned steps for your bird's cage clean, and the timestamped completion confirms the bird only went back once every stage was actually done.