How to Dry Wood for Parrot Play Gyms

Parrots love perching on wood and chewing it, so natural wood branches are often used for building a parrot play gym. They're easy to find, and you can replace them with new branches when your parrot chews through them or otherwise destroys them. Before you can use them for your parrot's play gym, they need to be dried in order to sterilize them. The best way to do this is to dry them twice, in two different ways.

Things You'll Need

• Branches from non-toxic trees
• Water
• Household bleach
• Washrag
• Standard oven

Instructions

1. Gather non-toxic wood to use for your parrot's play gym. You can find a list of safe woods in the Resources section, but basically you should avoid apricot, cherry, plum, peach, and nectarine trees because their branches can release cyanide. Select branches in a variety of sizes and thicknesses. Being able to stand on different sized wood branches on the play gym will help keep your parrot's feet healthy. Birds that always stand on the same sized perches can develop arthritis.

2. Wash the branches with a solution made from adding half a cup of bleach to a gallon of water. Scrub them with a washrag and rinse them thoroughly. As you scrub, inspect them to make sure they are suitable for your parrot's play gym. Make sure there are no cracks or other flaws that could pose a danger to your parrot.

3. Allow the branches to air dry completely. Do this inside your home, because if you put them outside to dry, they can get contaminated. This will destroy the purpose for sterilizing them with the bleach.

4. When the branches are completely dry, put them into your oven and allow them to bake at a temperature of 300 degrees Farenheit for 20 minutes. You can lay them on the oven rack or put them on an oven-safe tray lined with foil. This will complete the drying process and ensure that they are sterile and ready for use on a parrot play gym. Do not leave the oven unattended while you are drying the wood.

Tips & Warnings

• Parrots need constant mental stimulation because of their intelligence. Using natural branches to create play gyms helps to stimulate them because you can change the play gym frequently by rearranging the branches or removing them and adding new ones. You can increase the stimulation by adding store-bought parrot toys, too, and hanging them on the gym.

• When you dry wood branches, they can develop cracks. This is especially common if you dry the wood too quickly. A parrot can catch its toe in a crack and injure itself severely. After drying check the wood thoroughly and if it has cracks that are too deep, discard it.

Resources

• Suitable woods for parrot play gyms