Prepping branches for birds?

[calzephyr77]

Hi group, I brought home a cherry tree branch and an apple tree branch home from my parents' backyard. Are they safe for parrots? How can I prep them so Muffin can happily gnaw on them? My parents don't use pesticides and none of their neighbours do either. Thanks!

Comments

[zandperl]

Cherry and apple are safe as far as I recall, but you can google lists of bird-safe woods if you want. I'd probably strip off any lichen, and if your town sprays insecticide (for mosquito borne West Nile virus, for example) I'd strip all the bark. I'd recommend boiling or baking in the oven to sterilize since there could be insects or germs on them from wild birds.

Boiling: put sufficient water in a pot to cover the item. Bring to a boil. Immerse the item completely. Boil 5 minutes. With items too long to fit into my largest pot, I've boiled with one end in for 5 minutes, flipped and repeated. Only works if you can make sure every part of the item has been wet/boiled.

Baking: preheat oven to over the boiling point (I do 250ºF, if you have a Celsius stove maybe 125ºC?). Bake for 2 hours plus 10 minutes for each inch of thickness. (Note that dry heat takes a lot more time to penetrate than does the heat from boiling water, so yes I do mean more than 2 whole hours in total.)

[calzephyr77]

Thanks! I had not thought about spraying for West Nile Virus. I'll probably strip the bark and bake it in the oven as I don't have any large pots. Our stoves have Celsius and Farenheit, so I'm good there :-)

Edit: It looks like cherry is a no-no, but apple is OK.