Disinfecting

[tracie]

About a year ago we adopted a Conure. We had her for about 6 weeks and she died. She didnt appear to be sick. We woke up one morning and she was on the bottom of the cage. Now I am bringing home an 8 week old TAG on Fri. I have cleaned the cage we had for the Conure well with bleach, but I am worried about the wooden perches and old toys since I dont know what the other bird might have had. Can old wooden toys and perches be safely disinfected?

[JillyBeanz]

Just my personal experience - but Spiky my cockatiel died of old age, not disease and just to be on the very safe side I transferred absolutely nothing of Spiky's.

 

I just didn't feel comfortable - just in case there was something Spiky could have been harboring that was no harm to him, but could have transferred to Harvey - also, the smell from the bleach isn't too good either.

[chimaysmommy]

To be honest I would probably pitch wooden toys...especially if they have a lot of nooks and crannies in the design. You can try and disinfect them, but if there are a lot of hard-to-reach places I wouldn't chance it. As far as wooden perches, I have heard of people baking them to disinfect but I have no idea what temperature or for how long. Hopefully someone else here has some experience in disinfecting wooden perches. Keep us updated on your baby's homecoming!

[danmcq]

I go with Chimays suggestion of tossing that stuff and doing a thorough dienfecting of that cage.

 

In regards the cage, unless it was HUGE for a conure, you should purchase a larger cage for your Grey.

[tracie]

The cage was large for a conure, but I do plan on getting a new one. The breeder suggested using a transition cage in the beginning.

 

Thanks for the advice. I am gonna toss the toys. The cage has soaked in bleach twice and I scrubbed the heck out of it. I may do it again for good measure.

[judygram]

Tracie we usually don't use bleach around our birds as the fumes are toxic to them but since you have already used it be sure to rinse very thoroughly before using for your new grey, maybe leave it outside to air out real good.

[ranaz]

I would rather throw the toys also, but if you wanna keep them, then put them in a 30% bleach solution for 5 minutes, then you must rinse them well and you can also consider boiling them, I have done that even for the wooden perches and they came out clean. I have kept them in the sun for a couple of days and they dont smell like bleach.

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