Cleaning Your Birds Toys

[jonesy zoo]

Just wondering how often and how you clean and replace your birds toys...this is what I use having been using this for a few months now....
Wash, Disinfect & Inspect Regularly

Toys need to be washed, disinfected and inspected regularly for possible safety concerns. I make it part of my routine and change the toys weekly when you do your thorough cage cleaning. Remember, hookbills have powerful beaks {as we would all know } and can snap or break toys creating sharp edges or other safety hazards.I use a 10% bleach solution to disinfect toys and rinse well. also i use pine wood shaving on the bottom on their cages

[Shockadine]

I use a bleach solution for cleaning toys if I have the toy long enough. My macaw usually takes out a toy too quick to ever need to have washed it. I do inspect toys often.

Not sure what you meant when you said you put pine shaves on the bottom of the cage. In the tray, or is there no tray? I put newpaper in the tray.

Here's a before and after of a toy the macaw started on a couple weeks ago.

[jonesy zoo]

in the tray sorry about that...

[Snapperhead]

I also use unprinted newsprint in the bottom of my cages....makes for seriously easy clean up every night. I wipe down the cages every night with 'Poop-Off' and change the paper below the grill. Sometimes if I know I have a really busy week I'll cut a half dozen pieces of paper and stack them so I can just pull on out when it's soiled. I do a full disinfection of the cage once every two weeks with Virkon, which is a vet grade disinfectant.

As for toys I change them out weekly as well, unless they are damaged/destroyed before then. I have a couple that are constant and I keep a good stock of so my boys always have their favorite in their cages. Most of the toys I give my Lovies are for destroying and destroy them they do. They seem especially fond of balsa wood, the little ABC wooden blocks, and vine balls. They also each have a toy box in their cage filled with blocks, balls, strands of leather, large wooden beads and small acrylic foot toys...I think mostly they just throw these around, but it still gives them something to do! LOL I clean all of my bird's toys with GSE (grapefruit seed extract) as I'm not a fan of the smell of bleach and GSE is an extremely affective cleaner that kills bacteria/fugus/viruses/parasites. Plus if there is any residue it's harmless to my boys. I also wash all of their food/water dishes with GSE.

Cheers, Tamara