Cleaning spiral rope perches ("boings?")

[AmazonServant]

How does everyone here clean these things? My bird loves hers as it's her way of getting around between the different perches in her cage - so it quickly gets covered in food, poop, and caked on feathers. What I tend to do is hold it up in the shower for a minute or so to rinse off the bigger pieces of crud (don't have a hose, as I live in a high-rise apartment), then fill up the tub with hot water and some detergent and let it soak in there for a bit. Then I rinse it off really good in the tub and hang it up to dry on my balcony. And the of course I have to scrub the bathtub. The whole process is rather annoying and gross and isn't quite so friendly on my back. Any tips? Can you just wash them in the washing machine?

Also, I've tried positioning it in the cage so it doesn't get so dirty, but my bird sees to it that it gets smeared with all manner of gunk anyhow.

 

[kitt]

Our boing doesn't seem to get to messy but about once every couple of months when my dishwasher runs out of drying agent...I put it on the top shelf of the dishwasher and run it through a long cycle with no soap....I don't know why but the soap makes me nervous....I hang it to dry and then run a load of bleach through the dish washer.

 

[Rio Mom]

I've often wondered about putting toys and perches in the dishwasher, but like you was nervous about the soap absorbing into things. I hadn't even thought of the drying agent though.

 

[kitt]

It seems to work out well for us.....I do a load of toys and perches...it seems to do a really good job.

 

[HRH Di]

I wash our rope perches in the washing machine. I put them in a pillowcase so they don't get all tangled then hang them up to dry.