Do you give your birds oak?

[Sterling1113]

I've read a few different sites of safe/unsafe plants, and oak comes up as unsafe, but mostly as only the bark/leaves/acorns, and many websites will say the wood is considered safe. I was wondering if there was anyone here who uses oak wood for toys/perches/etc? A friend of my boyfriend's is going to bring us some horse apple or oak branches, and of course I'll strip the bark and whatnot, but figured I'd ask your opinion first. It would be used for a stand or perches, probably not for toys, so I don't think it will be chewed very much, if that makes any difference.

 

[henpecked]

I think oak gets a bad rap because it contains tannin. I used it often and have for many years. I now use dragonwood because it grows local to me. We have feral amazons here and they eat acorns from the many live oaks . Not saying they're safe but obliviously don't harm the feral amazons. For perches,stands and toys i have used live oak, hickory and pecan. I dry them for several months and bake in the oven to kill any germs,worms, etc. I haven't removed the bark because the birds love to do that themselves. IMO many of the safe woods list that list oak as unsafe err on the side of safety. It's better to be safe than sorry but i haven't had any issues with oak and used it for 20-30 yrs.There's lots of wild pecan trees in your area and i've found them to be great perch material.

 

[svheartsdesire]

Ivan,the Green Wing,loves his oak perches..he strips the bark and dunks it in his water dish drops it and goes back for more...I'm just saying..Bill

 

[Sterling1113]

Thanks Capt'n!
Only reason I haven't gone out and collected branches myself is because I live in a rather busy, growing town.(small, but growing and crowded..) and being in an apartment I don't have a front/back yard to grow trees in myself. But the friend of ours has a farm so none of his trees get sprayed with anything.
Can I ask why you let it sit out for several months? Maybe I'm just impatient, but would baking it(or leaving it in a hot car that exceeds 180F) be enough to dry it/kill anything in it?

 

[Birdman666]

My birds play in the oak tree in front of my house, and have for at least 2-3 hours a day for 5 years... They chew on branches, bark, and leaves. Haven't gotten sick once from it. And yeah, my birds eat the acorns too. In fact, they seem to love them...

This is one of those things where someone decided long ago, they don't know if it's safe or not, so lets classify it as unsafe as a precaution, and it has stuck.

Personally, I call BS on this one.

 

[BACON]

Yes I'd say oaks pretty safe, but like has been said it has high tannin levels, not sure how to lower that.
In my parrot mag they listed acorns as safe to consume for parrots, a few others that suprised me to!!!!

 

[Birdman666]

Yes I'd say oaks pretty safe, but like has been said it has high tannin levels, not sure how to lower that.
In my parrot mag they listed acorns as safe to consume for parrots, a few others that suprised me to!!!!

Maggie, Tusk and Sally can personally attest to that!

I'm not sure Maggie eats them. She more or less just plays with them like a toy, and crushes them into powder... But Tusk and Sally sure seem to think they are tasty!

 

[Sterling1113]

So considering you let yours play in the live trees, Mark, I shouldn't have to worry about letting them sit out for extended periods of time, right? I'll probably just wash them and sit them out in the sun to dry, just so I don't bring any bugs in the apartment.

 

[henpecked]

My biggest concern with natural branches is worms, intestinal worms . Wild bird droppings could contain eggs. Baking them in the oven would kill the eggs. The drying/heating process would help also with bacteria,fungus,etc. The curing in the barn/shed is to help keep the wood from cracking/splitting. I don't trim them to length until after they're cured.