Manzanita Tree: Would these work??

[HalfInsane]

I've been trying to find a reasonably priced manzanita tree for Pixel for AGES to no avail. I just can't find them locally at all, and the best price on a shipped one I could find was $350 (yikes). Then I came across this site:

Products

It is a Canadian company, and they sell 5 foot sand-blasted manzanita trees as decorations for $134! You can buy them natural, no varnish or anything... and I'm thinking that since they're sandblasted any potential pesticides would be removed? Do you guys think these would be safe for a bird? I'll of course call the company to insure no chemicals are used, etc. But I think one of these suckers might have my name on it!!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Often pesticides are grown into a plant. I wanted to get grape wood one time, and it wasn't sprayed with pesticides but instead with fertilizer, which can also be dangerous.

Let us know, it's a great deal

 

[weco]

You should be safe & I wouldn't worry about pesticides or fertilizers. I'm pretty sure that the areas of the Southwestern US where manzanita is collected, have never seen the first cm of pesticide & in that rough country, fertilizer would be natural, animal presentations.....very biodegradable.....

 

[Echo]

Don't you have safe wood around your area you can cut down and make your own tree? I cut big pieces of branches and put in pot to make my own tree and it cost nothing! Except for pot and sand/stones to secure.

 

[Echo]

I also have a tall Hibiscus tree that the birds love to play on and destroy.......only it's very hardy and keeps growing leaves and flowers back!

 

[HalfInsane]

Don't you have safe wood around your area you can cut down and make your own tree? I cut big pieces of branches and put in pot to make my own tree and it cost nothing! Except for pot and sand/stones to secure.

We have a few species; mostly we get coniferous trees here though. I'm very torn between grabbing a saw and getting some big branches or getting a manzanita... The manzanitas just look so cool. But my frugal side may win out. I'm still waiting for an email back from that company...

 

[Echo]

Well if you are gonna chop a tree, make sure you do it fast. You want the tree to be dead/dormant so no sap or insects in it. Here in New England, the sap is starting to go up the trees and bugs will be there very soon......If that's the case, the tree is green and you have to disinfect it before letting your birds on it. Although in Canada, maybe your winters are longer??

 

[HalfInsane]

Well if you are gonna chop a tree, make sure you do it fast. You want the tree to be dead/dormant so no sap or insects in it. Here in New England, the sap is starting to go up the trees and bugs will be there very soon......If that's the case, the tree is green and you have to disinfect it before letting your birds on it. Although in Canada, maybe your winters are longer??

You could say that... where I'm at there's still two feet of snow on the ground, and if you're out in the forest it's knee deep. We won't have any bugs or buds on the trees for a while still...

 

[Parrotdise]

I have heard of someone boiling the wood on another board to get the pesticides out but i have not researched this myself, maybe this is a possibility although it would have be cut smaller. Here is this website for perches you might be able to talk to these people and get a piece of wood the exact size you were looking for. The Little Perch Company - Home

 

[goalerjones]

I have this sort of setup for Hahnzels treestand. I placed it into a Christmas tree stand, then added a 1x4 thru the middle to give him a nice stable place to eat and chew the plank. Also hung toys from the branches which keeps him happy.