How To Effectively Clean Rope & Wooden Bird Perches

Published by Joseph Calabrese on August 1, 2022August 1, 2022

Simply removing poop from your bird’s perches is not enough to keep them clean.

All perches in and around your bird’s cage must be properly disinfected, sanitised, rinsed and dried.

I know it’s a tedious and time-consuming chore, but it’s very important.

And let’s be honest, we signed up for tedious tasks the moment we brought high-maintenance birds into our homes.

Thankfully, this chore doesn’t need to be too difficult.

In this article, I’m going to teach you how to clean your bird’s wooden perches and rope perches in the quickest and most effective ways possible.

But before you get cleaning, you’re going to need some supplies.

Quick Navigation:

Essential Supplies For Cleaning Bird Perches
How To Clean Wooden Bird Perches (Step-By-Step)
How To Properly Clean Rope Perches
Other Bird Perch Cleaning Methods
Short Summary
Sources

Essential Supplies For Cleaning Bird Perches

Here are the supplies you’ll need to properly clean your bird perches:

Water

Apple cider vinegar

Scrub brush or scrub sponge

Sandpaper (mainly for wooden perches) (Optional)

Oven

Water and apple cider vinegar will be used to create a bird-safe disinfectant that you can use on all perches.

You could also use bleach as an alternative to vinegar, but bleach is more intoxicating to birds.

Definitely do not use bleach around your birds as the fumes are extremely toxic.

For this reason, I always use a vinegar solution instead of a bleach solution.

A scrub brush or sponge will be used to scrub the perches with the disinfectant.

I prefer to use scrub sponges as it’s easier to scrub with and it absorbs the vinegar solution better.

how to clean wooden bird perches — The scrub sponges I use

However, hard wire brushes or just regular scrub brushes should do the job just as well.

The sandpaper will be used to remove tough poop stains from wooden perches.

This can also be accomplished with the scrub brush, so sanding is an optional step.

Once you have the essential supplies, you’re ready to clean all of your bird’s perches.

First, I’ll teach you how to clean your wooden perches, then I’ll show you how to clean rope perches.

Different perches require slightly different cleaning methods.

How To Clean Wooden Bird Perches (Step-By-Step)

Below is the step-by-step process I use to effectively clean natural wooden perches.

Be aware that if you’re using bleach solution instead of vinegar, make sure you’re doing the cleaning in another room or outside as bleach fumes are toxic to birds.

Even when using apple cider vinegar, I still do the cleaning in a separate room.

It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

If you’re following this process for homemade perches from tree branches, make sure the branch is debarked and that the wood is from a non-toxic tree.

Step 1: Scrub Wooden Perch With Sandpaper

As mentioned, this step isn’t 100% necessary.

But you might find it easier to sand the poop away rather than trying to remove it with a scrubbing brush or sponge.

However, if you’re turning a wild tree branch into a bird perch, you should sand it slightly.

Sand the rough parts of the perch to make it smoother and more comfortable on your bird’s feet.

That’s basically all sanding is useful for: removing tough stains and making the perch smoother.

Step 2: Soak In Or Scrub Perch With Vinegar Solution

You can choose to do this step in 1 of 2 ways:

Soak the perch in a bathtub full of apple cider vinegar solution

Scrub the perch with a scrubby brush or sponge with vinegar solution

Both ways are very effective at killing germs.

Soaking Method

This method is quite effective for cleaning multiple perches at once, especially large ones.

Fill up a bathtub and add an equal ratio of water and apple cider vinegar.

For a stronger disinfectant, add a bit more vinegar.

Note: Make sure the bathtub is clean first.

Once you have the tub filled up, simply add the wooden perches you want to be cleaned and let it soak for at least an hour.

I usually soak them for up to two hours.

After the wood perch has been soaking for a while, you can move on to step 3.

Perch Scrubbing Method

This method requires a scrubby brush or sponge and a bit of elbow grease to be effective.

Firstly, you should have a bucket of vinegar and water solution prepared.

That solution again is an equal ratio of water and apple cider vinegar.

Just dunk your scrubbing tool into the bucket, make sure it gets pretty soaked, and then start scrubbing your wooden perch.

Push hard with the scrubber to get into all the cracks, corners, and tight crevices.

Do it thoroughly all the way around the perch.

This will remove solid waste and kill germs throughout the whole perch.

It should only take about 5 – 10 minutes of hard scrubbing for each perch.

Once you’re done scrubbing, move on to step 3.

Step 3: Rinse Perch With Hot Water

You can do this under the shower, faucet, or with an outside hose.

Simply rinse the wooden perch thoroughly to help remove the vinegar solution as well as some leftover solid waste.

how to clean bird perches — (Image Credit: Pixabay)

Pretty easy step.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t remove all the vinegar here, the next 2 steps will remove all traces of liquid from the perch.

Step 4: Bake The Wood Perch In The Oven

This step will help dry the perch, as well as kill any leftover bacteria that the vinegar solution wasn’t strong enough to get.

If you used bleach instead of vinegar, the oven will remove any toxic bleach residue on the perch, which is super important.

Place your wooden perch in the oven for about an hour on 90 degrees C (194 degrees F).

Thin and smaller perches will need less time in the oven.

how to clean wooden perches — A relatively small perch

This step is essential as you cannot put wet perches back in the cage.

If the perch is too big to fit in your oven, follow the next step instead.

Step 5: Sit The Perch Outside In Direct Sunlight

The sun has some very powerful sanitising properties.

Sunlight can even kill deadly bird viruses on cage surfaces and wooden perches.

Simply placing your perch out in direct sunlight for a few hours will help dry the perch and kill any leftover bacteria.

how do you disinfect natural wood perches — (Image Credit: Pixabay)

If this is a wild tree branch that you’re turning into a bird perch, you should leave it out in the sun for a few days to up to a week.

Perches that you’ve already used only need about 6 – 8 hours to dry.

If you’ve already used the oven on perches you already own, this step isn’t necessary.

Although it’s not necessary, the sun will still offer some extra sterilisation.

Once your wooden perch is dry, you’re pretty much all done and can put it back into your bird’s cage for them to dirty it up again.

Now let’s discuss how to clean rope perches.

How To Properly Clean Rope Perches

Since rope perches require a slightly different cleaning method, they get their own step-by-step washing guide.

Although I personally don’t use rope perches, I know a lot of people do, so I’m happy to provide this rope perch cleaning guide.

If I had rope perches, this is the process I would use to clean them.

how do you remove bird poop from wooden perch — (Image Credit: Pixabay)

Step 1: Scrape Off Any Poop, Food, Or Other Solid Waste

Before scrubbing with the vinegar solution, you should remove any solid waste that may be stuck to the rope perch.

This primarily includes food and poop.

I suggest doing this with a stiff wire brush:

But anything else that has a hard scraping surface can be used as well.

Try to get into the grooves of the rope as that’s often the ideal hiding spot for dried-up poop.

Step 2: Clean Rope Perch With Vinegar Solution

According to avianenrichment, you shouldn’t soak rope, leather, or cloth for long periods.

Therefore, the only way to effectively clean it is to scrub it thoroughly with the apple cider vinegar solution.

Again, that solution mix is an equal ratio of water and apple cider vinegar.

If you want a stronger disinfectant, add a bit more vinegar to the mix.

Make the mix in a bucket, soak your scrubbing tool, and put some elbow grease into that rope perch.

Step 3: Thoroughly Rinse The Rope Perch

After you’ve thoroughly scrubbed the rope perch, it’s time to give it a rinse with water.

Just hold it under the shower, faucet, or bathtub tap and rinse it.

You could also wipe it with a damp towel while rinsing it to remove all the vinegar solution.

However, that’s not really necessary as the next step will take care of any leftover liquid.

Step 4: Leave The Rope Perch To Dry

All perches, including rope perches, must be completely dried before they go back into the cage.

You can’t put rope perches in the oven as extreme heat will probably damage the rope material.

The next best option is to leave it under the sun for a few hours.

how to clean rope perches — (Image Credit: Pixabay)

As mentioned, the sun not only dries but also helps sanitise the perch.

You could either take it to a dry area outside or keep it near a window that is hit with sunlight throughout the day.

Once it’s dried, the rope perch can go back into the cage.

Other Bird Perch Cleaning Methods

Although I personally believe those were the easiest and most effective ways to clean bird perches, there are two other lesser-known cleaning methods that you may be interested in.

Those methods are the steam cleaning method and the dishwasher method.

Let’s briefly discuss both of these perch cleaning methods.

Steam Cleaning Bird Perches

First of all, steam cleaning is much better for spot cleaning hard-to-reach areas rather than for deep cleaning perches.

The reason for this is that steam takes a while to actually sanitise the spot.

You would probably need to hold a handheld steamer for more than a minute over the spot you want to clean.

And who has time to do that across the entire perch?

They don’t steam large spots at once either, they only cover a small space.

Steam cleaners are best used for hard-to-reach cracks on natural wood perches.

If your wooden perches have thin cracks, the steam cleaner might be the best way to remove any poop or germs from within.

Steam cleaners are also good for hard-to-reach poop zones on the cage.

Dishwasher Method

Yes, you can put perches in your dishwasher.

This is a pretty simple method that requires almost 0 effort from you.

When placed on the highest, most intense, and longest setting, the dishwasher will completely sanitise your perches.

However, you might not want to wash dirty perches that have poop all over them in the same place you wash your plates and forks.

Totally understandable.

But if you don’t mind, this is a pretty simple method I thought you should know about.

Credit to BirdTricks for this idea.

Short Summary

Let’s quickly summarise the perch cleaning processes we went through:

Cleaning wood perches:

Step 1: Scrub perch with sandpaper

Step 2: Soak in or scrub perch with vinegar solution

Step 3: Rinse perch with hot water

Step 4: Bake the wood perch in the oven

Step 5: Sit the perch outside in direct sunlight

Cleaning rope perches:

Step 1: Scrape off any poop, food, or other solid waste

Step 2: Scrub rope perch with vinegar solution

Step 3: Thoroughly rinse the rope perch

Step 4: Leave to dry in sunlight

That vinegar solution is an equal ratio of water and apple cider vinegar mixed together.

Add more vinegar to the mix for a stronger disinfectant.

This is my go-to perch & cage cleaning formula.

It’s simple, safe, and effective against germs.

Hopefully, you found this article easy to follow and can now clean your bird’s perches with ease.

How To Effectively Clean Rope & Wooden Bird Perches

Essential Supplies For Cleaning Bird Perches

How To Clean Wooden Bird Perches (Step-By-Step)

Step 1: Scrub Wooden Perch With Sandpaper