Disinfecting cages, toys and natural wood

[sourberry]

Getting my new baby in a few weeks.

I'm now all insecure about certain things, particularly it's health. So far,I bought a cage, a rope perch and want to get some natural wood perches it can chew the bark off. I eventually want to build a play pen!

But i don't trust anything from the pet shop to be clean, even though they just advice to run it through water. And i've read some stuff about "baking" tree branches. So...

1) What should i / should i NOT wash the cage and toys with.
2) How to disinfect natural wood.
3) Is there a list of good types of branches to get? I live in Canada, maple and apple trees are abundant here!

[Jinx n Noodle]

As I understand, apple is good as long as it hasn't been sprayed with anything.

I wash stuff that I"m suspicious about in 10% bleach and then rinse really well. Otherwise, diluted vinegar water is a good cleaner too, if you're looking for natural. I've used dawn dish soap too, I just rinse really well afterwards.

Otherwise, natural wood should be baked in the oven to kill any bugs that may be on it. I forgot the temperature and time in the oven, but it was recently brought up on the forum not too long ago, so if you do a search, you should be able to find the details.

[sourberry]

Thanks for the reply!
Ok, i was thinking vinegar or bleach too, but wanted to made sure they were safe. I read on this forum to bake wood at 200F but haven't seen for how long. Anybody know?