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Hello,

What is the best kind of wood for large breeder macaws and were can I buy it. I was using pine and they are eating it like toothpicks. I don't have that many trees around my property.

thanks

Unless properly cleaned and cured, fresh pine should not be used. Birds do best with a variety of perches. If they enjoy chewing up their perches then you will need to replace them more often.

The following page has a list of safe and toxic trees. There are also notes towards the bottom that may be worth reading.
http://www.mdvaden.com/bird_page.shtml

I use an approriately sized pvc pipe for the perch that is most difficult to replace (furthest away from the cage door) and a largish sized tree limb for the closer perch. With all the bad weather in the Alabama area, there should be plenty of downed trees for you to sort through. I use any hard wood limbs that I can get ahold of. I never use pine or cedar. I prefer oak over anything else as it's harder and lasts longer. Fruit wood may have been sprayed and is pretty soft. Sycamore last a good long time. Poplar and sweet gum doesn't last long at all. I don't bother pulling off the smallish branches but will take off most of the larger leaves as they'll pile up in the bottom of the cages and collect feces and other dirt. The birds especially like to chew up the green sappy buds and I feel this provides them with something natural to do. If you have access to oaks, all of my birds love to chew up the green acorns when they start to form in the fall.

Manzanita is extremely hard and I have never had a Macaw destroy one yet. It is expensive but you only have to buy it once. I do however supply them with disposable perches that they are encouraged to chew...

Good luck

Chewing wood is good for Macaws in breeding. I use 2 x 4's constructed in right angles so they can make their appropriate positions prior to "the act." When a male chews the wood its instinctive and should be allowed. A few things to keep in mind is "don't use green wood" like in wolmanized.

I stopped in the local lumber store with one of my macaws on my shoulder and introduced ourselves! ha ha ha I asked them if they had any twisted or imperfect 2 x 4's to save them for "US." Well they have a box that they put all this wood into and save it for me and I stop by every now and then and collect it, for FREE! yes, they do chop it up like tooth picks but have fun doing so.

So my suggestion would be to keep it up, let them chew it up and just replace it every so often.

For the main perch I use a stair railing. The large size. It is perfect for Macaws feet. I also cut off any fancy routed edges that are often along the sides and do it at the same angle as the railing. I get it smooth up about 1.5 inches at the same angle as the rail. The reason I do this is I use contact cement to apply super fine emery cloth up to about .5 inches from the top. This lets the nails scrape along the front and back to smooth the nails. It works great to keep the nails from getting too sharp and the bird does not have the sand paper hurt the feet which fits perfectly on the top of the rail. These railings are also always a hard wood.

I also use PVC with caps on the ends with bolts going through the caps. I use 1.25 to 2 inch PVC and roughen it up with a rasp and/or I wrap the pipe with vet wrap. This is the gauze like stuff that only sticks to itself. It is easily replaceable when it gets dirty.

The reason for the different size pipes is for the comfort of the foot. They will cramp up if they are only on one type and size of perch.