Can I disinfect branches using a plant light?

Emio123456789

New member
Oct 1, 2018
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Iā€™m going to be making some perches for my birds and am going to use the baking method and then I wanted to leave the branches out in the sun to kill any other diseases but I donā€™t get much sun here where I live but I do have a large plant light the gives off UV rays and was wondering if that would suffice?
 

noodles123

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2018
8,145
472
Parrots
Umbrella Cockatoo- 15? years old..I think?
It depends---UV sterilization processes often produce ozone, but also it will depend on what you are wanting to kill. You don't want your bird around ozone (excluding naturally occurring sources). Furthermore, pesticides, salts, chemicals etc will not be any safer via UV light (and if a plant sucks these up when it is growing, it becomes contaminated for captive parrots whose immune systems aren't that great to begin with).
 

SailBoat

Supporting Member
Jul 10, 2015
17,643
10,007
Western, Michigan
Parrots
DYH Amazon
Iā€™m going to be making some perches for my birds and am going to use the baking method and then I wanted to leave the branches out in the sun to kill any other diseases but I donā€™t get much sun here where I live but I do have a large plant light the gives off UV rays and was wondering if that would suffice?

Unless you purchased a 'professional' unit commonly seen in Greenhouses and paid the customary high costs. Plus had your electrical system ungraded in that room or area to supply 240V, it is highly unlikely that your have such a devise. Such units use a Rod /Arcing unit to create true UV rays. If not properly used /controlled can result in blindness and skin cancer. Micro units are used for some exotic animals, but never around Birds! As Noted Above!

It is more likely that you have a unit that can be purchased at a Big Box Store or like that states it is a Grow Light. These units are common painted /tinted to produce a light much like that commonly experienced at High-Noon in London in late June and is commonly called Daylight or like terms. With the advent of LED bulbs this color has become much more common.

Long way to simply say, true UV rays are expensive, can cause blindness /cancer and can kill some Viruses, but not all.
 

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