[daisy1990]

We have bought an aviary to house our Quail and the wood is untreated.  We have painted the outside with cuprinol cream stain, but would like to leave a natural finish inside.  Would it be advisable to use an oil and if so which is safe? Or would it be better to leave it as raw wood?
Thanks

[Paul Plots]

If it were me I would leave the inside untreated.

(I've never kept quail but have bred foreign finches, budgies and cockatiels.)

[joyfull]

if you want to use a preservative then look out for one that is friendly to bats - I think cuprinol do one.

[Paul Plots]

I had two 12' x 8' flights and used cuprinol on the exposed timber. It was left to mature for a week or two before the birds went in there. None suffered any harm and the cuprinol treated timber was left alone by the budgies and cockatiels' sharp beaks. (Admittedly most of it was covered by close guage galvanised mesh)

I gave the budgies and cockatiels a sawn off apple tree to much through instead.

Timber in the inside-flights was not treated as it remained dry and out of the rain. There seemed no need to treat it and some of the small finches may not have coped well with any fumes from treated timber.

[daisy1990]

thanks all- I think we will leave it untreated, it seems to be waterproof so should be OK