Can painted items be baked to sterilise?

[Pastacat]

Today, I deep cleaned Topaç's cage. It was so exhausting. I threw out all the cardboard items, washed the plastic items and put the wooden items in a bag to freeze later. I tried to replace the thrown out items with what I had at hand, but I didnt have much.
This is what it looks like now.


As you can see, it looks a bit barebones. He was busy with foraging for seeds I scattered for a while, but now he's hiding in his orange hide. I am thinking of making more hides today, but I want him to have a bit of familiarity. He had a red wooden tunnel in his cage that I had put aside, because I saw a bug walking on it. Can this be baked in the oven to sterilise or would the paint or dye make it unsafe?

 

[Maz]

It is hard work isn't it? He probably will feel a bit exposed. I would maybe add a couple more things to fill up the space. And give him a new chewstick. Pringles tube maybe? And another cardboard hide. Even a cereal box with a hole in as those are a good size.

I know it'll change again when things come out of the freezer but it might help him for now.

 

[Pastacat]

Update: I gave him two tunnels made of a wafer box and a cooler bag box.

 

[Maz]

Maybe tonight put a little trail of treats or sunflower seeds outside the cardboard multiroom house and leading into it, and then a handful of food inside the house and a smelly treat like a bit of cucumber or hard cheese - to tempt him in there to start sleeping in it. I'd also put a big pile of torn up strips of plain white toilet paper near the entrance of cardboard multiroom house - to one side of the entrance.

Hopefully he'll move in and make himself cosy in there.