Monthly Archives for February 2012

Toy making day

I had two very busy weeks, so my entire toy “stash” was turned into splinters. I have a few more extremely busy weeks ahead of me, so it was time to replenish my bird toy box.

I dug into my toy parts and this is what I came up with :

Ringo’s toys

Ringo, my IRN is affraid of larger toys, anything larger than her will send her flying away. Budgie sized toys are perfect for her. I made her a couple of toys using cork (you can read about cork here) , balsa, pine, various shredders, paper cups and some palm bags.

Another toy I made for her, that is already in her cage being chewed up. It’s a palm bag filled with paper, some natural shredders, paper cups and balsa. I really like it and best of all, she likes it. She’s really nesty at the moment, so lots and LOTS of shreddables does a wonderful job at keeping her mind and beak occupied.

Lino’s   toys

Lino loves wood more than anything. Any type of wood will do, he really isn’t picky. For his toys I used willow, white pine, fir, balsa and cork. All of the toy parts are untreated. I buy white pine and fir at a local lumber mill, so I know where does it come from and what has it been treated with, i.e what it hasn’t been treated with.

Next two toys are already in his cage, being chewed up.

I really like this horizontal toy because it has a lot of wood to chew and I think it turned out pretty nice, if I may say so.

Hopefully, this will hold us until the end of the week.

Cork- bird safe toy

When someone mentions cork, first thing that comes to mind is vine, right? Well, there’s a bigger picture behind it in the parrot world.  Cork, as you can see it as a stopper in vine bottles, is the end product. It all starts from a cork oak tree, to be precise it’s bark.

Cork oak is a tree native to South-West Europe and North Africa and from there it’s transported all over the world and than used in various products. Cork oak bark is thick, but soft what makes it an excellent choice for a natural parrot chew toy, you can make it into a swing, a balcony and anything else your creativity gives you.

Be sure you’re buying untreated, unprocessed cork oak bark, because it’s the only safe cork for your parrots.