Toy selection, the simple things in life

Hi all,

Well the other day, being a good parent, I bought Gizmo and Pebbles a new toy. It was a twine, paper ribbon, coloured timber, knotted creation. Something for them to share outside, under supervision, and something I thought was really cool and fun to destroy. To my regret Pebbles and Gizmo spent about 5 min. breaking up the small pieces of timber and then showed little interest.

Doing a lot of woodwork, I decided if it was small bits of pine to destroy they wanted, well I have lots of scrap that I struggle to get rid of.

I've made stuff before, for Pebbles and Gizmo, but the idea behind this was make it quick, easy and free.


So I went to the workshop, grabbed a few off cuts of pine, drilled a hole big enough to go over the kebabs, (off centre so they would create an irregular shape when stacked), went across to the table saw, and started cutting off small slithers. Here are about 8 stacked, and Gizmo and Pebbles have been all over them, breaking off pieces and chewing them down to nothing.

[ame="http://youtu.be/610WOo3_4ck"]Gizmo new toy - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://youtu.be/3vU5xCW_JsE"]pebbles new toy - YouTube[/ame]

I cut about 50 slithers, so lots of fun to be had. Total cost...zero dollars, watching two happy Eclectus parrots....priceless


Cheers,


Camo

They are so beautiful!

Free and cheap are awesome. Thanks for the ideas, Venus is into plastic spoons, Popsicle sticks, empty toilet paper rolls and foraging through bottle caps for treats. The spoon she steals from my cup, it's a daily mission for her, lol.

What an awesome idea! I never thought of using Jasper's kabob for anything other than food, I gotta try something

Thanks all for the replies,

Taw5106 said:

Free and cheap are awesome. Thanks for the ideas, Venus is into plastic spoons, Popsicle sticks, empty toilet paper rolls and foraging through bottle caps for treats. The spoon she steals from my cup, it's a daily mission for her, lol.

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Great suggestions, I will have to give some more items a try (they do love soft drink lids, bread clips, oh and our curtains). I can just see Pebbles trying to steal my breakfast spoon, if I gave her the chance. I find Gizmo is the most destructive, but Pebbles after investigation, is the most likely to decide something is worth chewing...lol.

katie_fleming said:

What an awesome idea! I never thought of using Jasper's kabob for anything other than food, I gotta try something

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I've been layering them lately, a bit of food, something to destroy, some more food. When I first got the kabob, I thought the ball hung at the bottom, and the top was attached to the cage with a clip (for the price, I thought they could have thrown in a clip). Gizmo, being the high energy bird he is, quickly decided to turn it into a wrecking ball, grabbing it with his beak and throwing it, then dodging it when it would come back, to him, it was hours of fun, he would attack it, then next minute be calling it "good boy", then "No" as it made a passing glance. In the end I took it out of the cage, as he was swinging it so hard, I was worried he might end up injuring himself. When we got Pebbles, I looked into them again, trying to find a smaller ball. I finally paid attention and realised the ball was supposed to go on the outside of the cage. So long story short, Gizmo is the one that realised kabob's could be used as a toy...lol.

Cheers,

Camo

Camo, thanks so much for sharing your wonderful toy idea! Great video, Gizmo and Pebbles demonstrate the kabob toys' fun factor so well, and they are both stunning.

I'm still giggling at Gizmo telling the wrecking ball Good Boy and No.

"Hey Gizmo and Pebbles, what are you guys up to this morning", oh just hanging around:






Having breakfast this morning, and saw the timber skewers in the draw, I thought if I break off the sharp end, perhaps they will have fun breaking that down....I think the answer was yes

Cheers,

Camo

I use those..I get like four of them then tie them real tight with cotton rope, I put wood bead in there as well...so much for the $30 toy..who wants to play with that! Lol

I like it!

I have been doing similar "toys" using a hole saw and my chop say, and stringing them through with stainless chains. (Choker collars for dogs.)

I definitely need to get my hands on some food-grade dyes as Willow definitely seem to have more interest in colored wood.

ToMang07 said:

I definitely need to get my hands on some food-grade dyes as Willow definitely seem to have more interest in colored wood.

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I was thinking the same, red coke bottle lid, is apparently better than black coke zero lid...lol, so at least according to Gizmo and Pebbles, colour matters.

I am guessing they just use food colouring??

Cheers,

Camo

Thank you for the awesome pictures and wonderful ideas. I never ever thought to use my Kebab for chunks of wood. Oliver seems to absolutely go mental over pine cones that I bought from the safe toy store online but it wasn't 0$ like your Kebab idea. Thank you!!!