Even Safe is Unsafe

I have always been paranoid about the safety of my fids toys. Very rarely do I buy mass produced "big box" toys because I find flaws in materials or construction. I will occasionally buy toys at bird fairs, but only from people I personally know because I don't know if other people have birds at home that could potentially carry diseases. The toys I make are with parts that are completely bird safe, from trusted sources. I am just super paranoid because they are my babies.

Anyway, to my point. I made Bo a toy that I thought was safe. It was strung on vegetable tanned leather from mysafebirdstore.com, had safe wood blocks that I cut, drilled, and dyed myself, and paper cups. That was it. Safe toys strung up on a safe piece of leather. Here is what the toy looked like, a general idea anyway, it was much fuller than this, I took the picture halfway through taking it apart.



However, Bo decided to remind me to always be vigilant because no toy is truly ever completely safe. I was in the living room while they were playing in their cages and he started screaming. Now, Bo yells a lot while playing with his toys, but this was definitely not a "I'm going to kill you!" amazon scream, it was a "You're killing me!" amazon scream.

When I got to him, he had managed to tangle his leg in the leather string, wood blocks and all wrapped around his leg from hip to toes and was hanging upside down panicking. I immediately reached in a grabbed him, taking quite a few good bites in the process, but I really didn't care at the time, I was just worried about Bo. I couldn't get him untangled in the cage because he just kept thrashing around, so I unhooked the toy and brought both of them out. I grabbed a towel from the bin I keep next to their cages for emergencies, threw it over Bo to keep him still and was able to untangle him. He ended up just fine, but it just went to prove that no matter what lengths we go to, they will figure out how to hurt themselves on a toy.

I ended up getting rid of the leather cord for making them toys. I managed to find a bunch of these skewers at Petsmart on clearance for $5 .



I got about a dozen of them, so now I use those as the base for the toys I make them. It limits what I can do a little more, but the fids don't really seem to mind as long as I give them stuff to tear up and destroy.

The skewers are pretty good- mine cockatoo tends to like them less (of course, why like something safe a practical lol). It is good that you are making toys and being so vigilant!

I had to rescue my wild cought OWA. I think he had a toe claw stuck in a ss chain.
I had to do the same thing you did, take the toy & bird out and get him unstuck.
I also had the same results of bitten and bloody fingers.

Bo, you scamp! You gave your parront a fit, but you gave us all a good lesson.

I agree... it's all about vigilance, supervising play with any new toy, and knowing your bird. I know what kind of stuff the Rb gets into peculiar problems with, and which have been proven safe over the years.

Thanks for the reminder.

And I'm so glad everybody is gonna be okay!

I agree about the potential dangers of pretty much any manufactured toy. Paints poison. Metal rusts. Loops can throttle. So I reckon the best thing is to use those things that birds would play with in the wild. If possible, just go out and pick up a few twigs or branches for them to play with. An inexhaustible, free and safe supply of destructible toys.

Well, almost. Take a look around before you grab or pick-up those freebies. Remember, if you live in a city /town, those freebies near the roadway, farm land or grass and garden areas may have been exposed to normal chemicals used to treat road surfaces, farm land and/or grass and gardens. Also, some cities and towns are treating for certain bugs by spraying into the trees, snubs and grass areas.

Water run-off tends to collect in areas (current term: wet lands) and those areas near roads, farm land, or lawn and gardens tend to have as high and in some cases higher levels of those chemicals commonly used around them.

Always remember to wash clean those freebies. Target branches still alive and still in the trees.

I agree with using lots of caution with branches etc (I know....bummer...I wish it were easier), but any branches need to be baked etc (microbes, insects and fungi inhabit cut wood and they can impact captive birds to a greater extent than they would wild birds with stronger immune systems). Also, certain types of wood are poisonous, and then there is the issue of possible chemical contamination etc.

Thanks for the insight. I always used to wonder why people insisted that pet birds strictly need fresh clean water in clean bowls and clean everything every day when this is clearly not what they get in the wild. I hadn't considered the issue of immune system strength and now i've learned something so thanks.


I guess its the same with human kids who develop weaker immune systems if not exposed to certain bacteria at an early age.

Yeah- our birds are kind of like "bubble kids" when you think about it. In the wild, they would either be exposed and survive (gaining strength) or die off. The latter isn't exactly a pet owner's idea of a good time lol.

Speaking of other unsafe "toys"...I've had this looped around my staircase banister..guess which two fluff-puffs were sneaking away to chew them on the sly!? Major fire hazard! And this is when I'm literally sitting right next to them on the couch and for a few seconds at at time!