OutlawedSpirit
New member
- Apr 12, 2016
- 1,020
- 21
- Parrots
- Bo - DYH ~ Gus - CAG ~ Twitch - Linnie ~ Apple - Pineapple GCC ~ Goliath - Quaker ~ Squish - Peach face Lovebird
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.
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.