Moving bead toy

[Flyte]

Hey guys. Have you ever seen these child play sets?

My gray is very into moving things around but he gets bored with the little birdy ones, since they usually just move in a tiny straight line.
I would like to try and make one of these for him to play with, but on a smaller scale, of course. Maybe one for on top of the cage and a few tiny ones inside.
I would use those hard kid beads and I don't really know what for the wire. Maybe a hanger, but I'd have to research what they are made of and find a way to secure it safely... don't want any sharp edges.
Any ideas? Thanks!

Sarah

 

[indigo]

What an awesome idea!

I bet you could use a wire hanger, just make sure to secure it to a wood block maybe, bend the hanger ends back and into the wood block. Let me think how to explain it.

Okay, you have a block of wood. Drill a hole through the wood for each end of the wire. Stick one end in each hole (with beads and such strung onto the wire) and push the wire through the wood, enough to bend the tip back up like a hook (use pliers maybe?), then hammer the bent ends into the wood I guess sort of like a nail; you could use a screwdriver maybe to make a dent/short hole to get it going in. It aught to hold and there'd be no sharp ends or glues or anything. You could put some hooks or something to attach it and voila. Would make a great weekend project. I imagine it wouldn't take all that much time to make once everything is ready to go. I may try this lol. Research the metals though. Also just make sure the wood is colored (if you use colored) with bird safe colorants. You could also get uncolored wood bits and color them with various vegetable / fruit juices. Or, get a dowel (they come round, square, you name it now), cut it into decent sized pieces and drill a hole in the middle. Depends on how much you want to do on your own.

What a great idea!!

 

[Peta]

I made one of these for Bucc when he was a baby, he had hours and hours of fun with it, and yep Indigo thats just the way I did it. I had lots of wire from old frayed boings, so I used that, got some untreated wooden balls, and drilled a hole in them. Your fids will love it and it really doesn't take that long to make.

Bucc had his for a long time and the only thing to be chewed was the wooden stand. I've still got all the wooden balls so maybe I'll have to do another one. Well two, one for Bucc and one for Kito. That should keep them occupied for a while.

 

[birdcrazy]

at our Target they have a dollar section where they used to have really mini ones about 4 inches long then at the bird fair I saw someone had bought a bunch of them and added nuts and bolts to screw them to the cage.