What would be the best way to make wooden toys for birds?
Posted by admin on
November 23, 2008
Ryoga Sayo asked:
I am the owner of a lovebird, Kaugummi, and figure I can save money by making him those brightly-coloured wooden chew blocks like they have at pet stores out of scrap wood.
I am the owner of a lovebird, Kaugummi, and figure I can save money by making him those brightly-coloured wooden chew blocks like they have at pet stores out of scrap wood.
What sort of wood would be best/safest to work with? What would I use to colour them? Is this even a good idea?
Any tips or ideas from other bird lovers and carpenters would be greatly appreciated.
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3 Responses to “What would be the best way to make wooden toys for birds?”
buy them it’ll be safer. Too many things to consider when making them by hand. Paint kills if eaten so will the wrong wood. I used self made brenches in my avearies and almost killed the whole flock. Research online the poisenous bark to them and also never paint them at all. Use things like bells and baby toys. These are so much cheaper than bird toys. Found this out when my flock was in for the winter and they got out and ate all the boys baby toys. Thankfully they didn’t get sick. Watch for any broken peices and buy new ones for future play in case they eat one. Most baby toys will be bird safe too.
By Sherry R on Nov 26, 2008
Making toys is much cheaper. I have 3 large Macaws and go through a lot of toys. I make mine out of untreated wood that you can buy at any lumberyard and cut them into various shapes and sizes, then I drill holes in the pieces and string them on sisal rope. There are food grade colorings that you can buy if you wish.
You can also buy containers of colored blocks and rope from pet supply companies on-line. is usually a good place to go.
By mpruitt3164@sbcglobal.net on Nov 26, 2008
Here is a great article about bird safe wood, it covers everything, from fresh wood found outdoors, to wood sold at lumber mills.
Your best bets are probably pine lumber and balsa wood. Use caution, any wood treatment is bad for birds, including the recent addition of mold inhibitors added to wood used on new building construction.
As for dye, all you need is human-grade (edible) food coloring, which can be found in almost any grocery store, usually near the cake decorating products. It can also be found in bulk on-line.
Food coloring and vegetable based dyes can be used to color other natural untreated products like sisal or cotton rope, vine, palm, cardboard birdie bagels, shreddable paper, etc. Anything that’s bird-safe and porous will work – except leather and rawhide. I believe that’s a different process (vegetable tanned).
Before you craft, you may want to look at other toy parts that are available. It’s a great way to get ideas, and you may find it’s cheaper to buy the parts, than to make them yourself.
Here are my favorite sources for toy parts:
Drs Foster and Smith:
eBay Sellers:
Bird safe food coloring (bulk):
Best of luck to you!
By Suzi on Nov 29, 2008