colored or plain wood for Wanda's birds

[Dot]

My bad. I've made two toys and some foot toys with non-colored wood. My birds will chew this but some people say their birds will not touch wood unless it is dyed. Does anyone know if Wanda's birds have a preference?

[Sashagirl]

Why not make a combination of colored and plain wood toys.Seeing there are Cockatoos and a Grey.I no longer have Toos but my Greys love their toys whether colored or not.

[Dot]

Why not make a combination of colored and plain wood toys.Seeing there are Cockatoos and a Grey.I no longer have Toos but my Greys love their toys whether colored or not.

The toys I made are not colored because I don't do that. I don't trust that the dyes are not part of the feather destructive behavior we are now seeing in companion birds.

I bought some toys and ordered them half dyed and half "au natural." :)

[Wanda and Flock]

Dot, send what you made. As much as they chewed on my furniture- and it's not purple or yellow- I don't think they care. And, thank you for it. For thinking of them.

[Larry, Baby and Me]

Hmmm??? So that is who taught Baby how to chew ONLY expensive furniture? :D

[Diane, Clouds assignment]

Dot, if you want to color the wood, go to Don's site. I would bet my pension that anything he sells is safe for our birds.
http://donsbirds.com/seeds.html

[Dot]

Dot, send what you made. As much as they chewed on my furniture- and it's not purple or yellow- I don't think they care. And, thank you for it. For thinking of them.

Wanda, I almost had a heart attack last night. I got the first toy foraging toys made and realized they were going to tooz. Eek. I had hung them on the thin SS wire. That would not even be safe. So, I put those aside for my birds. Only the RFM do I have to watch. The others do not consider the wire to be part of the toy.

So, I started over but I didn't have any this sisal. I had to hang the toys on thick sisal and Anna will just have to tie it to the cage or tie it to a Quick Link. I left plenty of room on the sisal for her to hang it.

Anna, if you read this make sure when it is hung that you cut off the end of the sisal and not allow enough for them to wrap it around their necks. I am sending some plastic tubing for you to use to help make the toys safer.

[Wanda and Flock]

You know, I was talking to my mom today about all of this. And she said to me, "Wanda, your own boys got in alot more trouble for doing less!" I chuckled -knowing she is sooooo right!

[Dot]

Dot, if you want to color the wood, go to Don's site. I would bet my pension that anything he sells is safe for our birds.
http://donsbirds.com/seeds.html

And I would bet my retirement that he has a link to Cheryl's VitaCritter, which if you people who color would don't know about, you need to learn now. It is human grade and easy to use.

Mine will chew plain wood, so I don't bother. They know I am lazy. :haha:

[Larry, Baby and Me]

Hmmmm??? what color is wood in the wild???

I used to color ALL the wood parts for Baby -- VitaCritter of course. I tried my best to not get my fingers looking like Easter Eggs... to no avail - even with rubber gloves.

So - one Sunday evening I got to coloring up a storm, with rubber gloves on mind you - because I had a meeting the next morning with a new client. Had to look my best.

Wellllll .... both rubber gloves had tiny holes in the finger tips... And I again had Easter Egg fingers.

Do you know how ling it takes that stuff to wear off.. :eek: Cause it won't wash off.

I no longer color her toys and she likes them better that way... thank goodness.:dancered:

[birdie]

last winter hubby and I went on a cutting & coloring binge, I still have some of the wood {we made I think a dozen boxes heaping full of cut & drilled shapes & blocks} we got through 5 colors without much on us until we came to the green & hubby had a tiny hole in the thumb of one of his gloves... I called him Mr Green thumb all week :haha: I mix color with plain blocks. I'm not sure if the birds care or not... but it makes for quality time with hubby anyway, plus I get to use the power tools :yahoo:

[Evelyn]

I don't color mine anymore after I ended up with a blue cockatoo. :eek: Somehow he spashed water from his dish onto the blue toy and then rubbed against it.

I called him Smurf-bird for a few days until it washed/wore off.

Evelyn