How To Make Parrot Toys

This post is about how to make parrot toys for beginners. Making parrot toys is both a fun exercise as well as being able to save you money from buying commercial parrot toys. A parrot can go through parrot toys like a hot knife through butter. If you need to keep on buying the toys as replacement, you are going to spend quite a large sum of money. So, instead of doing that, here are some tips of how to make parrot toys for beginners.

Before making a parrot toy, you must first know the characteristic of your parrot. Size is one consideration. Big birds tend to have stronger beaks so you need to make parrot toys that are stronger and more resistant. Also, do consider the size of your parrot cage. Don’t make a parrot toy that is too big to fit into your cage.

Below are four materials suitable to make parrot toys

Rope is quite critical for making parrot toys. They are useful material to hang stuff and you will probably need a few of these to help you make some good parrot toys. When buying the materials for making parrot toys, you can choose from several different types of rope, of which solid braided rope and twisted rope are the most popular. One important point to highlight is that you should choose a 100% cotton rope as it is safe for parrots when they incidentally digest it. Any alternatives are not considered bird safe. Also, make sure that all the frayed ends of your parrot toys are trimmed to avoid your parrots from being caught by the fringes.

Wood is another material that will be popular with your pet. When buying wooden materials to make your parrot toys, ensure that you buy bird safe products. This is because your parrots may ingest some the wood that it is chewing on. The important point is never to buy painted or lacquered wood parts (certain paints/lacquers contain zinc and other harmful chemicals/additives) as the chemicals can be deadly to your birds.

Paper is a relatively easy and abundant material to work with. In fact, using paper to make parrot toys is the most easy way for beginners. First , you will need paper towel rolls. They are the easiest to work with. Then, punch a hole into the slides so that they can be string together with a rope. The great thing about this parrot toy is that you can have the option of putting lots of interesting materials between the paper towels to create variety for your parrot toys.

Finally, you can also use leather as another candidate for making parrot toys. Leather is not as common as the other materials so you might need to shop around and find a place that has the right type of leather. There are various widths and thickness of vegetable tanned leather strips. Be sure to purchase what is most suitable for your bird and the size of the hole that is drilled. The important thing is to ensure the leather has not been treated with any chemicals or dyes to prevent poisoning if you parrot accidentally swollen it.

These are all I have for you. Now, it is your turn to go and have fun making parrot toys.

Trapping an escaped pet bird

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If tempting your bird back with food and an open cage or aviary door fails, another option is to attempt to catch your bird by using a trap. A good one to try is a cat trap; this is usually about 75cm(30in) long and made of wire mesh. Ideally, the bird will walk into the cage to reach some food and in the process stand on a lever that automatically closes the door behind it. The only drawback with this method is that the bird would have to be really quite hungry for it to enter such strange surroundings as a trap.

A very old-fashioned but nevertheless effective method of catching an escaped bird is the ‘box-and-stick’ method. This involves resting the edge of a cardboard box or wire bird cage on a stick in the middle of the garden with some food underneath it. You then connect a long piece of string to the stick, and as soon as the bird crawls directly under the box or cage, you pull the string and the box will fall down and enclose your bird. Try to make the piece of string as long as possible, because any hint of your presence will deter the bird from entering the box.

Once the bird is safely inside the enclosure, slide a thin piece of wood or cardboard under it and carry the box into the aviary or inside the house. It may be old-fashioned, but it works.

An important point to remember when using a trap or ‘box-and-stick’ method is to use the bird’s usual food dish containing its typical food. Recognizing something familiar from its cage or aviary will help to calm the bird down and give you a much greater chance of catching it successfully.

If you have tried the various methods for catching an escaped bird and all have failed, you should consider contacting a professional bird catcher, who will use a mist net. You may find that you will need to seek permission from the local authorities to allow someone to use a mist net on your property. Therefore, be prepared for some organization and possible complications.

If your bird does escape, report the incident to your local police immediately, because very often people will report sightings of unexpected birds. This may lead you to try catching your bird from various gardens, but be prepared for it to take a few days.