Parrot Safe Toy Making

Thanks for posting this, Bob. I was just about to ask a question on this subject, but it looks like what I wanted to know is already largely covered here.

There's only a very limited selection of toys available here, especially for smaller birds - mostly ladders and swings (which ours don't have much interest in any more), and a few mostly Chinese-made toys of various types that are not very safe. Other options are few and far between. Much of what we can get seems overpriced for what it is too, so renovating the old toys that they actually like (which get destroyed faster, of course) and making new ones from scratch is starting to seem like a very attractive option, especially as we're thinking of getting more birds soon. Dido has just polished off her favourite hanging wooden block toy and is telling us all about how she doesn't have it any more, so can you do something, Humans? It's really the only toy she has ever played with much. This birdy needs as many distractions as possible, otherwise her default way of occupying herself is to pester us endlessly all day = not good!
 
@Ararajuba can you purchase on line from Canada or USA as there are some very good manufacturers based there that sell either toys or toy making parts...the costs are cheaper than the same items here in the U.K. from the parrot supplies stockists...but trouble with internet shopping for us especially from the US is that it automatically gets clobbered en route by customs of charges and VAT, so ends up no cheaper.
I like Zoo Max - they are Canadian.

https://www.zoo-max.com/

My Amazon adores their Groovy Blocks.
 
I closed down my purest parrot moonfruit blog ages go when they got hacked .... :( kind of miss it ......
suppose I should just post all the documents I did on to here
 
@TomsMum - It's generally even worse to import stuff here, as not only is there a 60% import tax on most goods (except books) coming from outside the local economic cooperation zone, Mercosul; but things imported from the US and Europe have a nasty habit of disappearing en route unless you use the most expensive types of international tracking (which no-one does for much less than the price of the goods themselves for small orders when sending to here). The only type of goods that ever seem to come reliably when I try to import stuff are books - which though they would probably be appreciated as parrot chew toys, are something I prefer not to give them!

It's strange, because national post and parcel delivery here is generally pretty reliable - Mrs A orders things online locally all the time, and we virtually never get problems. Maybe something from the other end of the country arrives a week later than expected now and then. Tracking here is very reasonably priced and efficent too - even the ordinary national postal service, Correiros, has standard parcel tracking that actually works properly all the way to the destination and can be followed online (unlike that of the Royal Mail, in my experience!), and it's extremely rare for them to actually lose anything. I suspect that the problem is due to either international couriers or the customs people not doing their jobs properly.

Only about half of the total orders I've tried to import since coming here have ever actually turned up, often very late - the rest either disappeared entirely or somehow found their way back to the sender, six months or more after being sent! I have noticed a pattern of goods from the USA (probably the commonest source of imports here) being certain to get taxed if they turn up; whereas while goods from the UK/Europe are even less likely to turn up, but sometimes they forget to tax them. Not sure what any of this actually signifies though! I've largely given up trying to import stuff besides books - it's just too much trouble and uncertainty!

On the other hand locally sourced natural raw materials that could be used to make parrot toys are plentiful and decently priced - maybe there are business oportunities for those who want to try making their own, which I am currently missing out on...!
 
When you get bits for toys to make them yourself from the shop do you desinfect ? And how??
May sound like a daft question but never done toys for birds before.
 
yes I always spay with f10 even new made up toys that the shop or company has birds I recommend spaying I buy a lot of children's and baby toys from charity shops, toys and cages often come with birds I take on so it all has to be disinfected and the birds quarantined until tests are past.
 
I always make sure they are disinfected as you don't know if where they have come from has perhaps got birds or the people working there have birds etc etc but that is my personal choice am a tad paranoid when it comes to the safety of my birds.
Coloured wood is a bit of a pain as it can leak the dye everywhere and make a spot of a mess but as my birdies aren't bothered about the dye going everywhere nor if it is exactly in the places It should be on the toy that's just my human side that sits there thinking blinking heck it looks messy … by the time they kill it it really does look messy lol
 
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