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The key is that the toy is safe because just like human children, birds are orally fixated and will "beak" just about anything to test whether it's edible, chewable, destroyable, tasty, tough — you name it! And they may decide to ingest it. When I had horses, we used to say that if a horse were accident prone, he'd find a way to hurt himself in a padded stall. That seems to hold true for people and birds too. I heard of a bird suffocating because a seed hull got stuck in his windpipe! We can sure minimize dangers though, if we are aware of some of the potential hazards. But what is an unsafe toy? There are several web sites that post warnings about hazards in our bird's artificial environments (our homes). I'll list a few at the end, as well as some sites that give ideas for toy making for your birds. You'll need to use common sense about which of the ideas are appropriate for your bird and you may notice that more than one ignores the potential dangers listed in the following paragraphs.
Threads and Fluff
All that glitters
As strong as the weakest link
The wonders of plastics
These are just a few of the "Alerts". Check out some of these web sites for more detailed information and anecdotes. These are some sites that discuss toys and toy building. Most are okay, but use common sense when deciding which toy is appropriate for your type of bird.
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Super, creative, imaginative, colorful bird toys
— every pet store and bird mart has lots of them! You can also make plain or fancy toys yourself, depending on how creative you want to be. Frankly, the birds don't care if it's a $20 toy and looks professionally made, or a couple of dollars worth of wood, leather and beads strung together. They'll play with a plain old ten cent chunk of 1 x 2" pine as readily as a precisely chiseled 50 cent rectangular wood block.
Tinkle, tinkle, little bell
