Looking for some shredding ideas for Gizmo. Came up with the empty roll from paper towels. Safe or not safe? Plus any other ideas would be great.

I know lots of people let their birds chew on empty paper towel rolls/toilet paper rolls but the glues on them scare me and make me consider them unsafe. A safer option IMO would be adding machine tape or just regular paper squished into balls or strips etc. Casey also loves shedding those finger trap things and birdie bagels!

I cut up plastic straws and string them on long shoestrings for Pickle. He absolutely LOVES them! He will play with them for hours until they are chewed to pieces, then I remove them and string on new ones! Very inexpensive and a great chewtoy.

Just thought I'd add a couple links that I've found...

This article has a little paragraph at the end about zinc in the adhesives.

And this is a whole article about the adhesives.

Wow who would have thought that. Great info thanks!!!

I voted no on the paper towels as I believe that they are heavier and takes more glue to hold them together. But, I do give mine the toilet paper rolls. They love them. Better than any toy you can buy. Im sure they have some glue on them but I still think they are safe enough. I dont give it to them but maybe one a week though.

Ditto

Poll is very close with the yes's with a very small lead.

I let my Kiwi chew on paper towel rolls....................

i let our kiwi chew on toilet paper rolls...

I was giving Tubby paper towel rolls that I would cut in rings and slide them over his perches. One day Griffey, our dog, came to me in a panic and wanted me to follow him. When I got to Tubby, he had a paper ring around his neck and was trying to pull it off. That's when he got his foot caught in the ring along with his head. I had just rescued him and he really didn't tust me but as soon as I got him free, there has been a real bond and trust. I brought him home last September and he only gets upset with me when I touch his cage, playgym or any of his toys. I feel sometimes I need boxing gloves just to take his watering dish out to clean. I do buy adding machine paper, make a lot of their toys, and have ordered toys from Chet Womack. Go to www.CheapParrotToysNTips.com. You will find lots of toys that is fun for your fids and fun for you to make. I have turned my sewing/quilting room into a "bird making toys" room. Chet Womack is at www.birdtricks.com.

Lee Ellen
Tubby
Ickey
Ducan
Griffey

Clyde is totally uninterested in paper towel or toilet paper rolls so I gave up. I do give him a paper towel to tear up but he just pulls at it and pokes at it and doesn't seem to want to actually rip it to shreds, as I expected him to.

Mine have fun with a box of cheap tissues from the dollar store... I hav also let them play with toilet rolls but heard about paper towel rolls and the amount of glue not being good so have stayed away from them...

we use newspaper to shred, along with plain paper scraps, kleenex coffee filters, finger traps and paper towels. i also got some coin wrappers, but haven't used them too much.

before getting the new cage, i had to trim the paper to fit the bottom, and had a lot of ~1 inch strips leftover, which i simply gathered in the middle and tied with hemp string. instant hang shredding toy. of course, they only pay attention to it for about 3 seconds and then i end up with a pile of papers too big to suck up in the vac monster lol.

kris

I used to give mine toilet paper roles, until I read a few articles. Zinc poisoning doesn't happen suddenly but over time, so if you use them and your bird is fine, you might not really know. Carrie introduced me to birdie bagels and they are great. I also bought a generic loofa and sliced it into several pieces. Both birds love it, and you can stuff the holes with foraging treats.