Dog rope toys?

[CharlieB]

Has anyone used dog rope toys for grey before? I saw many cool looking and pretty dog rope toys at petsmart today. I really want to get some, but let me ask first

[Luvparrots]

I haven't used rope toys but I have purchased some rubber dog toys that my parrots like. Like rawhide chews.

[Talon]

Great ideas! Never thought to buy rawhide toys for them, are they safe?

[Luvparrots]

Dave007 suggested them to me when I had my mature male ekkie that "loved" me. Louie, my zon, likes to chew on them. He is the real chewer in the flock.

[thenabrd]

kallie has one that she likes to bang around. it's tied with a leather strap and hangs in her cage. its a toy that i take out and put back in. i just keep an eye on it to make sure there aren't any long threads hanging off of it. she doesn't chew on it at this point, just likes hanging from it or pushes it around to "shadow box" it! athena has had some in the past, but really never paid them any attention.

[DawL]

I use rawhide chews for my toy making adventures. I actually got the idea from browsing bird toy websites! Barnaby LOVES to chew on his, and I have made Grimm a few as well that are put up, and waiting on him to come home.

[CharlieB]

Awesome, I'll get a couple of rawhide, and rubber today. Thank you

[Acappella]

Just like Thenabrd said, watch for stray threads because the dog toys are not made from bird-safe rope like supreme and tend to fray badly. Before Dorian was my bird, when he was still in the store, he got a talon caught in a swing that wasn't kept trimmed and he let out a cry that I hope I never hear again! Luckily I was there for the rescue.

[katana600]

A rope toy with a knot in the middle and frayed at the end is like the preening toy we have. At a pet store a couple of years ago there was a blue and gold macaw with a toy that had a knot on each end. He had frayed and bitten the rope in the middle and then stuck his head through and a few strong strands were around his neck. He was new to the pet shop and a young girl was attending and it was a big job for the two of us to keep him occupied while she got some scissors to cut the strands. His neck was red and raw and he rubbed it and was very upset. I think the main thing is to watch your bird, use that kind of toy carefully under supervision and keep loops from forming. I do think the frayed ends are good and we do see Gilbert playing with a rope-like preening toy, but it has a plastic "megaphone" type thing over the knot so he can't actually climb on it or get a talon caught up. I do keep that one outside his cage, on the playtop because when he is out, I am very near. I watch carefully the boing and other rope perches and keep strands cut off.

[thenabrd]

athena has one of those preening toys with the cone. she loves to "feed" the top of the cone, lol! i don't know why, but she's done it for years. i've tried moving it to a different place in her cage, but she freaks out, so i end up putting it back. its the one thing in her cage that has a permanent place, everything else we can move around! she doesn't preen it or play with it, just "feeds" it. she's such a little nut sometimes, hahahaha!