For those that make thier own chew toys

[jrosler04]

Do you ever color them?

When making toys for my macaw, I use blocks of wood, and occasionally, we get bored & decide to add color to the wood. I was advised by a bird breeder/rescuer that I adopted my parrot from to use a package of kool-aid in small amount of warm water (NO SUGAR ADDED) and soak it for a bit. it gave the wood a small amount of flavor, and some decent colors.

I have noticed that Shadow (my macaw) goes for the red blocks/shapes first (dyed with tropical punch kool-aid)

or if low on the kool aid, we use plain food coloring, but usually end up using almost a whole bottle per color dish.


Not sure if this would even be safe, but thought I would ask.

Thoughts?

 

[Essentia]

Yup. Both options are safe. I actually find I get better color payoff with food coloring than with koolaid. I'm surprised you have found the opposite.

 

[jrosler04]

Great to know. I always want to ask those with experience prior to doing anything that might harm them.

I have found that using a small amount of water with 1 or 2 packs of kool aid does a decent job of coloring. It could just be we didnt' soak them long enough the 1 time we did the food coloring.

My cousin will be SO excited next time she comes over to spend the night. she has been BEGGING me to get the stuff so she can help make bird toys, and was dissapointed when we ran out of blocks & fun thing so quickly. She will be ecsatic to be able to make so many toys this time!