Skewer refilling time

I think it's been quite some time since I had an entry about homemade or purchased toys. I know there have been two orders that I never got around taking pictures of before I handed the toys to the birds and I haven't really been in a toy-making kind of mind lately.

However, last week-end I sat down and did prepare some toys; I simply refilled most of my skewers with pine slats/blocks, beads and natural wood toys. The easiest homemade toys ever.

While these don't look fancy, they are always a success with the flock and I really don't have an excuse to not prepare them, as it does not take long. There is also no rope to knot, which, if you do work with poly rope, can be irritating after a while.

These skewers also allow me to reuse some of the materials that weren't completely chewed off in their previous incarnation, so it helps to avoid waste.

I have a variety of skewers; I love the small corkscrew skewer for the smaller Pois and I have a large one for Léa (although this particular one won't be shown below as it still was in Léa's cage with stuff to chew on). I also have skewers from Expandable Habitats in a number of sizes; from two huge ones, quite a few large ones and a number of small ones.

The (small) corkscrew skewers:

(The one with red balls will go to Joey and Pixel; the one with the pink ball to Shade and the one with the yellow ball to Zuri. Petey's skewer was still in his cage with wood to chew)

The huge Expandable Habitats skewer:

 

(Only one pictured, as the other one was still full and in use in one of the spare cages in the orange room)

The large Expandable Habitats skewers:

The small Expandable Habitats skewers:

The wood used to fill the skewers came from a number of places. Most of the blocks on the huge skewers are from Mother Pluckin' Bird Toys. There was some balsa blocs too, that came from Things for Wings. The natural wood coins were also from Things for Wings. The wooden beads were mostly from Woodworks. finally, the pine slats were either cut by me or were ordered from Crystal's Bird Toys when the store closed down.

And because I don't feel like starting a new post just for these, here are two pictures of toys I've made at one point over this past winter. 

A week-end of toys: Homemade toys!

Here is my last chapter of "A week-end of toys", at least for this week-end (unless I'll be surprised with more bird related toys, which I think is highly doubtful.)

Last week-end I started making some homemade toys; I believe I intended to make more, but things have been busy in other spheres of my life this week and I've just run out of time and had no desire to think about the toys (as I tend to be a little "peculiar" about how they have to have a certain symmetry, which requires some thought.)

All of the toys use pine slats I cut last week-end and wood beads. Some also have some natural wood coins incorporated within them. Most have been strung on cotton rope, and have been made wider as oppose to longer (less chance for long dangly string of ropes for the birds to hurt themselves with) and others were simply made using skewers.

The "rope" toys -

Rope toy #1


This one is a monster, the picture really does NOT do it justice. It is quite large and heavy. It started with four main strands and each strand had an additional two strands. This one is a combo of pine, willow, cottonwood and hardwood beads - and it is meant for Léa.

Rope toy #2


Another toys that started with four strands of rope, which then had an additional two strands leaving each of those strands, however, the pine slats were regularly divided with a hardwood bead, which makes the toys appear a lot less dense and is a lot less heavy. As well, each additional strand starts off with a series of beads, instead of pine slats, which makes it take less horizontal space right from the top. Given the use of thicker cut pine and a larger number or hardwood beads, this one is also destined for Léa's cage.

Rope toy #3


This one started similar to the others above in terms of strands, but this one is meant for smaller beaks - the beads are smaller and very easy to snap, a favourite of the Littles.

Rope toys #4 & #5


These are my "typical" four strands of rope with pine alternated with beads - I've made similar toys on a number of occasions. The easy to snap beads are featured here as well, so these two toys will also be destined to some of the Littles.

Rope toy #6


An entirely new design for me - when I cut pine last week-end, I also got the opportunity to drill holes so for some of the pine slats cut from the 2"x4", I drilled 3 holes, so I could use it as a larger toy base. I have one longer strand of rope, folded in two, going through the middle hole and two smaller single strands going through the holes on either side of that middle hole. This one is mostly made with pine slats, with the occasional bead, and I haven't decided yet who will get it and I might make more so that everyone has one.


The "skewer" toys -

Skewer toys #1 & #2 - the "small" skewers


Very simple designs, either bead-pine slat-bead or a few pine slats, followed by a bead, followed by a few more pine slats. given this will likely only last 3 minutes with Léa, and more likely lasts 15 minutes (at least for the pine slats) with the Littles, I'll let you guess who will get these.

Skewer toys #3 & #4 - the "long" skewers


These are similar to skewer toy #2, only replicated on a longer skewer. Will either be given to the Littles or to Léa.

Skewer toy #5 - Shade's corkscrew skewer


Why Shade? The one with the pink acrylic ball at the end is hers. I filled this up last week and she destroyed it in no time, whereas the others are still working on theirs.

Skewer time!

For a while I've been taking note that my reserve of cut wood (that I prepared last November) was starting to run fairly low. This week-end, I was able to replenish the wood bins; I got some untreated pine slats at Home Depot (three different kinds) and was able to use my friend Crystal's equipment to cut and drill.

As I had piled up quite a few empty skewers, the first thing I did with this new freshly cut wood was fill those skewers up!







These are really the easiest toys ever to make. Granted, they aren't very original, but the birds don't seem to care about that and simply love having fairly thin and snappy pine slats to dig in!

A few homemade toys

Lately, I found that my reserve of homemade toys was "dangerously" low, so I made a few more. However, I'm just about to run out of cut pine, which means I'll have to cut more. If you consider that I had cut the previous batch in November, I guess it lasted quite some time!

I'm also really liking the "all natural" look more and more!

Skewer re-filling day

Yesterday I spent a little time re-filling some of the skewer toys that had been mostly depleted over the past week.

"Before"



"After"



For the most part, the smaller guys have a harder time chewing the harder beads that I use to separate the other wooden pieces when they are strung up directly on a skekwer, as they can't really get a good hold on them to figure out the best breaking spot, as when they are provided as foot toys. So I know that when the skewers are down to mainly only wooden beads, it's time to spruce them up a little, otherwise the birds lose interest in them.

The pine slats I cut last November and I still have a little stash left, although I might have to consider cutting more in the next few weeks. These make for such an easy toy to put together, and fairly cheap, and are loved by the birds. They also get put together in no time!

More homemade toys

Made these last week-end, but didn't get around to posting until today.

Again, more of my simple designs, but they are proving to be a success with the birds, who are really loving the thin cross cut pine lately.

Recent homemade toys

I noticed a few weeks ago that my stash of homemade toys was going down rather quickly and figured I'd have to sit down soon and make a few more. Last week-end just happened to be a long weed-end and on the last two days, I finally started to replenish my inventory. Toys are all made with cotton rope, wood beads, pine slices and occasionally a few pieces of natural wood coins (willow and cottonwood).













I also took the opportunity to fill the double skewer I recently got from Avian Stainless, although I wasn't too creative. I mostly filled it with Mother Pluckin' pieces of wood and with a few wooden beads. It doesn't look like much but it's providing entertainment for Shade, Joey, Zuri and Léa, as I have it hanging on the gym structure in the orange room.



Finally, I also refilled one of Joey's skewers. The top piece was on the previous rendition of the skewer, but given it was all that was left, I thought it was time to add a few more items.

Recent homemade toys

Most of these were done yesterday, except for the batch of foot toys.

Given that Joey, Shade and (recently) Zuri have been on a toy destruction binge, I figured I needed to try and keep up with them by making toys to replace the ones they destroyed. The easiest way to do this, partially at least, is to replenish their toy skewers when they have destroyed everything that was on there.

Since I mostly felt forced to do these, as opposed to wanting to and feeling creative about it, the toys aren't as original as they probably could have been.

The skewer toys -





The following one was made using cotton rope, pine squares and slats, natural willow and cottonwood coins and small barrel beads - definitively will be going to one of the smaller guys!



Finally, the pile of foot toys I made sometime in December but never posted about as I meant to do more of them but never got around to it. And since I'll want to hand these out sooner than later, might as well share them now!

Rainy Sunday = toy making day!

To be honest, I didn't make that many, but given how particular ravenous some of the flock have been lately with wooden toys, it's probably a good thing I keep making a few every week, just to keep a nicely stocked closet of toys.

I felt that my last few endeavors have been mostly aimed at Léa so today I wanted to make a few that were directed more towards the Littles, specifically Joey who's been more destructive than he's ever been lately. In fact, when I went through the cages earlier this week-end to look at who needed new toys due to older ones being "done", Joey needed two, Shade needed one and the other Littles were still pretty well covered!

These two identical toys are very similar to a previous "model" I've made on a few occasions. The difference is I used the nice crunchy barrel beads which are a favorite of the Littles (they are far too easy for Léa) as well as thinner pieces of pine. While most of the Little ones can break pine slats that are larger than these, they do seem to prefer when they are slightly thinner. These won't have a long life once they hit the cages because I know they will be enjoyed!



This skewer is for Joey. I mentioned earlier he needed two new toys this week, I guess I should make that three as his skewer needed a refill. Here it is - kept simple. He has a harder time with the larger beads so that should last a little longer.



Finally, I did put together one toy for Léa, as her appetite for wooden toys lately has increased a little. Her beak seems to be in a faster growth spurt and I have found when those come around she goes through more toys. Logical, when you think of it, it does prevent some overgrowth.



I've branched out a little from my usual just stringing pieces of woods and beads onto the skewer itself and added a few small pieces of rope with additional hardwood beads and pieces of pine. I'm guessing she'll enjoy this version of the skewer toy much more!

24 hours with Léa...

..will get a toy who used to look like this -



- to look like this!





Now it might not look too bad, but there are a few empty strings I didn't manage to capture too well. The bottom of her cage was littered with pieces of hardwood beads - she definitively kept busy!

Now I'm off to cut those empty pieces of rope!

A few more handmade toys

I didn't make as many lately as I have been very busy and consumed with other things. But sometimes stringing beads and pieces of wood in the evening has a calming effect.

For the first two toys, I used a wooden dowel base.

Toy #1 - Random pieces of wood, either natural coins, hardwood beads or blocks from Mother Pluckin' Bird Toys strung up on some seagrass cord.


Toy #2 - Mix of hardwood beads and some pine slats strung up on some cotton rope.


Toy #3 - For this one, I started with two long pieces of rope and made a knot in the middle, giving  me 4 strings of rope to work with. On each string, halfway down I added another string of cotton rope, tied in the middle of it, to give an additional 2 strings so the toy looks fuller. I used hardwood beads and, for the first time, the pieces of wood I cut not too long ago.