Sassy and the oatmeal box

[Mare]

I save empty oatmeal boxes, just for Sassy, I also save the paper covered twist wires that bind lettuce/veggies together. This is Sassy's all time fave thing to demolish! I poke holes in the box and attach to side of cage with the wire. It will take her about a day and a half to have this box chewed into a million pieces and just the wire will be hanging, which I take off and reuse. Normally,I'll pull grass from the yard and stuff it in her box, this gives her hours of enjoyment..I'll go do that now :)[Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]

[Lady]

Hi Sassy Girl,
Sure looks like Mommy made a fun filled toy for you today :), you sure picked a loving Mom to make your life fun!

[spiritbird]

Cute idea. One day she may want to make a nice oatmeal nest.

[Pinkbirdy]

Pearl loves this sort of stuff also . Keeps him entertained all day :) Might be a G2 thing . His previous owners didn't like the mess . So their wasn't any sort of that stuff for him.But Im just glad hes a happy guy [huge mess and all].

[Mare]

Thanks, girls! The way she acts and dances around on top of this box, makes me think she would love to turn it into a nest, of sorts, but she destroys it before it ever gets that far! :)

Yeah, Terri, it does make a huge mess but to me it's not a mess, it's having a good time! I'm happy for Pearl to have found you :)

[plax]

That's clever and cute, Mare :D. But I wouldn't use wire twist ties around your birds! Not even if they came off of bundled produce. Many of them are manufactured in China and there are plenty of warnings around claiming they may contain zinc or even lead.

Here's an excerpt from a post at: [Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]


Some veterinarians advise to not use twist ties near your pets. It is difficult to determine the metal used in twist ties. There is a potential for zinc or lead poisoning if the tie is chewed on, which can be especially harmful to birds. I have an umbrella cockatoo and was advised by my vet to not use twist ties containing metal to secure his cage.

And here's an article addressing twist ties and toxic metals: [Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]

As such, it might be advisable to find another way of fastening the oatmeal boxes to Sassy's cage.

[kendrafitz]

She is so stinking cute!! You need to get a video of her. :)

[Mare]

Oh, wow! Thanks, Tony! I didn't know that about twist ties! I use to use pipe cleaners but when I ran out I moved to the twist ties. Do you know anything about pipe cleaner warnings? I suppose I could use the plastic zip ties..

Thanks, Kendra :). Sassy is stinkin' cute, that she is! I have some really fun videos of her being her sassy self but I have to load them on YouTube to get them here..the loading onto YouTube is where I'm having problems. My daughter has tried to help me and I've done it a few times but then something went wrong and we are lost, again. My youngest son will be home next weekend--he's pretty genius when it comes to this kind of stuff, I'll ask him to help me out :)

[Mare]

I went to change the twist ties out for zip ties, this is what I found! Dianne, here she is in her oatmeal box nest, just for the moment :)[Users must be registered and logged in to view attached photos or hyperlinks]

[kendrafitz]

Funny girl!!

[plax]

Oh, wow! Thanks, Tony! I didn't know that about twist ties! I use to use pipe cleaners but when I ran out I moved to the twist ties. Do you know anything about pipe cleaner warnings? I suppose I could use the plastic zip ties..I've not run across any warnings on pipe cleaners. But I have to assume that some of them are produced in China. And that alone is enough to make me a bit wary.

[froggij]

Haha! Oh my gosh, I have to agree with Kendra and say that Sassy is stinkin' adorable! That is just too cute. I might have to try something like that with one of my kids and see how it goes, I do a lot of paper towel and tp rolls for the kids but they have those apart in hours....

[Mare]

Jen, my cockatoo's are chewers, if your birds like to chew..this might work! I weave TP and paper towel rolls, paper plates and trash mail envelopes through their bars..anything cardboard, too :). Chip, the cockatiel, isn't so interested in that. He likes green or dry grasses, he likes to shred dry bamboo leaves, too.

[froggij]

Oh yeah. Anything I need shredded, I give to Rose or Dori, they'll have it done in minutes. Junk mail, credit card applications with my info on them, you name it. Gone. Never eaten, just in tiny little pieces or strips (Dori actually shreds like a shredding machine, in long strips). They're good at it. Orsino likes woven things, like bird shredder paper and those twig balls. And he has a thing for Kleenex boxes (he builds me a nest in them and then serenades me ... it's a long story, he's a little confused as to whether I'm his mom or his girlfriend...). I could see Dori making a nest out of an oatmeal box like Sassy, but she'd actually try to use it the proper way, knowing my luck and her history of egg laying.