Foster Parrots Ltd - DIY Leather Chew Toy

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Foster Parrots, Ltd.
Leather Chew Toy

Start with a branch from a parrot-safe tree. Pictured is a Sugar Maple (NOT Red Maple, which is not parrot-safe).

Cut into 10" - 12" lengths (or as long as desired).

You will need some untreated leather strips, a stainless steel eye hook (with wood screw end) and some dowel pins. The eye hooks and dowel pins can be found at any local hardware store.

This is a close-up of the grooved dowel pins used in this toy. You should get the largest diameter dowel pins available. You can substitute cut sections of a dowel. Dowels are typically sold in 3' lengths, so you will have to cut it into short sections.

Drill a 2" deep hole into one end of the cut branch. The hole diameter should be about 3/4 of the diameter of the eye hooks. This will prevent eye hooks from splitting the wood and are still tight enough that they will be securely fastened. The eye hooks used in this example had a shaft diameter of approximately 1/4", so a drill size of 3/16" was required to make the pilot hole for the eye hooks.

Drill holes through the branch section. The holes should be smaller than the combined width of the grooved dowel plus the thickness of the leather strap. In this case a 1/2" paddle bit was used to drill the holes. You might drill test holes and see if the size is appropriate for the thickness of your leather strips and dowels. After drilling each hole rotate the branch section 1/4 turn.

Thread the eye hooks into the hole drilled into the end of the cut branch section.

Thread two leather strips through one of the holes.

Insert a grooved dowel between the two leather strips.

Hammer the grooved dowel securely into the branch section. Once fully inserted the leather strips should be tightly secured. You should not be able to pull the leather strips out of the branch section. If the leather strips are not secure, you can use a larger dowel, smaller hole or use more leather strips.

Fill the remaining holes with leather strips.

This is a close-up of the leather strips secured with the grooved dowels.

As an alternative to securing the leather strips with dowels you can tie knots in the leather strip on either side of the hole. This may not work as well if your bird can untie such knots. However, you could tie knots and your bird can have fun untying the knots.

This is a picture of the finished product using the knot method.

This is a close-up of the knotted leather strips.