Chewing Or Eating Wood - Should I Be Worried ?

[Violet_Diva]

A while ago I got a 'party swinger hanging parrot toy'.

Bella loves playing with it - clmbing, swinging, biting etc. She makes a kind of 'raspy honk growl' at it too!

A few of the wooden blocks were chewed and fell through the grate at the bottom of her cage.

When removing them I found no trace of the missing bits, so does that mean she been eating the wood? And should I be worried about it? Please advise as to any potential danger here!

 

[ToMang07]

That is a parrot pasttime.... chewing wood! I give Willow cut blocks of 2x4s and she loves to sit there and destroy them!

Just be sure the wood is parrot safe, and/or parrot toys!

 

[Violet_Diva]

I did buy it for her to chew, as most of her perches are quite tough and aren't all that pliable for her 'soft' ekkie beak! But is it dangerous if she's eating and ingesting it?

 

[ToMang07]

I did buy it for her to chew, as most of her perches are quite tough and aren't all that pliable for her 'soft' ekkie beak! But is it dangerous if she's eating and ingesting it?

Shouldn't be ingesting it. Are you sure she is?

 

[GaleriaGila]

I've never had a problem with any safe woods... Rbird has wrecked plenty. I do kinda shy away from dyed ones.
But I know some parrots eat cloth or other stuff, which scares the HECKKKKK outta me ! What ToM said... have you seen her eat it? Are there missing pieces when you fit the remnants back together?

 

[Violet_Diva]

In theory, if parts are missing from the wood, the missing splinters or chunks should be in the bottom of the cage, but I can't see any!

UPDATE: I just found some green chunks and splinters between some sheets of newspaper! Her flappy wings must've moved the paper! Haven't spotted any yellow yet though...

 

[Kiwibird]

Parrots turn big wood blocks into splinters and sawdust. It's what they do! Their hook bills are made to crack nuts and hollow out trees for nesting. Even little guys like budgies can do a surprising amount of damage to wood, so an ekkie would have no problem getting through what (to us) might see really hard. As wood chewing is a natural and instinctual behavior, they don't actually eat the wood, but watch out for your feet as the pieces get EVERYWHERE. They discard pieces of destroyed toys in a similar manner to how they discard unwanted food- flinging it

 

[ToMang07]

I suspect the pieces are missing, not being digested. I have found small bits of splinted wood everywhere, from water bowls, food bowls, to 10' away from the cage/perch, even in other toys.

 

[SailBoat]

I suspect the pieces are missing, not being digested. I have found small bits of splinted wood everywhere, from water bowls, food bowls, to 10' away from the cage/perch, even in other toys.

Honestly, those are fairly large pieces she left behind. Our Amazon takes wood parts down to tiny pieces, all of it! Like a wood chipper with wings! They are murder on bare feet and get caught in socks. We find bits and tiny pieces in other parts of the house. Yaaa, we likely carried them on our feet /socks. But as stated above, 10' away would not be big trick for any of these mid - large Parrots.

As with anything Parrot, what may go in one end will come out the other. At first, watch for color of the pieces that have been chewed. And, 'always' be checking for dark /black or bright /dark red in the poop. Its one of the reasons, we avoid red colored toys, since that would be a false indicated of blood in the poop.

Also, as a group, wing flapping is standard fare and as we all know, that storm floats 'stuff' a long way from the cage /toy.

Keep looking, does she like to hide things? Our Amazon is a hoarder and we will find his hiding places all over the home. One of his big 'games' is hide the toy! It is commonly how we find most of his hiding places.

 

[Violet_Diva]

The reason they aren't incredibly chewed is because she seemed to start at the point where they were attached to the rope, so once she'd nibbled through, they just fell of the rope and past the grate in the bottom!

I still haven't found any of the yellow bits yet... but I guess there's a chance that if she chewed them up well enough I might have mistaken the wood for seed husks and disposed of it?!?

Thanks for the red toy avoidance tip!

Very much appreciated

Who would have known I'd spend so much of my time looking at poops!