Feather chewing

[Cottonoid]

Do any of your birds like to chew their feathers up?

I'm trying to think of toys or treats that might provide similar tactile pleasure. Cotton snaps off feathers and then nibbles them along the shaft, pop pop pop, shredding then into little bits.

It sounds exactly like eating millet so I'm not surprised he enjoys doing that.

He just chewed off half of his last wing feather, and held it in his foot like an ice cream cone. I walked up with an entire millet spray, he put his foot down and bluffed then growled (which I kinda love seeing from him!), and then when I set down the millet for him instead of grabbing it right away he went back to chewing his feather

I know I'll need veterinary advice and intervention but they wanted to see how he does with his current antibiotics and life changes before adding another variable.

So far I've tried and he likes:
Crinkle paper preening/foraging toys
Balsa sheets and kabobs
Cork kabob!
Folded paper shredder/forager toy
Seagrass foraging mat with variety of crunchy things like finger traps (it also had foam flowers that he *loved* but I don't want him eating any)
Hanging toy with thin woven grass? balls
Shredder tape stuff (not as popular as the rest)

Things he doesn't seem to care for (yet anyway):
Harder wood or perfectly square blocks of any wood
Plastic toys
Bamboo skewers / toothpicks
These light thin treats that look like puffed rice sticks that seem like they'd be a perfect crunch but he doesn't think they're food
Fresh food that isn't millet or walnuts

Any ideas for types of toys I'm not thinking of?

 

[Henderbird]

I love how you're using a variety of different foraging methods!
I was going to suggest plastic more advanced foragers but sweet Cotton isn't fond of plastic.
Hmmm hopefully someone can pop in and share something new!

 

[Cottonoid]

That's a good idea, though, I haven't tried any of those yet! He likes figuring out puzzles, it seems.

 

[zERo]

Lets see, mahogany pods are easy to tear apart and are loved by all of my birds, especially my Gcc.
You could try a "Perch Party". Super Bird creations on Amazon sells them or MySafeBirdStore. It's basically a block of pine with a large hole on one side that has paper lollipop sticks in it.
Birds LOVE on Amazon or on their website also sells these really cool perches called bottlebrush, all the bark can be picked off.
Maybe he would like cornhusk toys? They have a shredded texture.
You said he doesn't care for plastic toys but my Quaker initially didn't really care for them, but once he realized that there was food in there he now loves them. I have a foraging wheel, foraging drawers in a stack and then another one that has four drawers that all open differently. Caitec has a line of plastic foraging toys called Creative Foraging Systems and then I know another brand called Natures Instinct that makes them too.
Another good place is Lil Monsters Bird toys, I've ordered from her before and all the toys were much loved.
That's all I can think of right now, hope this helps!

 

[Cottonoid]

That's a ton of things I haven't seen or tried yet! Thank you!

 

[zERo]

That's a ton of things I haven't seen or tried yet! Thank you!

Your welcome!