Toys for a cockatiel who likes to destroy wood?

[newclassic]

I bought new cages for my parrots a few months ago; although the cockatiel still has all his manzanita branches, the new cage has a couple areas with those cheesy dowel branches (those areas require perfectly horizontal branches).

Thing is, he absolutely loves chewing through them. He's already destroyed two in the past couple months, and unless we remove them completely and stop replacing them, he won't stop. He has plenty of those woven straw and paper toys, but he seems especially fond of wood.

1. Is that wood chewing dangerous? Should I immediately remove all the dowel branches? Downside to that is, he'd have less functional space in his cage. The top of the cage is intentionally uneven to provide varying heights, and his favorite spot is up there on the dowel branch he loves chewing.

2. Are there any wood or wood-alternative toys to direct his attention towards? Again, he has woven straw and paper toys already. He loves paper but doesn't care for the woven toys.

 

[weco]

.....cheesy dowel branches (those areas require perfectly horizontal branches).....

1. Is that wood chewing dangerous?

You can replace 'cheesy dowel branches' with any safe wood...and...they don't have to be perfectly horizontal...a couple of stainless steel screws, a couple of suitably sized fender washers, a little pre-drilling on each end of your desired perch material & voila, add a little elbow grease with a screwdriver and you've created aperching masterpiece for your feathered Bucky Beaver.....just make sure chosen wooden branches are measured & cut to fit flush against the cage sides, not past them, as the 'cheesy dowels' are to slot the cage bars.....

As to replacing 'cheesy dowels,' to any good hardware, Lowes, Home Depot or other & get yourself a couple of oak dowels.....oak will take your termite somewhat longer to get through.....

As to attention diversion, my guys like to ring bells, beat up their Budda Buddies, chew up telephone books, chew up tongue depressors/popsicle sticks, climb/play on their ropes, swings & ladders.....

Good luck.....

 

[Betrisher]

Here in Australia, we have access to a number of great woods for our birds to chew. Paperbark is a beaut, because they can spend hours peeling off the layers. ATM, my guys have bottlebrush (Callistemon) branches and they're hugely enjoying stripping long thin fibres off them. Once the fibres are gone, then they get stuck into the bark proper and once that's gone, I have a perfectly round, smooth piece of wood, ready for the fire!

Next time I go shopping (I'm a quilter and dressmaker), I plan to beg a few cardboard fabric tubes. Then, I'll slice 'em up into bagels and see what the Beaks can make of 'em. Another thing I plan to do is get coconuts for them to strip and empty. We discovered last night (by accident) that the Beaks also prefer to eat the skin of the banana rather than its flesh. It took them twenty minutes to strip off all the skin and only then did they get stuck into munching on the fruit inside. LOL!

Other small treats I give my guys include popsicle sticks, tongue depressors, bamboo chopsticks and wooden spoons, which I find at thrift shops. Oh, and long sticks of celery, which take a while to munch through.

HTH.