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Me again with a question....surprise surprise! My Lovie, Sawyer, (obviously) loves to chew and chew. He particularly likes to chew rubber. He's gotten into shredding the grips on my pens, part of a toothbrush, and even the top of one of my flip flops! While I understand that things should be clean for him to chew, is it ok for him to be chewing the rubber? He never eats any of it...just shreds it. If it's not, I just need to extra bird-proof some things! He's tricky!

I don't let mine chew it. My rule of thumb is NO inorganic material that can be penetrated by a beak.

My baby, Buddy (a hen) also likes this texture & it has been a challenge keeping her away from it. She has trained me to always lay the remote control down face down. It is so automatic now that I even do it at my mother's I also have to be careful to lay my glasses down out of reach since the nose pads are great fun. I think she has a deal with the optician--I bought many new nose pads while she trained me to be more careful. Telephone key pads are fun, too. I have found bird toys with this texture (one, a spiral that hangs in her cage, another a large ring, with bits of mineral block alternated with this texture. Of course, they are tougher than remote control keys and eye glass nose pads, so they can't actually take a bite out of them. So, of course, she still prefers my things! She does like wooden chopsticks & doesn't eat any of it--based on the piles of shredded wood. She also likes my hand carved wooden Japanese shojii screen So it now has sheer curtain fabric on both sides, and the top, instead of just the back, behind the carvings. She has never managed to get a bite out of the finger cushions on a ball point pen, however, so we do spar w/ those. I just never let her have one unsupervised. If she had ever gotten a piece out of one, that would have been the end of that game. When she gets a good grip on one I can lift her up off the ground & wave her around. She holds on till I put her down. We always play this game on the bed & I don't lift her very high, just to be safe. If your baby is a hen, be prepared to have no covers left on your phone books, paper back books, etc. I have also learned to lay any paper back I am reading face up, so that the last few pages will still be there when I get to the end of the book. And guard your paper money, check, bills, etc. Buddy has gotten all of the last 3 things, even when they were in my purse & I foolishly left it within her reach! But hey, a girl needs quality nesting material! Buddy isn't spoiled, however.

Hello Christine,
While your love bird may not be visiblly ingesting the things you mention, consider that most of these products are constructed with the use of petro chemical by-products among other things Bi-phenol, which is under scrutiny now as a cancer causing agent in animals in particular. The mere fact that these agents are in contact with the birds tongue could post a serious threat.These chemicals would be easily absorbed. Any threat to my birds safety would set off an alarm and cause me to take appropriate action, I suggest that if your bird loves to chew, provide a constant supply of paper which they love.
Regards
Barry

As long as it doesn't swallow it.You can have some alternatives.My tiels loves to chew the cardboard cylinders from paper towel and toilet rolls and loves a cardboard box.