Saturday, January 11, 2014

TOY TUTORIAL (Peanut Butter & Jellyfish)

One of the toys I designed and sell through my business ZeeksBeak, is the Peanut Butter & Jellyfish.  This toy has been a top seller at my local bird store and is really fun to make.  Birds love to preen the long fibers.  I have decided to share a tutorial on how to make this toy, entrusting that my original design will not be stolen.  Of course I want to sell my toys and build my business, but I am a generous person and will on occasion share the "how-to" on making one yourself for your own bird.

This post is especially for my friends on The Parrot Workshop, a page on Facebook.  Look them up if you want to enjoy some really great people and their equally great toys.  Here is the step by step instructions:


You will need these tools:

*Wire cutters
*Zip ties
*Wiffle ball (use a golf ball for small birds, baseball for medium birds, and softball for large birds)
*Bell
*Pear link
*100% cotton mop fibers (made in USA)


Before you begin to attach any fibers, make sure you put the bell and pear link on.  You could also use an O ring with some Paulie Rope (bird safe rope) too, if you don't want to use a bell.  Any way you like to hang your toys is fine.



Stick the top part of the bell through the top hole and loop the pear link through it.  Doing so will hold the bell in place and give you a link to hook in the cage as well.


If you are using the baseball size wiffle ball then you will need to take six strands of mop fiber (you can also use Supreme Cotton rope if your budget allows) around 12" long.  You can cut whatever length of rope you desire.  Just know that because the rope will be looped over the wiffle ball, it will hang half the size you cut.  Also you will need a zip tie.


Gather the six strands and get all the lengths fairly even.  You will then thread these through one of the holes along the bottom rim of the ball. 



After clipping off the excess length of your zip tie, you will continue adding fibers around the ball until all the holes along the rim are filled.



Your finished product will then look like this:


I always end by cutting the lengths fairly even and fluffing all the fibers out to give the bird a wonderfully full preening experience.  Please leave a comment and let me know how this tutorial worked for you!

1 comment:

  1. What a clever toy! I can see why birds of all sizes would like this.

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