The Coollapet Bamboo Airplane is a biplane built from dyed wood with a corn cob fuselage, rattan balls and woven fibre packed between the wings.

Key Features

• Corn cob is softer than hardwood, so a bird that will not start on a solid block will start here.
• Rattan balls come apart strand by strand - slow destruction, which is the point of a foraging toy.
• Two clips instead of one, so it hangs level rather than spinning on a single point.
• Wide flat wings give the bird somewhere to stand while it works.
• Fibre and wood hidden between the wings for the bird to dig out.

Good To Know

• Chain, quick-links and bells are the usual route to zinc and lead poisoning in parrots. Watch for a bird that strips the coating off metal, and if you ever replace the clip, use stainless steel rather than galvanised hardware from a hardware shop.
• The colours are dye on wood. Expect them to fade, and to stain a wet beak and the cage tray - that is the dye, not blood.
• Match the toy to the bird. Hardware built for a macaw will trap a budgie's foot, and a toy built for a budgie is destroyed in minutes by a large parrot, leaving pieces small enough to swallow.
• Check the toy over every few days. Retire it once parts are chewed through, frayed or splintered - worn toys are where beaks and toes get caught.
• A bird that stops playing, sits fluffed on the cage floor or goes quiet is showing the first signs of illness - birds hide sickness until they can no longer manage it. That is an urgent avian vet visit, not a wait-and-see.