The Coollapet Drama Queen is a whole coconut shell hung on a chain, loaded with wood, rattan and rope chews and finished with a long tassel of shredded palm.

Key Features

• Coconut shell is dense and fibrous - the sort of chew that lasts a parrot rather than an afternoon.
• The cut opening lets you hide nuts or pellets inside, so the toy becomes a foraging puzzle as well as a chew.
• Mixed textures on one hanger: hard wood blocks, woven rattan, soft rope and dyed palm.
• Long shredding tassel at the base for birds that need to destroy something.
• Hangs from a chain and clip that fits standard cage bars.

Good To Know

• Coconut shell is hard. It is a good chew for a bird with a real beak - an amazon, grey, cockatoo or macaw - and more than a budgie or a cockatiel will get through.
• Rope and woven fibre fray. Trim loose strands as they appear and retire the toy once it goes stringy - a thread wrapped round a toe cuts off the blood supply, and a swallowed one can knot in the gut.
• 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.
• Most parrots are wary of anything new. Leave a new toy beside the cage for a day or two, then hang it at the edge of the cage rather than over a favourite perch.
• 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.
• 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.