The Coollapet Preening Block is a wooden block set with dozens of short coloured rope tufts, for birds that need something other than their own feathers to work on.

Key Features

• Rope tufts are about the closest a toy gets to the texture of a feather, which is the point of a preening toy.
• Coollapet's claim is that it helps young birds develop preening skills and gives nervous parrots an alternative to over-preening themselves.
• Dozens of separate tufts, so there are hundreds of small repetitive pulls to make.
• Solid wood core underneath to chew once the tufts have gone.
• 12 x 5 cm - small enough for a cockatiel or conure cage.

Good To Know

• A preening toy is not a treatment for feather plucking. Plucking has medical causes - skin disease, parasites, liver disease, pain - as often as behavioural ones. A bird that has started plucking needs an avian vet first; the toy is part of what comes afterwards.
• 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.
• Watch the first few sessions. Some birds shred the tufts and swallow them rather than preening them.
• 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.