Tuesday, September 7, 2010

All knotted up

Over the weekend, I spent some time making toys for the parrots at the shelter where I volunteer. Since my parrots see toys and think it must be for them, I made them some toys as well.

In progress:
Sometimes, Max likes playing with toy components as much as she likes playing with the toys. She really treasured this bead, playing with it for over 10 minutes -- an eternity in Max-time!With a scrap of veggie-tanned leather, I made her a little foot toy:
About to work on the knot:
She is very proficient at untying knots without ruining the leather, so I restrung the beads and took a video of her handiwork:

4 comments:

Ben and Carrie Tracks said...

Wow - so quick, but so gentle at the same time. That might be world record bird-untying-knot-time! We've got some old rope and fishing line that we could use some help with ;)

Mary said...

Yes, maybe I should start hiring out her skills!

Sadly, she only works when she wants to, and mostly only with leather and beads.

She'd probably just clip that fishing line :) Thanks for the laugh!!!

Best in Flock said...

Clever birdie!

Stewie thinks that brute force is the answer to everything! And most of the time he can't be bothered unless it involved a treat. (But give him a foraging toy that can be opened by just banging it around forcefully, and he's all over it.)

But I should teach Mika to undo knots; she'd be good at it. Or on second thought, maybe I shouldn't teach her that lest she learn to undo lots of things that shouldn't be undone.

Mary said...

Everyone else relies on brute force, but Max is quite dainty and gentle!

I didn't do anything special to teach her to untie knots -- she just had the toys in her cage and would unstring the beads and then play with them.

Now I praise her for it, since I think it's adorable, but she taught herself!