# Is Non-Toxic Glue Safe To Use in Toymaking?



## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

Please advise....thanks.


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## Mythara (Apr 9, 2009)

No. Never use any glue for toy making. The closest safe alternative is flour and water. Here is some information on toy safety and toy parts:

http://www.feathersandforage.co.uk/?page_id=225
http://www.feathersandforage.co.uk/?page_id=234
http://www.feathersandforage.co.uk/?p=534


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

There are many websites on making toys for bird that say it's OK to use non-toxic glue.


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## Mythara (Apr 9, 2009)

I've never seen any websites that says it's ok to use. The only time I've heard of people using it, is hot glue for playgyms, and it's then carefully wrapped so they can't get access to it.


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## Justin (May 15, 2009)

I agree with Mythara, adhesives in general are toxic to birds. Usually when they say nontoxic it means for human children, but our cockatiels are much smaller than a human child and more delicate and sensitive.


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## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

Thanks Mythara, Tielfan and Justin. I agree with Tielfan that so many sites teach you to use non-toxic glue to make bird toys, and I also agree with Justin that the "non-toxic glue" is meant for kids and not birds. Why take a chance when one can just use a flour-and-water paste as glue? Thanks Mythara for the suggestion. This will be the only kind of glue I'll ever use from now on.

By the way, I made 2 toys tonight. I will post the pics later for everyone to critique (and I'll have people telling me they are perfectly safe and others telling me they will kill my tiel! Ha ha ha).


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## Mythara (Apr 9, 2009)

Remember too, that not all things that websites will suggest using are actually safe. It's always best to do your own research - for example, some suggest giving cereal boxes, while others aviod them due to the inks used to print them, and some suggest using toilet paper tubes, while others aviod them, because they may or may not have toxic glue between the layers. PVC is toxic to birds if they chew on it, but a lot of people still use it to make toys and playgyms. Personally I avoid anything that might be dubious, because there are so many other safer things to use, why take the risk.

Edit - another thing to check when using websites to find toy ideas, is what sort of bird the toy is designed for. Toys need to be size appropriate. For example, I let my cockatiels play with buttons. It's safe because the buttons are too big to swallow, and too tough to break. A conure or macaw on the other hand, could easily break up and swallow pieces of the buttons (or the whole thing) so it wouldn't be safe for them. Toys designed for larger birds can be perfectly safe for them, but a cockatiels head could get stuck in a gap, that a larger bird couldn't get its head into, and so on. A blue and gold macaw, is over 1kg in weight, compared to a 100g 'tiel. It's possible that they would be be ok with a very low toxicity that would be deadly to a 'tiel. Just something to consider. I do a lot of research before using anything for making toys, and I know the toys on my blog are as safe as they can be, for cockatiels and budgies.


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## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

Thanks Mythara. I will make good use of your blogs I just made a suggestion to have a new forum topic created just for toys and toy safety because I think we can all benefit from it.   This has always been my biggest concern because of all the conflicting info we get on the Internet. 

Thanks again...


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