Softwood, for a bird that will not touch mineral.
Softer than a mineral stone and considerably more noticeable. For a bird that has walked past a grey block for months, colour and a softer material are what get it started.
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Why you'll love it
A bird that refuses a mineral block still needs to work its beak. Softwood gives immediately, which is often the difference between a chew that gets used and one that hangs untouched for months.
Parrots have excellent colour vision and are drawn to bright objects. It is not decoration for your benefit. It is what makes the bird investigate in the first place.
Softwood alone will not keep a beak in shape. Run this alongside a mineral chew and let the bird choose which it wants on the day.
Good fit if
Look elsewhere if
A mineral stone is grey, hard and inert, and to a bird it looks like part of the cage rather than something to interact with. Plenty of owners find one hanging untouched for months, and conclude their bird has no interest in chewing when the problem is that it never registered.
Softwood in bright colours solves both halves. Colour draws the eye, which is how a bird notices anything new, and softer material gives immediately, so the first attempt produces a result. That early success is what turns an object into a toy rather than furniture.
Being clear about this: softwood provides beak work, not calcium. A mineral block or cuttlebone supplies calcium, and that matters enormously for laying hens and growing birds, since a hen short of calcium is at real risk of egg binding.
So this is a companion to a mineral source rather than a substitute for one. If your bird genuinely will not touch mineral in any form, that is worth raising with a vet, since there are other ways to supply calcium and a persistent refusal is worth understanding.
A beak grows continuously and is worn down by use, so a bird with hard things to work on maintains its own. That is why an overgrown beak usually indicates a cage short of anything to chew rather than something you have failed to do.
It is not the only explanation though. Overgrowth can also point to liver disease, scaly face mites or malnutrition, and a beak that keeps overgrowing despite plenty of chewing material warrants a veterinary appointment. Never attempt to trim one at home, since a beak has a blood and nerve supply.
Hang it within easy reach of a perch rather than in open space, since a bird has to be able to brace against something to chew properly. A column swinging freely in the middle of the cage is harder to work at than one the bird can pin against the bars, and that difference decides whether it gets used.
In the box
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The details
Softwood is a consumable and an enthusiastic bird will get through one in a fortnight. That is the toy working rather than failing, and rotating it with other items rather than leaving it permanently in place stretches both the novelty and the lifespan.
Replace it once the blocks are chewed small enough to be swallowed whole, or once it has become soiled. Do not wash wooden blocks: bare wood absorbs water, and a soaked block goes soft and then rough as it dries, which is not what you want a bird chewing on.
Loved by real pet parents
The colours did exactly what the description says they would, she noticed it within a minute of it going in. Because the wood is soft she has chewed two of the blocks to nothing in a fortnight. Great for getting her started, less so as something that lasts.
There has been a mineral block in that cage for eight months with not a mark on it. This went in on the Saturday and by Sunday he had the bottom block in bits. Soft wood and bright colours together is clearly what he needed.
It hangs the full height of one side of her cage without touching the floor, and the chain clips straight onto the roof bars. She climbs down it about as often as she chews it. Light enough at eighty odd grams that nothing sags.
Well made and the dye has not run at all in the water dish, which was my main worry. Ours is one of the rare birds that actually likes a mineral block, so this has hung there largely untouched for a month. Nothing wrong with it, it just is not what he wanted.
We took on a rescue who would not touch anything hard at all. This gives way easily so he got a result on his very first go, and that seems to have built his confidence with the other things in the cage. He now uses both this and the mineral string.
I followed the suggestion and hung this at one end and a mineral chew at the other. Some days he is on the soft blocks, other days the stone, and both get used. I would not rely on this on its own, it is far too soft for that.
The blocks are chunky and properly cut, no rough edges anywhere, and he has been chewing happily at them. The chain between them is on the light side and one link opened up when he swung on it. Pliers sorted it in a second but it is worth knowing.
It goes through the water dish every time she drags it round and the dye has not come off on anything. The blocks are chunky enough that she has to work at a corner rather than snapping them. Two months in and there are four left on the column.
We moved him to a bigger cage and he was unsettled for days, ignoring everything we put in it. The bright blocks were the first thing he went to and he has kept at them since. Colour really does seem to be what gets their attention.
Good questions
It is the food grade colouring used across bird toys, and birds are expected to chew it off. If you would rather avoid dye completely, buy the plain apple wood perch instead.
Blocks if your bird ignores hard things; mineral if it needs real abrasion. Most birds do best with one of each hanging in different parts of the cage.
Weeks to months, depending on the bird. Replace it when the blocks are chewed down to the chain.
It should be food grade, which is standard on bird toys, and worth confirming on anything meant to be chewed. Undyed wood is the alternative if you would rather not have the question.
Both, ideally. Blocks give beak work and are more inviting; a mineral chew supplies calcium, which softwood does not. They do different jobs rather than competing.
A fortnight with an enthusiastic chewer, longer with a gentler bird. Replace it once the blocks are small enough to swallow whole or once it has become soiled.