I stopped in at our local Dollar Tree store to look for toy parts, LOL…..I know, it sounds ridiculous…..anyway, I am a member of a toy-making Yahoo group for birds called “CheapParrotToysNTips” & a lot of the members go to these dollar stores to find safe, non-toxic things to incorporate into their toys.  I myself have found a LOT of cool things in there and have walked out with a ton of stuff for under $10.00 !

So, while I was in there looking around, I came upon these 100% Seagrass hats !  I picked one up, looked it over thoroughly and gave it the “sniff” test (I have a very sensitive nose and wanted to see if I could smell any chemicals on it…..don’t want to be giving birds or bunns “treated” items that will make them sick).  Well, it just smelled like a combination of grass and hay…..it really was 100% Seagrass……so I bought 4 of them :oD

While the bunns were in the Xpen I just tossed one in there and boy, did they ever go nuts chewing and shredding that thing !  They loved jumping on top of it and smooshing the part you put your head in down !  LMAO !  They really have a ball with this thing !!

Since they liked it so much I decided to make one of the other ones a little more interesting, so since I just got a bunch of leather strips off ebay for making toys and such, I just strung some of those through the head part and knotted them so they couldn’t fall out.  I didn’t even need to drill or make any holes because the weaving of the Seagrass just parted enough for me to get an end through.  It was really simple !

I put a small piece of natural cotton rope through the rim part so that I could hang it on the side of the Xpen when they’re in there playing :o))

I’ve attached a pic of the one I added the leather to.  I think the next one I make will have plastic lids from water bottles strung on there, too, because they like the sound of them banging into each other :o))

Oh !  I got 2 sets of kids’ beach/sand gear……consisting of one small bucket w/shovel and a plastic mold of a fish and a crab, LOL !  I like drilling holes in those and hanging stuff off them.  You can really hang a lot of stuff off the bucket if you drill holes all the way around it :o))  I gave my Umbrella Cockatoo a really BIG sand bucket strung with all sorts of stuff…..big and small lids, wood, leather, big buttons, etc. and it lasted her a long time & she loved it because of all the bright colors, so I thought I’d try that on these little buckets, being they’re just the right size for the bunns :o)  Just another toy idea for the rest of the bunny toymakers out there *wink*

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