How to Make Bird Toys for Profit
Toys are an integral part of a captive bird's environment. They provide various textures, colors, shapes and noises that appeal to birds and help exercise their minds as well as their muscles. It makes sense to create your own toys because they can be expensive. If you enjoy creating bird toys, you may find that you can market your toys to other bird owners.
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Things You'll Need
- Dye
- Cotton rope
- Vegetable-tanned leather
- Untreated wood
- Stainless steel or nickel-plated hardware
Instructions
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Invest in some quality tools. Building bird toys requires tools such as an electric drill, needle-nose pliers, a saw and a sander.
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Buy your supplies in bulk. This will give you more supplies at a lower cost. If you are starting out small, you can purchase bulk products from various online bird toy vendors. If you create a large line of products, you can buy bulk items at wholesale cost.
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Experiment with different methods in creating your toys. Use brightly-colored, concentrated dye on wooden parts. Once they've dried, you can string them onto a base of cotton rope and decorate with different types of plastic beads, leather and other toy parts.
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Create a small line of prototype toys. Test your prototypes out on your birds and adjust the toys as necessary.
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Analyze the cost of building each toy. Break down the price per piece to calculate your cost. Figure out how much time the toy took to make, and price appropriately. This is your retail price.
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Market your toys to friends. Use free advertising such as online classifieds. Contact your local bird club and consider placing an ad in their newsletter. If there are local bird shows, rent a table and sell your toys there.
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Tips & Warnings
Consider concentrating on a certain type of toy, such as preening, foraging, shreddable or wood toys.
Create a website to sell your toys online.
Use only bird-safe materials, such as untreated cotton rope, untreated wood and vegetable-tanned leather.
