We are interested in making more of the toys that our birds use to play with. My question is that although a lot of the toys made use leather when choosing leather is there anything that I should ask about how the leather is tanned. I am clueless about those types of things. I have someone close to us that sells leather for a reasonable price but the I do know that chemicals are used in the tanning process and it concerns me knowing it will be in the birds beak. Should I stick with plain leather or are colors ok to use. He has told me that he has remnants that are fairly cheap as they can't be used for making fashions and that kind of things.

I would stay away from colors, and make sure there are no chemicals. I buy all my leather for bird toys from bird toy websites so I know it is safe to use- I'm too scared to buy it anywhere else in case I get the wrong stuff...

I also buy my leather from bird sources. I think you have to look for vegetable tanned leather.

Our birds chew on the leather strings but don't touch the larger pieces. Here is a link about the safety of leather toys.

Parrot Safety Information at Chopper's Toys

Leather lasts 2 seconds in my house, so we use thick rope LOL.

Thanks for the input and the link it was very helpful and gives me questions to ask about the leather.