QUILTNMO

i also cut little stris of batting seems they also like bright colors!!!

QUILTNMO

i also cut little strpis of batting seems they also like bright colors!!!

Up North

If I put out pieces of yarn or thread I chop it with my rotary cutter so it is fine and no longer than an inch. My house canary built her nest with fiberfill and scraps of yarn that matched my living room. Since she was my only bird she laid her eggs to no avail! But it was fun to watch her build a nest and sit on it. I should have gotten her a hubby but we have no pet stores near us so did not find another one. I cut my kids hair when they were growing up birds loved that too.

donna13350

I don't know who is right or wrong on this, but we all have good intentions! I think there is plenty of natural material for birds, and we all should be on the safe side and just let them be. Birds did fine before we came along and decided to "help" them!

zozee

This is my thinking. They aren't stupid. What is cotton if not natural?

Clmay

Now this is true recycling!

quiltybarb

As a lover of all animals, I would have taken them someone safe (not near me).......

MargeD

What a great idea for recycling quilting scrap bits.

moonrise

I used to raise finches, and made the mistake of giving one of my pairs some fabric scraps. They did enjoy them, and happily built a beautiful nest, but one day I noticed a bit of fabric stuck to the hen's foot. The fabric had frayed, and the threads were wrapped around her toes so tightly that she was stuck GOOD. I had to catch her and cut off the tangled fabric. Talk about tedious! But it was cutting her circulation off, and if I hadn't noticed it in time, she would've lost her toes.

Another time, I bought some nesting materials specifically meant for birds. Apparently whoever packaged it had long black hair, because a strand of hair was mixed into the nesting materials. This time, I didn't notice it until it was too late. The hair got wrapped around the leg of one of my baby birds. It was still in the nest box, and I try not to disturb nestlings too much because it upsets the parents (understatement!). By the time I found it and cut the hair off the baby's leg, it was too late. It eventually lost its foot. The baby bird adapted remarkably well, but I still felt horrible that I didn't see it in time.

And then there was the time that I bought some felt nesting pads, also specifically meant for birds. Yep, it was problematic, too. A finch's toes got tangled in the felt, and during its struggle to get free, it got tangled that much worse. Its whole leg was embedded in the felt. That time it took both me AND DH to get the bird loose. It was exhausted, but luckily there was no harm done.

Small birds like finches have legs the size of toothpicks, so if a thread or string is long enough to wrap around a toothpick, it's long enough to potentially get tangled around the bird's leg. Any fluffy or fiber-y material has the potential to snag a bird's toenails.

Although they do love bits of fabric and yarn, IMO it's best to let them build nests out of the items Mother Nature provides. <3

(I just have one trio of finches now. They get limited quantities of paper towel bits for nesting materials, in a well-ventilated nest box. )

nativetexan

Really? how great. I wish the birdies would take my huge dust bunnies out on my back lawn. they are from cleaning my dust mop several times. i have 3 cats!