K'nex is not a bird-safe plastic and is dangerous. As neat as it is and as cute as it is, it is very dangerous. It's why there is specific bird safe plastics.

It's really just used as a perch structure. As far as I know K'nex are not hazardous to birds (believe me I did a lot of research before he did it. They are a non toxic plastic), I've spoke with the breeder we got them from about it, as well as our local bird specialty store about our play structure and they never said anything against using it. But, thank you for your concern regardless.

The issue with K'nex is it's softness which is why it isn't bird-safe. The colours and dyes are human-safe, not bird-safe. The only dyes that are bird-safe are pure vegetable based dyes. Most pet stores don't care about what type of structure their birds are on. I worked in a really really reputable pet store and plastics that are not approved and certified bird safe are generally super toxic. We didn't even sell scented or flavoured wood toys because birds eat them and get sick and sometimes died. Birds are super sensitive, and what they are on, or around is very important. Birds can die of Zinc poisoning very easily just from the wrong kind of bird cage. (I've been through that personally.) I have bred parrots, raised babies by hand, the whole nine yards. But all the knowledge and education on bird-safe items comes through looking up the ingredients in toys, and where they came from. Human-safe is not bird safe. Even softness levels of plastics and woods count towards being bird safe or not, let alone what's in them. I've be in a "bird specialty store" that sold Cedar wood chips, and cedar is extremely toxic to almost everything and shouldn't be even given to hamsters or rats that's how bad it is.

Please be careful... if you notice any tiny little marks in the K'nex from beak rubbing or even claws, or chewing, please please make sure you take it down. K'nex is soft, and malleable, bendable and is not safe for birds for that reason, and it's ingredients. So please keep an eye on the structure, because if their claws alone make scratch marks and they decide there is this tiny piece of plastic, so small you can barely see it, and they chew on it, it can get bad. I have had unfortunate personal dealings with this in the pet store and my Bird Vet has taught me a lot about safe items around birds. It really is a nice and sweet idea, and I bet they love it, but please for their sake keep an eye on the plastic and where they sit and play. My brother has K'nex and it scratches up so easily, his son has even chewed on it with his tiny teeth for a few seconds and one piece was destroyed.

So please be careful and keep an eye on it. I have my own birds, a 'tiel and a conure, and I'm always concerned at what they get their beaks into because I've lost a conure before because the pet store sold me the bird with a zinc coated cage. It killed him and I didn't know why until my vet told me. From then on I dove my face into everything like that. No Teflon in the house, scented candles, incense, aerosols, etc are far away from the birds at all times, no avocado, etc the list goes on. (Canary in the coal mine - birds are so sensitive just a little tiny bit of smoke or toxin in the air can kill them.)

You can never be too careful!

Well, I mean, you can obviously but yeah

Oh believe, me I would most definitely take it down if I noticed anything horrible happening to them. We've had our birds for over two years now? I've never seen them try to chew on the plastic. All they like to do is climb and sleep on it occasionally.

I'm not trying to tell you OMG, YOU'RE WRONG AND I'M NOT GONNA LISTEN TO YOU, MEHHHH. I'm just saying that we've never had anyone tell us otherwise, but I really do appreciate your information. you obviously know your stuff. But yes, I've always kept a good eye on our birds and would never want to put them in danger.