Bird safe dye/ paint?

[Parakeet88]

I'm looking for some safe ways to color wood. My new favorite thing is to buy tiny GCC sized things for my conure, Ben. I got him some little wood furniture from the craft store and would like to color it. These items are mainly for taking photos. He won't have unsupervised access to it and won't heavily chew it. That being said he will be in contact with it for the photos and I have to give him about a week to just explore the stuff before he'll sit pretty well for photos and he will undoubtedly lick/ lightly chew the wood.

I know human grade food coloring and unsugared koolaid work well for dying toy parts, but is there anything I could apply more easily? Right now I'm thinking I may just have to soak the stuff in a bucket of food coloring but I'm looking for some other suggestions, thanks!

 

[taxidermynerd]

You might be able to take the gel food coloring and rub it on the wood, then let it sit to let the dye sink in? I did that with one of those small wooden ladders, and the color started to fade but only after a few weeks.

 

[expressmailtome]

This thread has some ideas of how other members dye wood for their birds: Question about dying wood blocks? | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum .