Sola turns up in half the toys we make, and it is the material people ask about most. It looks like polystyrene and it very much is not. Here is what it actually is.
What is sola?
Sola is the pith, the soft spongy core, of a marsh plant called Aeschynomene aspera, better known as shola. It grows in wetlands across South and Southeast Asia, mostly India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, where the stems are harvested, dried and cut. Nothing is manufactured. The white, faintly papery texture is simply what the inside of the plant looks like.
It is astonishingly light. A fist-sized piece weighs almost nothing, which is why it suits small beaks and why a bird can pick it up, carry it about and drop it off the perch repeatedly, which they will.
Is sola safe for birds?
Untreated sola is widely considered safe for birds. It is a plant pith with nothing added, it is biodegradable, and small amounts swallowed while shredding are not generally regarded as a problem.
The important word there is untreated. Sola is popular in the craft trade, where it is routinely dyed, bleached, glued into shapes or stiffened. That is where the risk sits. It is not the sola that causes trouble, it is what has been done to it. Craft-grade sola flowers sold for wreaths and wedding decorations are not the same product as a plain sola ball, even though they look similar.
So the question to ask of any sola toy, ours or anyone else's, is not "is sola safe" but "what has been added to this sola".
What to check before you buy
- Colour. Natural sola is off-white to pale cream. Bright colours mean dye, and dye means you need to know what kind.
- Hardware. The sola may be fine while the thing it hangs from is not. Check what is threading through it.
Ours is undyed and natural, and sourced from South Asia and South East Asia. The colour you see is the plant's own.
Why we use it
Sola shreds in a particular way that birds seem to find satisfying. It gives easily, so a small bird gets the reward of destroying something without needing the beak strength that hardwood demands, and it comes apart in flakes rather than splinters.
That makes it useful for nervous birds and for birds new to foraging toys. A conure who ignores a block of balsa will often start on sola, because the first bite works.
It is also why sola toys do not last. A determined bird will reduce one to confetti in an afternoon. That is the toy doing its job, not failing at it.
Which of our toys use sola
Here's a list of toys that uses sola, usually paired with something firmer so there is a range of textures in one piece:
- Sola Skewer v2, the simplest of them, sola and leather only
- Sola Sandwich and Tongue Twister, sola layered with balsa and beech
- Star Struck, Super Sunrise v2 and Triple Threat, mixed-texture toys with willow and sisal
- Double Dangle and the All-In-One Starter Kit, which bring in palm leaf and pine as well
If your bird has never had sola before, Sola Skewer or Sola Sandwich is the honest place to start. It is the least going on, so you find out quickly whether they take to it.