Are feathers safe?

I'm just wondering if the feathers that come on some cat toys are safe. I have a two feather wands for my two cats and when I play with them, they pull the feathers out and try to eat them. I've gotten in the habit of putting the wands somewhere they can't get them when we're not playing.

I'm cat-sitting for a friend of mine and since she just moved, I couldn't find any of the cats' toys (she has 3 cats). So I went out and bought three different toys for them. One of them had feathers on the end, I was afraid to leave it there because the male cat seemed to be only interested in chewing on the feathers, so I pulled the feathers off...maybe I was too hasty? But it can't be good for them to ingest the feathers can it?

I will be interested to hear the answer to this as well. I have to keep Riley's feather toys in the closet when I'm not playing with him or he will eat the feathers too.

of course... cats in the wild probably ingest feathers when they eat birds

feathers if real are fine...

www.catniptoys.com carrys some with turkey feathers and natural dyes... the dye of most toys would worry me

Since cats in the wild do eat some feathers along with the birds, I think it'd be fine. As long as the feathers aren't gigantic or heavily dyed.

I'd be wary of dyes. I also wouldn't pick up feathers from the ground outside to use with cat toys as there are a number of diseases that can pass from birds to cats - most commonly chlamydiosis, the avian form is very similar to the feline form and can be passed to cats through faecal dust which is easily trapped in the feather barbs.

But other than that normal short feathers shouldn't cause a problem, I would put away any of those really long fluffy ones as I imagine if a long enough portion were ingested it could have the same effect as string, but short ones should be ok although will be chewed up in no time I imagine!

I think I'll just continue on putting away the feather toys when I'm not around but I won't be quite as paranoid if they eat a little feather

By the way, I'm interested in trying out Da Bird on my cats as one of them is overweight. Does anyone know where I might buy one in Canada?

Thanks!!

Petco or Petsmart have them