How to split perler beads into rings

[CandoAviary]

What is rather amusing is you were earlier in the topic directing folks to Martie's link to purchase them and now you are saying they are bad to use.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to amuse nor say they were bad. I know many people that use them without problems... as stated. I also had many finches wear them without problems. I simply shared some of my bad experiences with others and why I don't use them any longer. Again, I use colored bands for family identification and if they come off.. I have problems with my records. I breed maybe 700 chicks a season and I have to rely on bands. For smaller set ups where people have only a few clutches I am sure if the bird pulled theirs off you could figure out and replace it. That would be impossible in my avairies.
So perler bands are bad for me and my set up but they work very well for someone else. .
There are problems with closed bands too...legs swelling and needing to be cut off, finch plastic bands getting caught on strings, cage bars, etc. All can be bad, but not all are bad. But all do pose a risk of some sorts. Hope that clears it up and as far as recommending Martie's bands ...I always try and support fellow forum members with their businesses.... just like I recommended this thread for this pill cutter to be moved to resources so that everyone could benefit from your discovery...just trying to help

[DanteD716]

Thank you for sharing your experiences Candace. It must be hard banding all those chicks!!! how do you band your gold breasted waxbills?

[CandoAviary]

My Goldbreast are not always banded. If I close band I use size A, I have never found plastic bands small enough to stay on so family color banding is out of the question with them. I simply have different aviaries with different bloodline stock in each aviary. I will pull hens out of 1 aviary and males out of another, this way I know they are not related.

[DanteD716]

Oh, I was gonna say, hard work!! Imagine, trying to band every clutch, I would be insane. I am starting to take more interested in GBWB

[cindy]

Dante...I would like to mention that if you have or get FF FS, some can be smaller than regular zebras, a little more delicate. You may need to either use a band from L&M on them or wait until the grow a bit more before using a perler bead. One pair of mine gave me such tiny young they slipped right out of the perler bead (banded at fledging), I switched the female out to a bigger hen, the fledglings are a good size now.

[DanteD716]

I wish But thank you for that tip. My uncles FF are English, so are rather large. I cannot wait to buy a pair of my own.

[cindy]

I have fledgling...Isabel or FF OB/BB....send you years soon!...tht's another topic!

[DanteD716]

Congrats!! ob isabels are gorgeous!

[Sally]

I have a pill cutter already (senior citizens often take LOTS of pills ), but I don't think I want to use it on anything else. And even with a pill cutter, I can see me doing a lot of cussing. I have enough of a time holding on to bands, dropping at least several bands with each clutch. So I would be happy to pay for someone else to have the aggravation.

Since I have mostly small waxbills that take size A and B closed bands, the perler beads won't help me with them. I use size XF split plastic bands to designate family colors, but I really need to get into bicolor bands to make it easier to spot relationships. Unfortunately, I am forced to go with the color schemes that are offered.

What I like about Martie's idea is that I can make up any color combination I want, and there are so many more colors offered than with the split plastic bands. My Purple Grenadiers and Cherry finches take a C closed band, so perler beads might work for them. I have pairs set up where half of one pair is related to half of another pair, so it is even more important to have bicolor bands on the offspring.

Too bad they don't make perler beads in an even smaller size, but I can imagine cutting something even smaller would take the patience of Job!

[cindy]

Sally, most my birds are on the bigger size....so perlers are perfect. Actually I saw dual colors on L&M and like the idea of multy colored rings. One of my imported owls that came in from Canada a small rounded colored ring on, it was light weight and looked easier on the legs.

I also saw Marties topic thread....inspired me to try to figure out how to cut beads in half with out to much effort. I wanted to color code the offspring.

Cali is on some pretty huge pills that needed to be split, as doing so I thought the pill splitter would work. I have two pill splitters, one for the dogs, one for the birds. We don't use one. I tried it and it was effortless. Now just have to band some offspring!