By: Marguerite Floyd 

The Toy Trap

I can’t remember how many times I’ve purchased extravagantly priced bird toys, based on each bird’s preferences. The cockatiels love pulling and shredding brightly colored paper strips, while my brown-head must have wood to destroy, so those are the kind of toys I look for. Of course, the items must be bird safe: made of natural untreated chemical-free elements and dyes, stainless steel fasteners, bells and ropes that can’t be dismantled and chewed up, and so on.

What They Actually Want

When I find such toys on the rare occasion I am still below my credit card limit, I take them home and make a big deal out of showing my birds their wonderful new toys.
Who are not impressed at all. They view the new toys as alien creatures on a fact-finding mission that’s going to turn out badly for everyone. Of course, I can’t return the items since they’ve been “used,” that is, my birds have touched them and breathed on them.
No, what my birds really prefer are scraps of note paper with important phone numbers written on them, clusters of keys and dishes that make a satisfying crashing noise when they hit the floor, paper towels and dish towels they can poke holes in, electrical cords actively controlling the tv and lights, and remote controls with all those lovely colored buttons that come off so easily.

 
Lucky for us, many parrot experts encourage you to make your own bird toys at no or very little cost. The internet chat rooms are full of instructions for home-made toys, along with pictures of a conure thoroughly absorbed by a foot toy made of a wooden clothes pin and scraps of left-over yarn.

“Oh, that looks so easy,” you’ll mutter to yourself as you imagine making dozens of variations of foot toys. Then you realize you haven’t seen a clothes pin in decades. Do they still make them? The yarn isn’t a problem because you have several friends who knit and always have extra yarn.

So you finally pull everything together and make six of these colorful safe foot toys for your bird. Who either turns up her beak at them or shrieks in terror.

Low-Cost Toy Ideas That Work

No, it’s not easy being a parrot parent, but I can offer you some easy, low or no cost ideas to keep that beak happy. First of all, don’t be too hard on yourself – you’re just a human. Second of all, forget the fancy designer toys advertised in glossy magazines. Your birds don’t care about that.

Just tear up some clean empty paper coffee cups and a handful of junk mail, stir in some old bits from leftover toys, some short pieces of string, and wet pieces of paper towels sprinkled with chia seeds. Don’t worry that it isn’t “pretty” and that your bird will judge its appearance. Your bird is busy judging you for countless other things. Even if your bird hates it, at least you haven’t wasted any money.

If you’re convinced you’re not creative, check out the book Parrot-Toys and Play Areas: How to Put Some Fun into Your Parrot's Life, by Carol D'Arezzo and Lauren Shannon-Nunn.

One of the best collections on how to make fun, no-cost toys is Kris Porter’s activity books. You can access them at https://www.behaviorworks.org/files/articles/Parrot%20Enrichment%20Activity%20Book%201.pdf and https://www.behaviorworks.org/files/articles/Parrot%20Enrichment%20Activity%20Book%202.pdf

So yes, dear parrot parent, there is hope in these monetarily challenging times, that you can afford an array of toys for your parrot without giving up groceries. Let us know how it goes.