#toy ask

[flock-talk]

hello!! i have a question about your bird toys. do your birds destroy all parts of the toys you make? your toys look amazing and it would be so sad if they didn't use them completely

Depends a bit on the toy!

Because I make my own toys I purchase parts I know they like such as softer woods, certain colours, or particular textures that my birds prefer. When I make a toy I’m then using all the parts they enjoy which makes it more likely that they’ll play with the whole thing over store bought toys that might have elements they despise and would then go to waste.

But there’s some toy parts that I want to survive being chewed on, particularly seed cup pods that I use for foraging (the white ball in the middle of my s’more toy). These are a very hard wood that my birds can’t really break (aside from the few that they’ve snapped the toy string for and sent the pod crashing to the floor) so the part is able to live a lot longer. They still play with it, hang off of it, and know various ways to pull the cup to access hidden pellets inside but they won’t really destroy the part itself

Then there’s times where I’ll buy new parts just to see if the birds will like the new option or not. They might like to try a new thing I haven’t offered before and the only way to know is by trying it or observing their behaviour elsewhere. Toto’s been chewing on his hard wood perches lately and peeling bark so I bought some hard wood pieces with bark attached to try. Will he actually chew it in toy form? Who knows! But we gotta offer it to find out

Sometimes birds are just silly too, they’ll like a certain toy part but only when you use it in a certain way or perhaps they’ll get bored of it over time. So even popular parts don’t always get entirely chewed up. And birds often play in different ways, chewing things up might be the primary play for some birds while for others tossing and thrashing are more fun. Newt went through a string phase where he’d only locate the toy string and chomp it to make the entire toy come apart and crash to the floor. The toy parts themselves go untouched but the loud crashing chaos was enriching for him. Play comes in many forms and being enriched doesn’t always mean the parts have to be trashed!

The benefit of making your own toys is that even if parts get left behind you can easily repurpose them on another build. Even if they didn’t like the part the visual look of it might appeal to the bird and attract them to the toy, or they can serve as a base to add parts they do like on to. Nothing really goes to waste!

[flock-talk]

You might remember this criminal of mine (his name is Sothis)— I'm here to report that he's developed a habit of almost obsessively, very joyfully nibbling his more fiber-y toys to the point that he will throw up fibres later. Now, every time I've taken him to the vet, he's praised for his general health (especially his chest muscles, he loves his acrobatics and morning stroll flights) but the throwing up can be a bit of a hassle (and looks pretty uncomfortable and taxing, even if he gets on with his life and is perfectly chipper pretty much immediately after). Do you know of anything I can do?

quite honestly I would get rid of the fibre toys if he's consuming them and throwing them up, its very easy for those things to get tangled up in the digestive tract and either literally knot up their organs if they fail to throw it back up or compact in the crop causing a build up of bacterial growth and infection or compact further down the digestive system causing a blockage which usually requires surgery to fix (which most vets won't do since they're such tiny birds)

there are digestible fibre options if you wanted to maintain a similar toy style that he likes without the risks! You can shred some Timothy hay to make your own or even look at hay-based small animal toys! There's also things like banana leaf and palm leaf shreds that can look similarly fibrous in texture that your little bean may enjoy but they easily break down in the digestive tract and won't cause that problem. You could also try making a truly edible replacement out of something like wheatgrass but do be sure to watch out for mould growth when working with something fresh like that!

Here's a couple examples by planet pleasures! (bonus is I have a discount code that could help make that toy transition easier on the bank Flock20 for 20% off the entire order or Flock15 for 15% off the entire order, I don't get anything from this I just want to save you money bird stuff gets pricey quick.)

Here's a small animal toy example from petsmart, there's usually a decent amount of hay things to look at, most chain pet stores will have something in their small animal section that could work to replace that!

I wish I could say there's an easy option like a bitter spray to put on the toy but that's just not the case for birds, chewing the toy is the entire purpose it's not really easy to encourage chewing and discourage swallowing in a safe way. It's honestly easier and safer to change the available toys to either be safe if swallowed or unswallowable altogether

[flock-talk]

Can you suggest some bird toys you really like for conures and/or caiques. My mom just had a scare with her caique nearly strangling herself and she wants to reevaluate all the toys to make sure her bird is safe, and it was scary enough for me to want to do the same with my GCC.

On a side note for other bird owners that see this, be VERY careful with toys that have ropes. It would have ended in tragedy for my mom if she hadn’t checked the birds when she did.

For sure! So glad you guys were able to intercept them in time!

I make most of my toys using parts from mysafebirdstore and featheredaddictions some of my guys’ favourite parts to shred are finger traps, seagrass mats, sola wood, balsa wood, cork, and I primarily use the thinnest paper cording to make the toys (doesn’t fray in to tangleable bits and pretty sturdy!). I also love using the “pod cups” which are a natural wood seed pod that’s quite hard which makes a great forager!

Both also sell premade toys, I’ve only purchased the feathered addictions premades which my birds chew up quite rapidly!

I’ve also had toys from bonka bird toys, and creaturecurioco

Toto demolished the creaturecurioco ones

Some companies I love using are bird kebab (natural wood products, decently soft wood) and planet pleasures (natural woven products! Crunchy!) I also have a discount code for planet pleasures- I don’t gain anything from it, just any excuse to try and make parrot care more affordable. (FLOCK20 saves 20%, FLOCK15 saves 15%). Genuinely great products that are all natural, used them for years, easy to make them in to foraging activities, satisfying crunchy cronch

Both of those companies are also usually available in chain stores to save costs on shipping!

Lastly would be noise makers, anything with a metal chain you may currently be more wary of since getting toes caught is possible, in most cases it’s possible to swap out the chain to a safer cord if you own some pliers! Hard acrylic foragers, can by durable and hard for most birds to break making them a pretty safe material for noise making smacking around

If you ever see a picture of a toy in my bird room you want to know specifics about just lmk I probably remember where it’s from/ what its parts are made of!

[flock-talk]

i think I may have already sent an ask about this before but I honestly can’t remember. My bird doesn’t seem to want to play or forage, just preen & be scritched. I just started a new job and am gone for a big chunk of the day and I’m worried about boredom/over preening due to boredom. How can I/what can I do to get my bird interested in playing or foraging at least for something to do while I’m at work?

You did send it, sorry it’s taken me a while to get back it just requires a bit more energy to answer this one than I’ve had as of late.

Birds can refuse to play for a variety of reasons: stress, not knowing how, lack of motivation, lack of UV, feeling unsafe when they’re alone, toy type, the list goes on.

One thing to keep in mind is that natural parrot behaviour tends to have them active first thing in the morning, largely resting and roosting during the day, then active again near sunset. So it’s not totally unusual for them to be less active during typical work/ school hours. Most healthy and stable birds will just use that time to nap, small bits of play, and preening.

First thing to assess when encouraging play would be toy variety and toy comfort. Are these toys different in texture, material, colour, size, do they do different things and offer different experiences. When they aren’t playing I first experiment with different toy types to see if they happen to be drawn towards a particular style of toy or a particular style of play (shredding, noise making, foraging, thrashing). Along with that we observe their behaviour around the toys: are they comfortable with them? Do they appear stressed or weary around them? Do they avoid them? As well as checking these same elements under parrot safe UV light. Since parrots see the UV spectrum it’s common for them to present depressive behaviours and be less interested in play as nothing seems as vibrant and interesting as it’s supposed to when the UV spectrum is lacking.

If all of that has been checked and there’s no interest being shown there’s two main strategies to take from here: modelling and classical conditioning.

With modelling you would play with the toy yourself and praise them for any interest in it. Gradually showing them that each toy is fun, showing them how it works and demonstrating how to play. Parrots are social learners in many cases and can pick up on new behaviours by observing others. Watching you have fun and play while enticing them to do so can elicit the play behaviours from them more naturally.

Classical conditioning is usually a much more lengthy process and is far more finicky. Classical conditioning is when you have a response that is triggered by a certain stimulus, you pair stimulus 1 with stimulus 2 so that the new stimulus will now trigger the response you were getting from stimulus 1. This is Pavlov’s dogs drooling to the bell: drooling is the response, food is stimulus 1 and the bell was stimulus 2 which was paired with the food enough where drooling would now happen at the presentation of the bell. You’ll do the exact same thing for toys and treats. You can offer a treat whenever they interact with a toy (starting at just a glance and working up to actual chewing) to shape a play behaviour, and from there every time they play a treat will follow. Over time the excitement and anticipation they feel when they eat a treat can begin to be elicited by the play itself. Eventually causing a self reinforcing behaviour since play now brings the happy exciting feelings on its own.

Foraging is an easy way to also ensure that behaviour remains reinforced. Making the prizes easy to find at first and gradually having less treats involved and harder to find. The excitement and thrill of locating the hidden treat can further drive and motivate the play to continue.

[flock-talk]

Where did you order those Halloween toys for your birds? I want to give my parakeets something spoopy to play with! <3

Feathered addictions! She makes themed toys for most commercial holidays and brings them out seasonally (different ones every year!)

Lookit that candy corn!!!!!

There's a larger selection on her website, there's so many dang options they appeal to pretty much every picky bird

http://featheredaddictions.com/2018-Spooky-Collection_c_307.html

[flock-talk]

Is twine save to use to make bird toys? Is there anything I should watch out for specifically when it comes to making my own toys for my guys? Thank you so much!

Depends what kind of twine you’re using, sisal and hemp and two common sorts of twine in terms of the string-like material but hard twine balls and shapes are usually made of willow or rattan.  Those materials are safe but they can be made of different materials that may be unsafe for birds so do research specifically what wood/ material the twine you’re wanting to use it made out of.  With twine strings there is an additional risk because many of them are oiled to help them run through machines without catching, this oil is toxic to birds so you would have to be 100% certain the twine you got states that it is unoiled.  With the string twine you also have to watch for loose ends, they can snatch up toes pretty easily so be sure to trim off lose strands when you see them to prevent injury. 

Assuming this twine is made of safe materials and isn’t treated or oiled in unsafe ways then it can be perfectly safe and is a large component in many parrot toys!

[flock-talk]

Do you think that placement or how a toy is hung in the cage makes a difference with independent play? Perhaps even how a toy moves as the bird is playing with it may make them more interested in the toy? How about shapes and sizes?

oh most definitely!

Birds can be very finicky creatures, if something isn’t exactly as they want it they just won’t bother with it.  If your bird happens to like playing with toys by swinging them around or smashing them against the cage bars then they aren’t going to be interested in toys that are already leaning on walls or are firmly attached to them, they’ll prefer ones they can swing and thrash around.  Lighting is a major factor, if a toy is in a darker area of the cage most birds just won’t go over there unless food is involved, no one likes sitting in the dark to play especially when you have terrible night vision and there’s brighter alternatives.  Height is also important, a lot of birds just don’t use the lower half of their cage all that much (birds who are dominantly ground foragers use it more), it’s natural for them to avoid low places since that puts them in danger of being snagged by a predator so placing toys higher tends to be preferred by most birds. Shape, size, colour and texture all absolutely play a role in their interest in a toy, all birds have preferences and like exploring objects with their tongues and beaks.  Providing them with the exact same thing all the time is boring, while it may be a new toy there’s nothing really new about it so it can become uninteresting to them.  This is where light can come in to play again, without UV rays birds are missing a huge chunk of the colour they’d normally be seeing so while you may be offering toys with a bunch of different colours the bird may not be seeing it that way which can be boring.

All birds find different aspects of toys fun, when you’re trying to figure out what they enjoy it’s best to try a large variety of toys and change up environmental factors like placement and lighting.  The more variety you can offer the more you’ll start to see how your bird plays and what they prefer which really helps give you a strong understanding of the sorts of toys to get and how to set up the environment.

[flock-talk]

I want to buy a bunch of toy parts, something I've never done before. What sorts of things (and from where) do you recommend?

Depends where you live and what your bird likes! If you’re in the states I’d recommend mysafebirdstore as their prices are pretty reasonable (and if you catch them having a sale it’s an added bonus) but shipping to Canada is brutally expensive which really ends up defeating the purpose of buying toy parts to make toys for cheap.  If you’re in Canada I recommend featheredaddictions as their prices are also super reasonable, she’s a very lovely person and if you happen to live near her you can just drive over and pick your order up which means you don’t have to pay for any shipping at all. mysafebirdstore does tend to have a larger variety of natural toy parts though.

What you get really depends on your bird’s preferences and their size of course, it’s usually a good idea to pick up some string to make the toys, leather and paper string tend to be the easiest to thread since they don’t have loose strands like sisal does but sisal tends to be cheaper, I’ve found paper to be the easiest to make toys of out since it holds really well and is decently stiff so threading it through tight gaps is pretty easy.  For my beeps I got the 1/16″ which works really well (if you’ve got a larger bird thicker will be better to support rough play and withstand a bit of chewing)

Rattan vine balls are a common thing I pick up for my birds, they can easily be stuffed with millet to encourage play and are one of the easier parts to thread on to toys, there’s a lot of creative ways to incorporate them in to toys and I find that adding a couple in encourages my birds to check out toy parts they may not be super interested in at first.  Seeing something familiar often captures their interest and causes them to be a bit more curious about the toy as a whole. Here’s a couple different sizes with little Zeeby here, 6cm, 3cm and 2cm the middle one was purchased from featheredaddictions the other two were from mysafebirdstore.  If you’ve got a bird who already loves vine and just breaks them way too fast you might want to look in to other 3D shapes as they’re made of thicker material which tends to last a little bit longer

Both my birds are absolutely adoring balsa wood sola balls, it’s extremely soft (softer than bird kabobs) and has a similar texture to styrofoam which makes it super easy for tiny beaks to rip apart.  Super fun toy that would be easy to tuck a couple treats in to if you’ve got a bird who doesn’t like new things or struggles with playing on their own.  It is solid in the middle so in order to thread a string through it I’ve found it easiest to take a bamboo skewer and gently push it through the ball by twisting and slowly breaking through the middle.

You can never go wrong with palm shredders! There’s a small version and a super thick version, one’s as wide as a smooshed finger trap and the other is a couple inches wide.  These bits are easy to cut to size, super easy to puncture and throw on a toy, easy to hide treats in and are generally a good choice for adding more thickness to a toy and beak up strings of thin toys to make them more appealing. (heck even just hanging a bunch of strips connected at the top would probably make a great toy) (this is the large one).  You can easily get creative, wrap them around twine balls, make a swing out of them, they’re very flexible and easy to incorporate in to toys in a variety of ways.  They’re light and easy for small beaks to break while still having a stiff crunch that most birds really enjoy.

Recently both my birds have been loving banana leaf bundles, they’re tightly wrapped up which makes them a bit tougher but still breakable by tiny beaks. Again another toy that’s easy to just slide a couple treats in between the layers to make a fun foraging toy (or foot toy for larger birds).  Same goes for twig bundles, easy to hide some treats in the layers and my birds really seem to enjoy chomping on them and playing around with the way the twigs interact with one another.  Being a bundle means it can be a bit hard for them to break if they get too big of a mouthful but it helps them explore with their beaks while they figure out that breaking one by one is more effective (these can also be found in super mini sizes at FA)

Oh my gosh curly coners let me tell you, I got these on a whim because I thought they’d be good for foraging (they are) but my birds just love breaking them apart now! They’re a little bit of a stiffer material so they have to work at it a little bit more to break but this toy also breaks in more interesting ways, it tends to split with the spiral which means the birds get to enjoy splitting it then trying to rip it off when all it wants to do is run the length of the spiral.  These are one of Mia’s favourites (and she’s hard to please)

I usually pick up palm flowers when I’m running low, they make great lids for foraging toys and can be used for foraging themselves, the coloured versions are great for adding more depth to a toy without it being super vibrant and fake looking which is something I tend to have trouble with.  Being different shades of brown all the time can get boring so I find that these add some colour without it being overpowering and just ruining the toy.  Along with those seriously try out some bael pods, they’re a tough wood so it’s a part that’ll last long with small birds and the cups are perfect for foraging.  They come with a hole already in them so no worries about drilling, both the beans love these things! Using palm flowers as lids works really well with these since they’re tightly woven, it’s easy to pull up the lid and have it stay raised which makes teaching a bird to forage really easy.

and cork, my gosh cork.  I got cork on a whim, I’d been eyeing it for a while and wasn’t sure what the birds would really think of it and they just, well:

Buying in bulk is usually cheaper than buying smaller quantities so do keep that in mind, toy parts don’t really expire and birds have very long life spans so don’t be afraid to pick up more than you need in the moment, they’ll end up using the parts eventually! When I was just getting in to purchasing toy parts I bought a couple of a variety of things (if you email featheredaddictions they can actually price out how much one of each thing would cost so you can test things without having leftovers they don’t like) and once I started to see what the birds enjoyed most I went through and ordered bulk.

It’s a bit of a trial and error process, you will end up buying things the birds just don’t like from time to time and that’s alright, whenever that happens i just try to incorporate things I know they do like in to the same toy so even if they don’t chew the undesirable toy they can use it in some way to play with the parts they do like. So experiment, don’t be afraid to try something new even if you’re hesitant about your bird’s preferences they may surprise you!