Even finches, such as these two society finch youngsters, enjoy small toys such as wiffle balls. (Photo by Eric Black, courtesy of www.robirda.com.)

WE INDULGENT PARROT owners give our companions a lot of love and attention. It doesn't matter if they're a parakeet or macaw - they get the best of everything, including food, cages and toys.

But what about the non-hookbills - the "little birds," the canaries and the finches? Do they deserve any less? Are small empty cages with some water and seed enough for them? I don't think so. They deserve the best, too. Not only do canaries and finches enjoy the time you spend with them, they thrive with better-than-basic care, a varied diet - and, believe it or not, toys.

Sunshine, Click and Clack
We bought Sunshine, a male American Singer, and his society finch cagemates, Click and Clack, from a pet store when they were less than a year old. We needed them to fill an empty spot in our home and hearts. In our shed sat a 4-foot-by-4-foot-by-4-foot cage, empty since its previous occupant passed away. It bothered me every time I saw it.

Our three new birds got along well together, although Sunshine, the largest, still thinks he runs the show. Click and Clack won’t take too much of his bluff, and will just fly away if he gets too big for his lemon-yellow britches. They all have plenty of room in the cage to fly back and forth.

Sunshine is the best singer I’ve ever heard. He's completely into his song. His repertoire includes over 20 stanzas, which he belts out like an opera singer. The best song is the first one in the morning or the last at night. That's when Click accompanies; Clack just stands back and listens. (He may be humming along.) A home without a canary’s song is empty, and when you have a happy canary, the song is even more vibrant.

The truth about canaries and toys
It had been a couple of years since I had owned a canary and I wanted to see what might have changed in care, so I began researching the topic on the Internet. I also wanted to make sure our cage's size and bar spacing would be appropriate for our three new birds. (I'd always heard that finches crowded together in a small cage will pick on each other.) These were the things I set out to learn more about. Instead, I stumbled upon some information that would change our lives.

In all the bird books and bird magazines we had collected throughout the years, I had never seen a mention of toys for small birds other than hookbills. You can’t find them on the shelves of the pet stores, either.

Then I discovered Robirda McDonald's Web site, www.robirda.com. What an eye-opener! I gazed in amazement at pictures of cages full of preen toys, perches and swings - for canaries. (I also got lost in the wonderful information there on basic care, feeding and housing of breeder and pet canaries.)

So it was off to the pet store to find small bird toys (Charge it!), ones with easy-to-preen cotton or sisal rope, not the usual wood, leather and pony beads.

Canaries such as this intensive-feathered red enjoy string toys they can tug on. (Photo by Eric Black, courtesy of www.robirda.com.)

My first buy was a sisal-rope ring toy, which looks a little like a starched hula skirt. Within a day, Sunshine began tugging on it. After he was done playing, the other two, who had been watching, gave it a whirl. But it wasn't long before Sunshine bogarted the thing and left Click and Clack to watch from the sidelines.

I went shopping for another toy, looking for something different but equally appealing. This time I chose a bright primary-colored sisal knotted toy. It was another overnight success, with the birds soon pulling at it.

Parrot hand-me-downs
Off work for the holidays, I decided to clean out the closets and sort the stuff belonging to Moses, my 16-year-old female yellow-collared macaw and Cookie, my 6-year-old female orange-wing Amazon. (I don't throw away the parrots' old toys; I recycle all the usable parts for use as foot toys or for making another toy.)

Rooting around, I found a perfect preen toy for "the boys": a whiffle ball with strands of cotton rope tied through the holes. (I suspect the parrots had rejected this toy because it looks like Cousin It from the Adams Family.)

I hung the wiffle ball between two perches in the little birds' cage and they all grabbed a strand and pulled. It was a tug o' war, bird style.

Clack decided to grab a piece to take to his nest, but it held him fast as he tried to fly off. Holding on for dear life with his little beak, he flew in a half circle around the toy, his wings beating like a hummingbird's at the other end of the strand. He looked like a mountain climber, rappelling down the rocks. He was flapping so hard, if the strand had snapped he would have creamed himself against the cage.

Distraction and pleasure
So can non-hookbills enjoy toys? You bet. Toys might not entertain canaries and finches in exactly the same way they do parrots, but it's plain to see they provide distraction and pleasure.

My birds spend a lot of time with their toys, and even if they consider their sisal ropes and wiffle ball only as nesting material (and I think it goes beyond that), they're getting mental and physical exercise. (Just remember to keep their nails trimmed so they don't get caught in a toy.)

Add personal attention to the mix and you'll be rewarded with little birds that thrive and not just survive. I love sitting and watching our three. I can always convince Sunshine to start singing for me by whistling a little bit. He gleefully belts one out, as if thanking me for all the time and effort.