The alternative is to roll up your sleeves and make your own toys. It’s not as difficult as you might think. In fact, it can save you some serious bucks and can be fun, too, as Cher Angelo shows in this month's lead piece, Toy story.

Practice makes perfect
Don’t be discouraged if your bird does not appreciate your first creative efforts. Speaking from personal experience, I can promise you that if you keep trying, you’ll hit on a toy he likes.

The first toy I made for my blue-and-gold macaw, Louie, combined his two favorite objects in the world: an old towel and buttons. I considered it a perfect marriage of materials. I considered myself, frankly, a toy-making genius for having thought of it.

I went to the fabric store and bought one of practically every size and color of button they had. I spent hours painstakingly hand-sewing them on towel strips of various lengths. I tied all the strips together and hung the finished product in Louie’s cage. Then I sat back to watch. Boy, was this going to be good!

Pistachios rule
Louie eyed the towel-and-button contraption, ran his tongue over one of the shiny buttons, and went back to his food bowl. And that was it.

I spent a few weeks licking the wounds of a spurned artiste, hoping against hope that Louie would suddenly come to his senses and recognize the brilliance of the design. Finally I gave up and stashed the toy in the closet. (What did Louie know? Obviously, all his taste was in his mouth. I would save this toy for another, more enlightened bird.) Louie continued to munch on rags and snap the buttons off my clothes.

Next I made a wooden chain of multicolored links. Louie ignored this toy, too; that is, until I lay it on the floor. Then he pounced on it, wrestling the links with his feet. I can't tell you just how cute this was. Lesson learned: Sometimes bird toys are like real estate - location can make the sale.

I haven’t given up on making hanging toys. After all, the whole point of the toy-making exercise was to provide Louie with entertainment inside his cage. So far he has approved of two of my efforts: A rope toy with bits of leather, and pistachios embedded in blocks of wood. Next on my to-do list: a toy that resembles an antique chair leg.

Toy resources
When I first began making my own bird toys, I wasted way too much time pounding the pavement chasing down rope, beads and other necessary parts.

I didn't realize there are at least a dozen companies who have already done all the hard work for me and sell all the accessories I could possibly need. Some of these great sources of toy parts include Wright's Little Wonders (e-mail Wendy at birdtoylady@aol.com for a free catalog), All Bird Toys, Stuff for Birds, and Twin Leather Company. (For other toy-part providers, see our resources list, in the lower left column of the page.)

Wright's, All Bird Toys, Stuff for Birds and Twin Leather all have joined ParrotChronicles.com as advertisers since our last issue. We'd also like to welcome to our pages Tani Robar (who sells an amazing set of parrot trick training tapes); PetStockRoom.com, an online variety store featuring everything from cages to bird food; and Smart Bird Toys, which offers a variety of wares, including cages and great "foot" toys. Need advice on your parrot's behavior? Get it straight from the experts at Mattie Sue Athan's Parrot Quest, an entertaining two-day event in Tulsa this May.

Welcome, Stephen!
Sadly, with this issue Steve Martin steps down as ParrotChronicles.com's Behavior columnist in order to turn his full attention toward running his increasingly successful bird-performance and consulting company, Natural Encounters Inc., based in Florida.

On the bright side, Steve leaves us in the capable hands of Stephen Fisher, one of his trusted bird trainers at NEI. Beginning with this issue of ParrotChronicles.com, Stephen will be fielding your questions about your bird's antics. In his first Behavior column, Stephen addresses some puzzling bird body language, the issue of height dominance and how to teach an old bird new mimicry tricks.

-- Carla Thornton, Editor

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