I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of birdsong at morning and starshine at night
--Robert Louis Stevenson

Home-made toys such as this shish kebab can keep pet birds happily distracted for hours.

Even if he was born in captivity, your bird inherited many of the foraging, nesting and mating instincts of his wild ancestors. Toys are tools for him, practical necessities that mimic his natural environment and satisfy his instincts. The number and kinds of toys he's capable of enjoying is limited only by the needs he would have in the wild.

Some birds may seem to ignore or even fear toys at first. But you should still provide a selection of toys and periodically rotate them for interest. Without the mental simulation toys provide, your bird can become neurotic or depressed.

Do it yourself
It's usually easy enough to find at least a couple of toys your bird likes, but when you get into the medium-to-large sizes, they can be prohibitively expensive, costing from $20 to $50 or more apiece. If you've ever doled out that much for a toy only to see it destroyed in one afternoon, you begin thinking about the alternative - making your own!

It's fun making your own bird toys and can save you a lot of money. Once you've located some reasonably priced sources of material - and there are lots of companies selling beads, blocks, leather, rope and other bird toy parts for not much dough (see Toy-making resources, farther down on this page, in the left column) - you can become your own toy-making workshop, turning out a new toy whenever the mood strikes. Your toys can be as simple or as elaborate as you think your bird might enjoy. And when they break, you can repair them yourself.

By Rhonda Olson THE INTERNET offers hundreds of diagrams and photos of toys, play gyms, and shower perches that you can make yourself. With a hack saw, drill, food coloring, and untreated pine, you can create just about anything. But what if you're crafts-challenged, or just don't have the time or inclination to make your own bird toys right now? You can still provide your bird with plenty of objects d'fun without taxing your creative skills. You just have to know where to look. Here are a few ideas: Many birds go bonkers for baby toys, which you can often find three for a dollar at garage sales or the local thrift store. Avoid the real soft rubbery or brittle plastic kind. Wash them with a bleach solution and air dry before giving them to your birds. Ask for the baby toy (instead of the regular one) in Burger Kings' kid's meal. The hamburger chain's Sassy toys are fun and colorful. Key rings, rattles, stacking cups or "busy boxes" - especially the ones that play music when you push a button - appeal to most birds. My red-lored Amazon has one with flashing lights, big beads and dials that beeps and plays four different songs. She selects a song and sings along. It not only entertains her, but us, too! Wisk brooms and natural wicker baskets will keep birds munching happily for hours. Offer your bird Legos, a psittacine as well as kid favorite. Here are a few super-easy projects for the mechanically uninclined: Braid a sisal rope very tightly for a rope swing. (Variation: make a tire swing by suspending a large rubber dog ring from a sisal rope.) Wash and tie a stuffed animal (the kind covered in fabric that looks like lamb's wool) to the cage bars near a perch. It will become a grooming, perching and bed-time buddy. Cut a phone book in half, drill a hole in the middle by the spine and suspend it on a sisal rope. (The soy ink print is safe.)

Recently, an avian veterinarian who was tired of spending over $20 on each toy for his macaw asked me to make some toys for him. Now I get to make some money doing something that is a great deal of fun! But before I tell you how to knock together some of my favorites, here are some tips on what to aim for.

Individual tastes
The first rule in choosing or making toys for your bird is remembering that he is an individual. Regardless of what types of toys his species is supposed to like, he may have his own ideas about what tickles his fancy.

Among five African greys, four might love piņatas (those cylindrical toys made of paper) and the fifth may like only bells. A trio of Senegals may have as many completely different sets of preferences.

In fact, your bird might change his mind about his favorite toys from one week, day - or even hour - to the next. Or, as he grows older and has less energy, he may prefer fewer toys. The younger the bird, the greater variety it usually likes. However, very young parrots will be more cautious of new items and should be given small toys, with size and complexity increased over time.

Sometimes it's difficult to predict what will be a hit and what will hang ignored in the corner of the cage. Most birds love mirrors; Merlin, my cockatiel, sits in front of hers for hours at a time. However, others - for instance, my Senegal and Timneh African grey - could not care less about admiring their own reflections. Many species adore "foot toys" - ones they can move around with or hold in a foot, while others prefer preening toys (see Spider Man at the end of this article).

So they can choose depending on their mood, I keep a toy box (actually a large plastic Lock Crock food bowl) in each of my birds' cages chockful of every kind of toy imaginable. Sometimes a bird will empty the entire box in order to get to an item at the bottom.

By species
Individual quirks aside, knowing how your species of parrot behaves in the wild can help you make toys he likes. To bone up on your bird, consider investing in a species-specific book from Baron's Publishing or www.avianpublications.com. Then you won't have to depend entirely upon the sometimes erroneous descriptions in bird-supply catalogs of which kinds of toys you should buy your bird.

A heavy plastic container makes a fine see-through toychest your bird can rummage through to find what he wants.

For example, in the wild, your macaw would be working at cracking open the tough shells of various types of nuts. The process of obtaining food keeps him mentally stimulated and his beak strong and worn to a proper length. To keep a captive bird in the same peak condition, you need to provide him with puzzles containing nuts and large wooden toys he can dismantle.

Cockatoos, African greys, eclectus, Poicephalus parrots (Senegal, Meyer's, Jardine's and red-bellies) and even cockatiels also enjoy chewing. Although they are extremely affectionate and love to spend time with their humans, cockatoos in particular love to destroy things, especially wooden toys and branches. Often a raucous bird, the cockatoo also seems to enjoy noisy toys, such as bells and music boxes. They also love brightly colored acrylics.

Like macaws, cockatoos also like to play with mechanical toys such as stainless steel cages with moving parts they have to figure out in order to get food (acrylic puzzles may not be able to stand up to these species' beaks). Lories seem to favor noisy toys, ladders, bells, rattles, and swings. Conures love to demolish paper products and wood of medium density. Poicephalus love to chew on wood, paper products, leather, play with beads, talon toys, and untie leather knots. Quakers love knots as well, and really enjoy music boxes.

Cockatiels love to preen very slim strands of material such as leather, cotton, string, jute, even those new latex strands, and they love to tear up soft pieces of wood such as balsa, or cactus wood such as Yucca. I tie slim lengths of balsa together for Merlin, my cockatiel, to rip apart. Cockatiels are primarily ground feeders in the wild, so leaving items at the cage bottom or on the floor of a gym is a good idea.

Lattice cut into sections and strapped to the cage with nylon ties provides an instant chew toy for large parrots who need to destroy wood.

Budgies like to chew and preen sisal and very thin natural string materials. Many small birds prefer munching on millet than playing with toys, and some may like mirrors or small bells, but most also enjoy having a little swing or ladder with munchies attached to it.

Feathered Tarzans
Some birds like to climb, swing, and hang from vines and branches in the wild. These breeds - macaws, Amazons, African greys, eclectus, lories, Poicephalus and caiques - like climbing ropes, strands of leather, jute and cotton hammocks. Intellectual types - Amazons and African greys - like to manipulate and study the objects they take apart.

Birds with strong nesting instincts, including cockatiels, Poicephalus, lovebirds, African greys and budgies, enjoy shredding and tearing paper, cardboard and string. And birds that love nestling against and preening buddies in the wild, such as budgies, usually like "birdie buddies," those soft, brightly colored and triangle-shaped toys you attach to the side of the cage near a perch so the bird can sit next to it and cuddle with it.

Many birds enjoy having a hut, tube or even a tissue box to scratch and tear at and hide in. Huts are roundish or squarish tents covered in brightly colored fuzzy or cotton materials with two quick links at the top for hanging. I've torn many of these apart in order for them to have just the right amount of slack inside for a picky bird. (The only caveat with toys like these is that they might encourage egg laying, which can lead to health problems, so you'll want to keep an eye on your bird's behavior.)

Size counts
In any case, don't waste your money on a large toy for a small bird - it will have no interest in it. And never give a small-bird item to a large parrot. The ease with which big birds can dismantle small toys can result in injuries - swallowing the clangor of a small bell, for instance.

The cagetop can be a fun place to hang out when it's equipped with a "toy box" and toothpick holder.

Safety is an important consideration. View bird toys as you would toys for children. Examine the materials and handle each toy to make sure there are no sharp edges.

Avoid varnished or urethane woods, coated metals, and hard, brittle plastics that could be broken apart and swallowed. Beware metal bottle caps with sharp uneven edges, and toys made with fuzzy, loose soft materials that could be ingested. Bargain toys with inferior designs or materials accidentally injure or kill many birds each year.

Metal attachments should be made from stainless steel or aluminum. Only stainless steel is deemed completely safe for birds. Zinc and lead are toxic. (Note: the dietary zinc found in many brands of pelleted bird food and vitamin, mineral and amino acid supplements manufactured for pet birds are controlled and appropriate. The excessive amount of zinc a bird may absorb by mouthing or licking various toy parts can cause poisoning and even death.)

Next page | Stainless steel test | 1, 2