Last Updated on by Mitch Rezman
Bird toys are to the bird cage, what leaves are to the trees your bird would be living in in the wild.
It’s said birds live by the 60/40 rule. They spend 60% of their time looking for food and 40% of their time trying not to be food. Looking for food is called foraging.
A Cockatoo parrot living in the wild will fly as many as 100 miles in a day. The bird will have several dozen stops and regular feeding places. At each stop they’ll use their strong beak (and claws) to look for food.
If you don’t offer your bird “foraging opportunities” they’ll find their own. Window blinds, expensive furniture, TV remotes. Your parrot needs to chew and seek out things.
Many times their selection of things to chew is a direct result of your activities. Remotes are popular because – you use the remote – they want to play with what you are playing with. People toys are bird toys in their mind.
Parrots are prey animals so they assume they can be attacked at any time. They may see a hawk in the sky through your picture window but they don’t understand the concept of glass or cage bars keeping predators out and the bird safe <- stress trigger.
We recommend having so many toys in the bird cage that you can’t see the bird. It will relax your bird tremendously.
All these bird toys serve a second purpose, to give your bird privacy & piece of mind. When you retire to the bedroom you pull the blinds and close the door, your bird just wants the same thing.
Because foraging destroys the items you present to the bird, providing an endless stream of bird toys can get expensive if you buy all pre-made bird toys. With busy schedules, you might not necessarily have the time to make bird toys either. We’re offering 3 videos below on how to make bird toys quickly and inexpensively.
Just below the videos you see six suggestions we’ve come up with to help keep your bird supplied with bird toys on the cheap. We offer many bird toy making parts but you can get creative.
Depending on the size of the bird, look around the house for cotton shoe laces, big plastic buttons, empty plastic water bottles, shower rings – you get the idea, Just make sure the size of the items matches the size of the bird.
More DIY Bird Toys on Windy City Parrot
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Until next time
Catherine Tobsing
President Windy City Parrot, Inc.
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