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My Jardine's favorite toys

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My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby DanaandPod » Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:58 pm

Look at this site...its so well done...with parrot icons etc. So cute!!!!!!
Anyway, my Jardine's parrot doesnt really like to play much with toys that are hung on the outer bars of the cage... Also, he is picky and goes for smaller toys verses larger ones. He has four upper level perches and every week I make sure he has four new toys hung infront of each perch. they are small in size for him to hold in his foot. Also, I have electronic toys like baby laptops which he likes to walk on and set off.... He absolutely loves them, honestly. I change those out every couple of months. Lately, he loves pony beads. I string them onto zip ties. I get a bin of them from Walmart and he bites them off. He also has a tiny water bottle in his cage. He loves this thing.... the holder wasn't meant for a parrot...but he loves it on the bottom of his cage (its small enough so that the end of it doesnt touch the poop or under mess of the bar bottom of cage) He learned how to shake it and turn it up and down to make the water go to the spout and he drinks it. Another of his newest hits is a tin tuna can...without any sharp edges of course. He picks it up and flips it over his head over and over again! And, I laugh every time. I also get him those little plastic army men from dollar store. He likes to bite the heads off. Also, pill bottle caps with holes in them are ideal for stringing...and he likes them. I have also bought plastic hair curlers from the dollar store and stuffed them with shredded crinkle paper (without die) and then string and hang it. He chews on them. The cabobs are another fave... Plastic tiny chains bunched up with zip ties hung for him to chew... Believe it or not he loves balls too. When he is outside of his cage... I roll a small rubber ball to him and he goes wild chasing it. I also have a large toddler puzzle toy... the kind with different latches...(a chain latch/hook latch/etc. etc. And, he opens them all for a treat) I have also lightly sewn pill bottle caps like i mentioned above, to material like fleece and hung it in his cage...and he works at chewing them off. Foraging toys..naturally, he likes. Toilet paper rolls. :D
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Re: My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby Wolf » Mon Nov 24, 2014 12:44 am

Please be careful with the plastic and switch to wooden toys as much as possible, if he swallows the plastic it could cause an impaction in his digestive tract or the chemicals that it is made from could leach into his system and poison him. Also tuna cans have zinc which is toxic to parrots but you could get a stainless steel feed/ water cup from the pet store which would serve the same purpose for him. I have a few hard plastic balls from the cat department that I give my Parrotlet to play with, I tried them for my Senegal but she bites them too hard and that leaves sharp edges so I dong give her those any more. I did discover these little balls made of some woody type material in the bird area of the pet store that I give her to play with, I have seen them attached to other bird toys.
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Re: My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby DanaandPod » Mon Nov 24, 2014 6:48 pm

thank you. Though the plastic pony beads are quite common...are on store bird toys as well as make your own bird toy sites... I'd hate to disgard them when it is one of the few things he likes to keep occupied with...He basically ignores anything that is wood... :/ I will definitely get one of those bowls from the pet store as a replacement toy. I dont leave it in his cage tho... its just something he plays with for a minute outside the cage.
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Re: My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby Wolf » Mon Nov 24, 2014 9:09 pm

I understand but I also think that you might be able to find similar beads made of unpainted wood at craft stores. And unfortunately there are many things being sold as parrot toys which are totally unsafe for them. The companies that make the toys as well as many of the ones that make parrot feed count on many of us not being aware of what they are doing as it makes them billions of dollars.
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Re: My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby DanaandPod » Tue Nov 25, 2014 7:31 pm

Hmmm... well, it wouldn't hurt to go look for small wood beads at a craft store. what he likes about them is they are easy to bite off. I took the silver bowl out of his travel cage and he now happily tosses that around instead of a tuna can. It cracks me up what he does this...
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Re: My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby liz » Tue Nov 25, 2014 7:44 pm

Even though all recycles are put out in the same container, I have been separating the plastic from the rest. Myrtle likes to dive for plastic bottles, take the lids off and throw the bottles on the floor. Then she chews up the caps and throws them on the floor.
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Re: My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby Wolf » Wed Nov 26, 2014 9:44 am

What I did, in the beginning, when I had no concept of what I was doing, was to watch what Kiki did with the store bought bird toys that I got for her( yes, some were plastic). If she broke off pieces that left any sharp ends or edges was to toss those pieces in the trash, if I saw her with little pieces that I was afraid that she would swallow, I took and smoothed them back out with my knife and gave those back to her and just kept repeating that process until the toy was no longer viable for her to play with and just did not replace them. In addition to this I got the better toys for an even larger sized parrot in hopes that the toy would be tougher for her to bite pieces off . This has worked well enough that I do have a few plastic toys in the bird toy rotation.
A lot of the toys that I originally got were a combination of materials , with the majority of the pieces being colored wood, With the cost of these toys, I decided that I could do as well with making the wooden parts myself.
With the interest that I see expressed here, I may just have to start making bird toys myself or at least try to find quality parts that I can post links for here to help out. I will have to think on this a while.
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Re: My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby Pajarita » Wed Nov 26, 2014 12:24 pm

I don't give my birds any metal, plastic, chains or beads. Metal is iffy unless it's stainless steel. Plastic does not only cause impaction and/or occlusion, there is a new study that says that baby boys exposed to plastic when in the womb do not develop their testicles correctly and, if you ask me, we are going to find out more and more that plastic is no good. Chains are dangerous: beaks, claws, toes, feet can get caught in a link. And beads, even wooden ones, can be swallowed whole and choke the bird. My birds get natural stuff like branches with the bark on so they can peel it, and little branches coming off the main one which are happily chewed off and thrown on the floor; pinecones; knots of untreated sisal rope; garlands of the same sisal rope with knots every few inches where I stick things like dry corn husks, raffia, etc; cardboard boxes or pieces and rolled up unread magazines (the ones with staples so there is no glue but, of course, the staples need to be taken out), dry yucca slices or 'logs', balsa wood pieces, that kind of thing. Most of the stuff is either free or very inexpensive, they like it just as much as any expensive commercial toy and I have peace of mind knowing there is nothing there that can hurt them.
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Re: My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby DanaandPod » Wed Nov 26, 2014 3:42 pm

Funny Balsa wood was mentioned...I almost got him some when I was at the art supply store...Where can I get it cheaper? Also, what type of sticks/wood with bark are you using? I have also thought about going to home depot to cut my own wood. He doesnt really honestly like anything or will play with anything that isnt small or that he cannot destroy easily. He does not touch pine cones....
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Re: My Jardine's favorite toys

Postby Wolf » Wed Nov 26, 2014 6:35 pm

I just bumped this topic back up.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521

In it starting on the second page you will find a listing of thing that are safe and things that are not safe for birds. You can use the branches from any of the bird safe trees in the safe list. This list contains foods, woods, plants and household products and is the best list that I have found so far.
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