I have a CAG and two lovebirds and my mum has two cockatiels and a bunch of lovebirds in an outdoor aviary, so whenever I come across a new prospective toy part I try to get a one size fits all.
This generally works, however sometimes I have to get different sizes for the different parrots and that's fine.
When I first started out I bought some toys from TLA (True Love Aviary) which were awesome but shredded really quick.
The good thing about them is they gave me plenty of ideas that I just needed to get materials for. So when my mother recently came across a craft store that had most of these, we were naturally ecstatic and got a bunch of beads - soft and hard (I don't know what the soft ones are called in English but in Hebrew they are called Sol). The tough plastic shapes I got from ebay (between 4-10 in a package for an average of 2$ a pack) and the string is twine from the supermarket.
This toy cost to make approximately 2$, perhaps less and is fully customizable.
To adjust the toy for my CAG (who can tear through the rope in a matter of seconds) I took two equally long pieces of twine and a third longer piece, tied them at one end and then braided the cord. The larger beads fit perfectly.
As for the smaller toy I made for the lovebirds, one piece of cord was just fine but I found that the holes were too small and the cord frayed too much where I had cut it to thread it so I used a tapestry needle (a blunt needle with a large eye) and it worked great.
You can read more and see more pictures at: http://www.mylivingwaters.biz/blog/2012 ... oud-think/
