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The big homemade toy idea thread

Share ideas for making your own parrot toys. What are the best things for parrots to play with? Show pictures of parrots with toys.

The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby marie83 » Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:21 am

Theres been alot of talk on here about ideas for toys lately and a couple of people on other boards have implied they would like to know what other ideas people have for keeping their birds entertained. I would certainly love to hear other peoples ideas so I thought between us we could make a thread with a list of ideas that we can share.

For more expensive ideas maybe people could put a rough price on the cost of building the toy, also if certain toys should only be used under supervision post a warning on it (ok that should be all toys but lets face it, that just isn't practical).

My ideas are cheap and primarily focused on foraging although they don't have to be for foraging at all.



**You can make new toys out of old ones.

**Egg cartons (unused of course) can be hung up, attached to side of the cage or put on the bottom. You can keep them intact or cut them into ''cups''- fill with a treat/shredded paper/small toys or whatever your bird enjoys.

**Same can be done with those small dry fruit cartons (the snack sized ones) as with the egg cartons. Hang them up, fill them, attatch to other toys etc.

**Bun cases or small pieces of plain paper can be used to wrap up pieces of dry food/small toys and placed around the cage.

**Paper cups can be cut up to make any size containers for foraging in. Again put them in the cage in a variety of different ways, hang them up, places them in food cups etc.

**You can drill small holes in wooden toys to help encourage chewing behaviours. You can also stuff these holes with shredded paper or dry treats.

**Coconut shells are good to make toys out of. So are pine cones but make sure you soak, dry them thouroughly then bake them to kill bacteria and remove any insects (don't burn them like I did lol).

**Kitchen roll tubes are good but some say the glues are not safe. You can create your own tubes by rolling plain cardboard up, putting small holes in the two ends and fastening them with leather strips.

**The untreated willow balls you can buy for small rodents are brilliant for hanging in the cage, sliding over a perch etc. They are fairly cheap, fun to destroy and you can hide things inside them. Be warned that some pet shops sell them pre-filled with monkey nuts so double check before you buy.

**Untreated sisal rope can be bought cheaply and used to make rope perches, cargo nets, ladders, swings, added to existing toys, hung up alone, used to hang other toys etc. (be cautious of small birds using any rope toys. Although sisal is deemed safe as it breaks easily, smaller birds may not have the strength to break it.)

**Buy a couple of good quality bells, you can then use these on various different toys to liven them up or swap them for the poor quality ones that usually come on pre-made toys.

**Unused popsicle sticks/drink stirrers/wooden clothes pegs can be bought cheaply and added to various toys or used to make a toy from scratch. (Be sure to snap clothes pegs in two so they can't hurt the bird and always remove any metal clips)

**Vegetable dyes can safely be used to dye toys, ropes and cardboard. You can make them at home by boiling strong coloured vegetables. The colour is very subtle on toys but safe. Food dyes bought from shops make stronger colours on toys but they will contain additives.

**Natural branches with leaves still attactched (please ensure both branch and leaves are non toxic/safe)


**Plastic bottle caps from pop bottles can be given as foot toys, attatched to other toys or used to hide treats underneath.

**Plastic wiffle balls are cheap to buy, can be left to roll free/used as foot toys, hung up, filled with dry treats, attached to the side of the cage, added onto other toys etc

Thats all I can think of for now but I'll add to this as I think of anything else.


** Drinking straws added to toys or bundled up in a cable tie.

** small tray filled with safe leaves, twigs, toys, teats etc to forage in
Last edited by marie83 on Sat Sep 01, 2012 9:00 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby cml » Wed Aug 08, 2012 6:46 am

Great resource for people who want to build their own toys =)!

I would like to add what tools you will probably require:

* Regular wood saw
* Knife
* Drill, preferably electric
* Scissors

I use a few other tools as well, but that should be the basics =). The saw you need to get wooden pieces in the right size and a knife will be used a lot in any woodworking. The drill is used to make holes, both for the string that is the core of the toy, and holes to encourage biting!
Scissors for general cutting of softer materials etc.
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Re: The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby marie83 » Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:35 am

**Straws added to toys, woven through the cage bars or bunched together with leather, sisal or cable ties.

**Small tray/container filled with safe leaves, twigs, shredded paper and small toys/treats.
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Re: The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby Grey_Moon » Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:09 am

For larger birds;

-Take a gatorade bottle (something with thicker plastic---you don't want flimsy plastic that bends easily) and clean it out and dry it.
Punch a hole in the bottle (sandpaper the edges of the hole---you don't want sharp edges).
Fill with paper, treats and other goodies.
Place on the bottom of the cage (or string up on a chain) and let your bird enjoy!

This kept Jacko busy for *hours* one summer---she stopped plucking completely for about 3 weeks until she got bored of it. I'm still trying to find toys like this because the results were amazing.
:gray: ---Jacko (13 year old TAG rescue and my little turkey-bird girl :) )


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Re: The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby marie83 » Thu Aug 23, 2012 7:14 am

Grey_Moon wrote:For larger birds;

-Take a gatorade bottle (something with thicker plastic---you don't want flimsy plastic that bends easily) and clean it out and dry it.
Punch a hole in the bottle (sandpaper the edges of the hole---you don't want sharp edges).
Fill with paper, treats and other goodies.
Place on the bottom of the cage (or string up on a chain) and let your bird enjoy!

This kept Jacko busy for *hours* one summer---she stopped plucking completely for about 3 weeks until she got bored of it. I'm still trying to find toys like this because the results were amazing.


Excellent idea, I don't actually see why it wouldn't be suitable for smaller birds too if appropraitely sized holes are used.
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Re: The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby AlbertaAviary » Sat Sep 08, 2012 5:42 pm

I tried the egg carton idea. I cut it into cups and filled them with small pieces of cuttlebone and small pieces of cardboard.

I tied the little cups to the door of the cage. My budgies didn't at all care what was inside of the cups. They threw everything out and just enjoyed shredding them.. :P
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Re: The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby pionus » Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:57 am

this is something that my late budgie liked:

what you'll need: a small (or large, depends on the size of bird) wicker ball.

strips of paper (i used the kind that you can but at a bird shop, the little colored pieces that are folded up kinda like a fan).

a small stick.


take a few pieces of paper and use the stick to push it in to any hole or gaps in the ball. stuff it! they love to pull it all out!

you can add a string to hang it up, or for larger birds just use it as a foot toy. you can also put little treats inside to make a fun foraging toy.
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.
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Re: The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby Elizebird » Mon Sep 17, 2012 8:20 pm

My WIP latest DIY project is this:

I bought a 1" round rod, like 3 feet long, at home depot, and sawed it into tiny little pieces (about 4 cm long). I drilled a hole through each of them, and I'm currently boiling a few sweet and strongly colored fruits, and then soaking the wood in them. I'll later string about a foot of the multi-colored and tasting foods back together.
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Re: The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby Maria » Wed Sep 26, 2012 3:50 pm

""""Egg cartons (unused of course)""" ??????

Where would you get unused egg cartons?

Do you mean once the egg carton no longer has our eggs in them, after we've eaten them all up, we can not use the empty carton for our birds!?!? If so, why not? And where do you get unused ones?
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Re: The big homemade toy idea thread

Postby Eurycerus » Wed Sep 26, 2012 4:05 pm

Maria wrote:Do you mean once the egg carton no longer has our eggs in them, after we've eaten them all up, we can not use the empty carton for our birds!?!? If so, why not? And where do you get unused ones?


I have no idea where to get them new, but used egg cartons could have diseases like salmonella which would kill your parrot. I've considered washing mine in hot water and putting them in the sun, but I'm not sure I'm willing to chance it.
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