How many toys/how often to rotate?

[Maria]

In making toys myself, I put more types of all kinds of substances on them also. Wiffle balls with treats in them, wicker baskets with treats in them, willow balls, vine balls, wooden pieces, plastic beads and pieces, cardboard, etc. - - also shredder parts like finger traps and "Shreddars" from PetsMart. Also palm grass and sea grass pieces.

Jute rope, sisal rope, leather laces, and white supreme cotton rope, are all good preening type sources to use to string the toy parts onto also.

[Pralina]

And how many toys in the cage all at once do you guys have?

Cause I am trying to not overcrowd it but .... is it better to put one but rotate once a week??? Or more like 3-5 all at once?

[Grey_Moon]

Just one isn't enough and depending on the bird rotating once a week isn't often enough.

I personally keep 5 in the cage, 2 on top of the cage and rotate each group out for an entirely new group once a week to every few days.
I'd be aiming for at least 3-5 if I were you---if you can manage to offer more its always better.

[marie83]

I base it on size of the toys as to how many I put in, I only have small birds but Ollie also likes some of the big boy toys designed for larger parrots. I would say a minimum of 4 toys though and a mix of types for variety. Mine always have at least 1 foraging toy, 1 destroying toy made from wood/card or similar and 1 noise making toy such as a bell and all will get used at some stage.

Base it on your birds interests too though, no point putting a few things in that wont get used. At the moment Ollie has a wide interest in toys (but he does go through stages, he never chewed much before then destroyed a wood one in a matter of days) and the ones I have chosen on this rotation are all small so he has 11 toys in at the moment covering all categories I mentioned above and he still has space to fly around if he wants. Harlie has a much smaller interest in her toys and a much smaller cage currently so she only has 4 toys in at the moment but again I've selected them for variety opposed to just having 4 wooden toys.

[Pralina]

I was only asking because as I buy a lot of toys, my birds have lots of toys hanging in their cages at all times.... but I rotate them less often... So perhaps I could try with your suggestion, 3 different varieties, that I would rotate every 4-5 days instead....

Thus I really can't wait to clean up and set up my parrot closet

[independentminded]

I've always thought that rotating the toys in the bird's cage once a month is suffice.