Working on play gym!

[Eurycerus]

The adoption process is going to take a while so i've decided to occupy myself by making a parrot gym! I'm so excited. Here's the piece of wood that will main part of the gym (it's fairly tall, three feet or so). It's a beautiful Manzanita branch. I've cut off all the annoying little branches, washed it, and now it's out in the sun drying. When it's ready to go in three or four days I'm going to sand all the rough edges. I'll be attaching some smaller branches and hand made toys too. The whole thing will be mounted on a flat piece of wood.

Any suggestions for good toy designs?

Also I like the idea of making toys where you can hide food in the toy. So any designs/pictures of toys like that would be appreciated!

[marie83]

What species are you getting?

If it's a species that likes to chew alot how about getting some little blocks of wood and drilling various sized holes in them so you can stuff them with shredded paper, food etc. Hang small, glue free cardboard boxes up with small toys, treats etc in them. Small snack sized boxes of dry fruit are ideal for this. I also cut up unused egg cartons and thread a leather strip through each cup to hang up before filling it with something nice. You can also make a lid for the cups to make it harder from paper, then cardboard when they are familiar with foraging.

I must admit although I made my birds playgym i'm rubbish for the toy ideas, nearly all mine are shop bought or reconstructed from old toys lol.

[Eurycerus]

Oh thanks for the great ideas. I'm going to be getting a Senegal. I'm not certain how much of a chewer they are.

[marie83]

I think sennies are fairly strong chewers but I don't know from experience.
Make sure you post a piccy of the final result, always useful for other people to see how easily and cheaply they can be made. We did ours for £7 and I have absolutely no DIY skills whatsoever.
We left all the little nobbly bits on for ours to chew on but they aren't interested in them at all lol.

[Eurycerus]

Just an update. I screwed the large branch to a flat board I had and then tied another branch, firmly across the large branch. I'll attach some toys once I get the parts to make them.