Toys for an African Parrot

By

Ariela

I had an African Grey Congo and and an African Grey Timneh. I know they are destructive. I remember rolling up paper plates really tight and giving it to them. Or paper towel and toilet paper holders. Anything they can destroy that wont hurt them.

Even a clothes pin,the type without the clip. Sometimes I'd want to buy them a brightly colored toy but the store bought ones would be destroyed just as easily and they weren't cheap. They had more fun with the paper products and throwing out of the cage. Actually they loved being out of the cage and throwing the paper.

It was so fun I miss them. Thanks for bring back the memories. The most fun was teaching them to talk they had a HUGE vocabulary!

By

shelley8492

We don't buy toys anymore. "Houdini" is afraid of them, but he loves cardboard boxes. You wouldn't believe how he can shred one. We lay it on the side and he can nap in there and hide away. Now I need a tip on how to keep the mess under control! He also likes brown bags for the same reason. Also if you soak a Qtip under water, he sucks out the water, breaks off the ends and then unrolls the paper. Ever wonder how they put those together?

By

tlcdsfit

we buy toys at yard sales and wash them very good.when dry and clean let the baby have it's toys.also you can buy untraeted wood and dirll a cuople of holes at diffrent sizes and shapes put it's favorete treats in the holes and let it have it.

By

NellieMary

What a lot of great ideas! I appreciate your taking the time to give such wonderful advice for parrots. I can't wait to try some of them. Thanks again! I loved the picture!

By Martha (Guest Post)

one last thing...join your local bird club if you haven't already. A great resource! Here is a picture of Coco being introduced to our daughter when she was born.

By Martha (Guest Post)

Hi! I know it can be expensive with supplying parrot toys but parrots are meant to destroy their toys. We adopted a grey that had to learn to chew. Parrot that don't chew usually have something mentally or physically wrong. We have had two greys so far and some ideas I use are paper towel rolls, toilet rolls (not perfumed, stained, wet or that have too much glue) readers digest magazine rolled up and put between cage bars. Cardboard egg cartons with treats inside. One thing I recently started doing is using the cardboard drink trays from fast food restaurants. Popsicles sticks for crafts are good too. Make toys like sticking the sticks through paper rolls. Most bird toys store sell blocks etc for making your own toys or refreshing the old toys where the blocks etc are chewed off. Baby toys you get from friends or thrift stores, like keyrings, plastic chains, activity centers etc are popular. of course you need to use common sense and also see what your bird likes and what your bird vet says. Our bird had a decade of junk food before coming to us and his liver is shot so no nuts for him. There are great online parrot stores like birdyboredumbusters, canadian bird toys or westcoast birds (you can tell I am in Canada :) ). Search online for ideas and games to keep your bird interested. Vary the toys so they don't get bored. My bird doesn't like acrylic toys so you have to try different things. One thing I saw at a friends for an amazon...a roll of toilet paper. Lots of parrots like kids shows 2-6 yr old range.

By aardvark (Guest Post)

http://www.birdsnways.com/birds/ideas.htm

THIS WAS JUST THE 1ST ONE I FOUND WHEN i GOOGLED "HOMEMADE PARROT TOYS" -- THERE ARE MANY MORE...