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As I mentioned before, Pippin loves to destroy things. She's not too picky about what she destroys, but I tend to have some preferences (not my clothes or furniture!). Pippin loves the various Odd Balls (such as the Paper Pickers and Corn Ball). With the smaller balls, she can chase them around the cage while completing her mission (demolish the ball!), whereas she likes to perch on the larger ones and chew through them more slowly. I sprinkle millet over the larger balls, giving her an opportunity to hunt, peck and find seeds nestled amongst the woven strips. Pippin also enjoys chewable perches and swings—particularly wood and sisal. I purchased one of your grapevine play gyms, and she loves having her very own tree right in her cage. She climbs on it, chews and hops from branch to branch. Pippin's always quite disappointed when I remove it for washing.
Outside of the cage, Pippin enjoys flying and climbing. We play a "dropping game" with long feathers that she has molted. We take turns dropping a feather different ways and watch how the feather floats or spins on its descent. (Yes, Pippin really cocks her head to watch!) Pippin likes to do this with Cheerios as well. Sometimes we play a soccer type game with pen caps. Pippin likes to preen my hair, and I pet her face.
I am always saddened when I see budgies being kept as hands-off aviary pets because I know how fun these little parrots can be. Pippin's energy and curiosity makes me appreciate quality toys like those at Chopper's. I know that these toys will allow Pippin to safely do what she does best—explore and destroy! (Well, she's pretty good at cuddling too.) At our last "well bird" check-up, the vet commented on Pippin's physical fitness, and it's no wonder! She's a very active little bird. Thanks for making toys that can keep up with her!
Oggy is almost 15 months old and is a pale blue (practically white) Pacific
Parrotlet
Oggy's favorite toy used to look like this (see attached). This is her second Tic-Tac-Toe from Chopper's Toys. She loves to shred them! It hangs from the top of her cage, and she climbs over to it (it's easily accessible from her rope perch which runs diagonally from one corner of her cage to the other) and climbs up it to start her destruction. First, she starts with the top ball and then moves her way down as each piece is destroyed. She shreds them like it's her job to shred them. She will even follow the pieces down to the bottom of her cage, pick them up with her foot, and chew them in to an unrecognizable pile. Now she's on her second Tic-Tac-Toe, and all of the pieces that can be shredded have been shredded. All that remains is the leather rope and the bell at the end. She still loves this toy! She stands on her rope perch, grabs the rope with her beak and moves her head around wildly so that the bell rings. She squawks and attacks and rings that bell in a frenzy.
When Taz and I met for the first time we were both desperately lonely and looking for the companionship of another cockatiel. That day I walked into Petco looking for something to remind me of my lovely Noodle who had died a few weeks earlier and there was Taz alone in a glass cage running back and forth screaming for attention; from me, from the other cockatiels, from shopping carts going by...from anything that moved. I learned later that he was isolated because the other cockatiels had pulled out his feathers and chased him relentlessly. Taz was a crestless, tailless (and toy less) mess. The only thing he had to interact with was on the other side of the glass box he was frantically pacing. I was told he wasn't hand-raised and had never been held. The sales girl was right; he wouldn't get on my finger, so I unceremoniously grabbed him and plunked him down on my hand. He looked almost as shocked as the sales girl did who had just finished telling me, "He won't sit on you." I brought him home that day because I couldn't help myself even though I had no idea how I was going to deal with a bird that needy… and that was the beginning of my real education in cockatiel play. Taz loves to play. I don't know if it's because of his of lack of play opportunity early on or in spite of it but he can amuse himself for hours - going from toy to toy and finding new ways to play with old toys. At first, I tried to buy him a variety of toys in different sizes, materials, shapes and textures because I didn't know what he would like - or if he'd like anything. Mostly, I'd watched what he did and took my cues from what he did. Every Saturday I took out most of his toys and replaced them with different ones. Not necessarily new ones, I'd just rotate out the ones he'd been playing with that week and put in some different kinds of toys. I learned a lot from Taz by watching him. He plays with the same toy in different ways. For example, a small reed ball attached to the cage is meant for shredding, immediately. However, the same reed ball left at the bottom of the cage does not get shredded, it gets carried around, or up a ladder and deposited in a cup on the side of the cage. Round reed rings are not for chewing, they are for climbing through - again and again and again...and even better if they are hung so he can go through one, than another, than another... I learned that cuttle bones are great for playing peek-a-boo around and that birdie snugglys are fun to sleep, on, around, under and in... I learned that he likes parrot-sized toys that he can climb on (and look through, and hide between all the shredded do-dads) and enjoys foot toys meant for much larger parrots. I attach them to the side of the cage and he will do the same thing larger birds do with them - basically turn them into a pile of wood chips. I haven't really found a size toy he doesn't like. The biggest toys seem to provide him with a more mental stimulation - like he was exploring something strange in the wild. The smallest toys he has are tiny little plastic parakeet foot toys and links... I keep them in a separate 'food dish' and he goes to it like it was a toy box. He pulls them out, carries them around, drops them and goes and gets another one… I'm not sure what he likes about them, only that he does. Taz taught me that sometimes its takes a long time to go to a toy. He has a cello-ball that was in there a few months before he even went over to it and just recently I put a toy in with a tiny mirror - the toys been in and out of the cage a few times and he's never shown any interest. The last few days I've seen him going over giving the mirror a scolding and walking away... than he'll do it again later. He's not big on mirrors, maybe because he was picked on so much by other cockatiels...and maybe it's that this mirror is just about an inch round...so it's not so scary. Who knows? Maybe Taz is working out some of his fear issues with other birds by giving the little mirror, what for.... I've learned not to assume anything. The only thing Taz really dislikes is paper and I would have thought he would have hated a paper toy, yet one of his favorite toys is mostly paper - its choppers, flower power. He loved his orange one so much he slept against it and he gave himself an orange head from leaning against it. I got it on a whim and never thought he would enjoy it but he did. Taz taught me not to make assumptions about what he will like. I didn't know if I could handle such a needy little bird, I didn't know if I
would know what to do for him, with him ... but Taz really showed me what he
needed - and still does. He's much more relaxed and rarely runs along the bottom
of the cage trying to get someone's attention. He seems to take out his
frustrations on his toys but more often than not, he's just enjoying them. For
him, and probably for all caged birds, play is multi-dimensional. It provides a
way to exercise, to work out frustrations, to keep his beak and nails in
condition, to teach him how to self-soothe and its fun. I can see how much less
frustrated and needy he has become over time.
Sam and Indi are about as different as night and day, it can be a real
challenge to keep them both happily supplied with toys when neither likes
what the other has. Nothing, that is, except paper. Sam likes small toys,
especially if they are designed for budgies. Simple designs without a lot of
glamor seem to keep him happy, and maybe a bell and some beads stuck on the
side. Indiana meanwhile loves big toys with a lot of frill, and thrilled
when he discovered my macaw-sized boing perch hung from the ceiling. It was
hysterical to watch him bounce with all his tiny might to make the boing
spring up and down, just pleased as could be. Paper is much different
though, when paper is somewhere in the area they immediately stop what
they're doing and try to rush over to stomp on it and make it crinkle. There
is a lot of extremely loud singing involved. One day I even set a small
peice of paper on Sam's back, and he just danced and sang away! They
eventually nip out a small peice, roll it in their beaks, and spit it before
the ritual begins again. Stomping, singing, and generally being loud. I
don't know if it's the noise, or the texture, but something about paper
makes them as happy as can be! So now on one side of the cage we have simple
toys, on the other we have bigger toys, and outside of the cage is where the
paper fun begins!
I have a Quaker parrot you see,
He's funny and silly and green as can be!
He loves to talk and sing and play,
Let me tell you all about him today.
He loves to beak and chew and pull,
He's really quite playful.
Toys made of fabric, leather and wood,
He'd destroy them all if he could.
Dangling plastics in colors bold,
Red, blue, green and yellow to hold.
His favorite though are buttons to pluck,
And he does this all while quacking like
a duck!
I never tire of his talking or singing,
Or even when he gets his little brass
bell ringing.
I told you he was silly as can be,
My little green Quaker, Zaxby is VERY
SPECIAL to me!
Our Sun Conure, KIKI, is 10 years old. He is the light of my life. He lives fast and he plays fast. His favorite thing in the world is a hut of some kind. It can be anything from a pre made hut or a box or even an old shirt sleeve. We have to add square thin wood wafers or anything crunchy. He will stay in the hut till he demolishes everything. He chews and throws the crumbs everywhere. He makes happy little grunting noises while he is plays. Sometimes he emerges with the stuff stuck to him, he looks so funny. He usually tilts his head, looks at us then goes back in. After a day of that he is always ready for a long soaking shower. He’ll then crawl down my shirt and ride in the V of it till he’s dry. Then it’s off to bed.
My white bellied caique JoJo loves the rainbow pines toy. He will dangle from the leather string on one foot and spin around and round, flapping his wingly crazily. Then when he is tired of that he settles down to attack the pine cones. The idea is to shred and destroy lol. The twine that ties the cones is fun to preen and unravel too. When the pine cones are all gone which takes him a week or so, he will tackle the brightly colored pine slices. They are harder to chew so I think he leaves it for last. There is a confetti of pine matchsticks on the newspaper underneath when I come home. Time for mom to order a replacement
They both love to
play with foot toys which I make for them. They will carry them around and
wrestle with them. Even if one isn't interested in playing the other will keep
pushing the toy at him until he gets into it, its hilarious to watch. Two
birds but they play as one.
Chickie, female likes to wrestle with hanging toys. If its chewable and shreddable all the better.
Rudy, my red belly is very fond of the mini glove foot toy. I tie it to the cage bars for him, and he goes right for it. He will chew for hours on the split pea stuffed fingers, working the peas out through tiny holes, and powdering them. We get this toy with every order because it doesn't last long, but it sure is fun! He also loves the pick pockets (sunflower seed stuffed). Once again the challenge is to acquire those tempting seeds through the holes of the cane lattice, and he is a diligent worker. Interestingly he doesn't destroy the cane, but manages to work the seeds out. Sometimes he will flip the toy over and preen his face on the felt backing.
Rudy and his paper twist with beads.
He loves to dangle from it and spin. Enjoys chewing the beads off
--- these are chewy tube beads. Then he works on shredding the paper
twist. When it starts looking frayed I replace it. Simple toy but
oh-so-much fun!
All play all the time! That’s my 3 year old Cardinal Lory, Izzy. If you’ve never interacted with a lory before, you’ve probably not seen anything like it, and Izzy is as crazy, playful and exuberant as they come. Her very favorite thing is a large plastic ball that contains a smaller ball with a bell inside. After throwing it in the air, yelling at it, talking to it and generally beating it up, it usually cracks into two halves – and that’s just in the first hour or so after I’ve given it to her. The 2 halves of the ball are just as much fun and she frequently will take any of her smaller, intact balls and put them inside one of the halves lying on the floor. Her way of being neat, I guess. If we attach one of the halves on her cage in some way, she will guard it, all the while shrieking at it. She loves anything she can pick up in her foot or beak, and throw, like the small footsie balls, and loves to play fetch with us. (And in case you’re wondering, we do the throwing, she does the fetching.) She runs after it and comes hopping back to us with the toy in her beak, dropping it for us to throw again. Balls of various sizes, colors and textures are all over the house as she throws and chases them from room to room. She’s also fond of anything that is easily shredded. The marshmallow fondue was a recent hit, though the marshmallows only lasted a few days before they were chewed to bits and ended up on the cage bottom. The Clover Roller was also a big hit – for the whole 10 minutes it lasted. I walked into the room to find an entire cage filled with the paper and the roll empty. Quite a funny scene. Included in the “favorite things to shred” list: grapevine strands, paper pockets, soft wood toys, puff type treats, and of course, paper towels, tissues, newspaper, magazines and mail that has been left where she can get to it. All of my lories have liked toys with beads and Izzy is no exception. The ocean dreadlocks and more recently the feather frazzle were popular, but only for as long as it took her to get every last bead off – a few hours! Anything and everything is a toy to a lory, but those are just some of the things she plays with.
We've had our Maximillian Pionus hen, Sammi, since she was 16 weeks old, but
met her when she was 9 weeks old at a local bird store. We bonded with her
early on with almost daily visits until she was weened from hand feeding and
ready to come home.
Unfortunately, a week after her arrival home and a visit to the vet, we found out that she was a very sick baby bird. Although tested negative for everything the vet could think of, she was severely anemic and had an enlarged spleen. Thanks to the Dr. Cheryl Welch, our wonderful avian vet, and 8 weeks of two different antibiotics twice daily, we now have a healthy, happy bird! And maybe a little bit spoiled too! She's the absolute love of our lives, and even though she's a quiet bird, she has a big personality. She loves to be where every one else is - part of the flock. This is so important to her that once, when my husband came home from a particularly long business trip, she ran up to the edge of her tree, leaned over to be beak to nose with him, and began squawking for nearly 2 minutes straight! It was as if she was giving him a good scolding and saying, "Where have you been!?! You'd didn't even call, and I've been worried sick!!" As far as her play habits go, and I don't know if this is the same with other birds, but first and foremost, she loves stuff she can easily destroy. Toys that require too much work are usually avoided. She seems to be most interested in stuff where she can made some "progress" with her "work". Figuring out how to take things apart is a favorite pastime. I don't know...positive reinforcement, I guess. She doesn't seem to play for the sake of play. She plays with a purpose. That said, here on some specifics on what she likes: Pinecones - she loves to methodically take off the spines one by one. They also make great balls to chuck on the floor. A favorite game is to throw stuff off her cage and watch me pick it up again...and again...and again. She loves to untie knots - especially if she is rewarded with a bead on the end that she can take off roll around in her beak. Beads = good times. She likes wood, but not hard wood. Like I mentioned before, she's motivated by progress. She likes small wooden sticks, but only if they are shoved into something where she has to wrestle them out. Once she gets them free, they are ditched on the floor. Pepper balls are a huge hit, but she doesn't really munch the peppers when she gets them out. Destroying is key here and she enjoys just chucking them on the floor. Those last about a half an hour a piece in our house. Making confetti out of adding machine paper tape means party time. Shredding stuff always ranks high on the "Fun For Sammi!" list. Owning a good broom is key here. I avoid toys with bells because she's only interested in getting the clacker off. Same theme again. She likes to take things apart. Foot toys that she can take apart are also a big hit - for instance - those caterpillar bugs used to be a huge favorite. The legs where the first things to come off - ping, ping, ping on my hard wood floors. She likes to get them down to individual little balls (three in all) and work at them one by one. Her new favorite foot toys are these little plastic race cars where she can pick off all four wheels. She likes to savor the last wheel to roll around in her beak. After the wheels are off, though, they're no more fun. I have a huge collection of wheel-less but otherwise intact plastic cars. I like to keep a variety of toys around to change out often. Chopper's toys offers lots and lots to keep her busy, and I've bought a good sized stash so I can rotate often. That said about toys, one of Sammi's other favorite past times is sitting next to me in her tree by the window, and being all sleepy and puffy. It's just the ultimate in cute and always makes me smile.
Sky came to me after 3 previous homes and has landed safely in her forever home. She came with baggage from being passed around but she's beginning to feel almost completely comfortable here.
Sky plays with toys in many different ways. She
loves to beat the heck out of anything that has a bell. I'm not always sure
if she's ringing it to get attention, or if she's mad or if she doesn't like
the toy. If it swings and has a bell, it can expect to get a beating for
whatever reason.
She likes to chew up wood toys that have wafers
or balsa wood on them. They don't last long and some never get touched.
She has a beautiful one in her cage now that has never been touched. Maybe
it's too big? Too small? Too bright? Too bland? Hard to say really.
As for foot toys - they are meant to be thrown
off the cage one after the other, so that they can all be picked up and
placed back on top of the cage by me. Once up there....off they go again.
She doesn't really hold them and chew, just whips them off as if she's
cleaning up house.
I've tried a couple of "snuggle" type toys but
they don't really get much attention from Sky. She's not much of a snuggler
but she is definitely a love!
I have to say that I think her favorite kind of
toys are the box toys, like the holiday ones you had at Thanksgiving and now
for Valentine's Day. She will take them apart bite by bite until there is
only box-dust left behind. What's inside doesn't really matter but if it's
a pinecone - Whoo hooo! Compete bliss. I always try to have one pinecone
toy available for her.
Sky is a wonderful bird to have around. She is
sly and can be quite sneaky and quiet when she wants to, but is also quite
capable of sounding the siren when something is amiss in her world
Owners of Amazons are truly blessed. Our fids provide us with an endless array of entertainment and love. There is no end to the descriptions one may find of their antics, speaking ability, and "precious love" displays. They seem to have the innate ability to size up a situation and "go with the flow". In my home, there is a darling, 2-year old yellow nape, "wild child". She enchants me with her "wheeeeee", "look me, look me", and shrieks of laughter (thankfully my husband's laugh and not mine!). Such sounds punctuate her wild play all day long, because Penelope is a "swinger". If a toy can be swung on, she will find a way to do it! Most all of her toys are hung from swivel hooks mounted in the ceiling or they hang from the centers of swings. Penny is especially fond of noise-making, swinging toys, and will do anything necessary to produce the "sound", whatever it is. One of her favorite ways to swing I call the "iron cross", so named from the male's gymnastics move on the hanging rings. With the Box Toyz, "School Bell", she'll grab onto two strands with her feet and spread them wide, grab a third strand with her beak, and shake the living daylights out of the thing. She has a large, plastic ball which is a favorite, and she will flap her wings and get it spinning wildly. She actually did a 360 one time, and shrieked in sheer joy for 15 ear-piercing minutes! Any of the toys that have parts or holes to grasp, she will get a grip, flap her wings and go. Often, she will swing from toy to toy or toy to cage like a little green monkey. If a toy should have the gall and audacity to fail to swing on her command, she rolls over on her back, gets a grip, and slams it onto the cage as "punishment", growling at it all the while, apparently in an attempt to scare it into submission!
Occasionally, Penelope decides to have
a bit of quiet time. Then she becomes "confetti bird". She loves to shred
the foam toys, soft woods, and reed balls. And oh, those poor "Noodle Pops"
didn't stand a chance! Being slightly spoiled (though I would never admit
it), such shredding usually occurs while sitting on, or in proximity to, me or
my husband. She wants us to be sure and "acknowledge" her creations!
Penelope is not too fond of hard,
non-destructible, quiet toys. She is too hyperactive to deal with "puzzle"
toys. If one wishes to keep one's sanity in our household, one will provide
noisy, swingable toys for the little "Wild Child", Penelope. And then sit
back and enjoy the antics and loving "tank you, tank you" tail wags provided.
How does my parrot, Taco a 9 year old Eclectus
hen, play? Not very lady like, I must say! With lots of exuberance, that’s
how she plays. Whether it’s a cardboard tube cut into 2 inch round pieces, or
ball of cane filled with colorful crackly cellophane paper or hot peppers, the
strategy is the same, search out and destroy. Pounce on it, grab it in the
beak, pound it on the floor, throw it across the room, cage or table, chasing
right after it only to leave a trail of cardboard bits, cane pieces, hot
pepper skins (she did have to take time to eat the goodies) and colorful
crackly cellophane remnants. The game of search and destroy works up a good
appetite, good thing some toys have editable parts, wrapped almonds or hot
peppers are favorites.
Now in the event a reed ball filled with blue
and yellow paper shreds is flung to the floor from a table top or cage top,
and the human fails to retrieve that ball, it must be caught before it
escapes. Taco will fly down to the floor after her quest, the wind from her
wings causing the ball to continue to hop, skip and jump across the floor
which then requires she waddle head down, feathers and wings held tight to her
body moving as quickly as possible to catch the ball that has run amuck, there
is no escaping this determined red bird in her mission. The mission, search
and destroy, and in every case the mission (always successful) is executed
with growls and squeals of great glee.
As the sun sets behind the Rocky Mountains
painting the blue sky in hues of bright orange, yellow and pink another day of
successfully executed missions end. Miss Taco, relaxes on the shoulder of her
favorite person for a cuddle and confirmation of a job well done before
settling down to a warm dinner and off to bed for a good nights sleep in
preparation for another day of exciting adventures, missions and new toys,
(perhaps a pink and blue cane wrapped pine cone will be In her future).
Sparky is a 7-year old, male, umbrella cockatoo that loves a workout - for
him, play is all body conditioning through the use of foot toys, which is
basically all the leftovers from his flock's toys. His environment is outfitted
with multiple bowls, baskets, boxes, tubes, you name it, stuffed with whatever
pieces I can salvage. Of course, he has all sorts of perches, swings, large
hanging toys, etc. - a jammed-pack 48wx36d cage - but his play is almost always
associated with a foot toy. His body-building regimen changes daily, but his
"weights" (foot toys) are always part of the equation. Here's some typical
workout components:
Diego is a three year old Military Macaw (HD 5/5/04). His real name is Diego Just Knows How to Have Fun. He can find almost anything and make it a toy: my stapler, mouse pad, keyboard, newspaper; you name it and Diego can have fun with it. I constantly challenge him with recycled toys on a new leather strip or paulie rope and he loves whiffle balls as well. However, his favorite all time toy was a Toyz in a box, the Noizy Toyzy Stacker. When I first hung this in his cage he ignored it, but by the next day he could be seen shaking this toy, climbing on it and hanging from it, swinging from it and just having a grand time. He would chew on those boxes and he absolutely loved the whiffle balls inside. That they had stuff inside the balls was even better. That toy nearly lasted a month and provided him with hours and hours of fun. It was also one of the very few toys that Diego has not immediately untied to hear it drop to the floor.
I am his next favorite toy. I am his wrestle partner, pacifier and best
friend. Now that he can fly decently well, he flies over to me and never want
to leave me. The other day I was sorting papers on the floor and he walked
over and worker his way under my arm and rested his head on my wrist. He
stayed there for 15 minutes. It was like I had a little puppy dog. It has
been said that to be loved by a macaw is to be loved like no other parrot can
do. I believe it.
Roy is a chewer. It doesn't matter what it is, be it cloth, wood, paper,
plastic, anything! It can be chewed! For a while it seemed that's all he
wanted to do, so I got him various kinds of things to him to demolish (cellophane-filled
items were a huge hit because not only could they be chewed, but they
were NOISY!), as well as willow wreaths, big blocks, and I stuffed small
wooden spoons inside paper boxes for him to open up and let loose with.
We got into a pretty set routine for a short bit on just supplying
things to gnaw on. However, as all parrots will, Roy reminded me that
he's a smart cookie, and chewing wasn't the only thing he wanted. He
found a string on my pajama pants one night and starting to roll it
around in his beak. I figured it was another thing to mark off on the
"chewed" list when I realized the little bugger had taken the knot apart
at the end of the string. I was a little surprised, seeing as I've never
seen him do this before, so I redid the knot.. same thing, he undid it
and started bobbing and laughing. The next day I got some string for him
and knotted it all up, and he sat for hours undoing all the knots and
snags I had in it. A few months later he'd turn the tables and roll the
string in his mouth, then shove his beak tip through the middle,
fastening the knot himself. To this day, he continues to try (and
sometimes succeeds!) at his knots. Flat strings (similar to shoe
strings) are best so he can get a flat edge to roll the string on. We
have definitely upped the amount of puzzle toys to go with the chew toys
since then
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