Since february I've probably spent 200$ on bird toys, and then made my uncrafty self crazy trying to make toys Torino would enjoy Know what? He loves the .82 cent toys with mirrors that I found at Walmart Well of course I'm happy that he's happy but my gosh what about the $25 ring of rope and wood, the $13 wood blocks for boring into, or the oodles of foot toys I've bought him? So... learn from my mistakes go to walmart, go wild and spend $5 and you might just have 5 new favorite birdie toys

LMBO you should of asked me..........ha ha ha. After 6 years of having Mr. Kiwi and lots of money later.............well lets just say the toys weren't totally a waste because Gidget LOVES toys so she gets the ones Kiwi doesn't like, which is most of them....lol. Yep Kiwi is happy to play with the latch on his cage, or tap on his water bottle, then get a drink while it is leaking....LOL

Check out the prices for the macaw toys CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY!!!

I just raid the kids toybox

Come to think of it Torino has killed 3 water bottles

well, whats funny is one of cosmo's favorite toys is a piece of kleenex, keeps her occupied for hours!

They are just like kids at xmas.... will play for hours with the box it came in, instead of the toy.

My grey's favourite toy is a phonebook!

OMG, I never thought of that!! You'll need a 2nd mortgage just for toys. I've had great luck at yard sales getting kids stuff, legos were particularly popular.

Quincy will play for hours with a plain brown paper bag or a piece of paper towel, a $40 bird toy however gets completely ignored.

ooooooohhhhhhhhhh just be careful of the older toys and the dangers of PVC...

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww18eiv.htm


And this article is about a woman who lost her Peachfaced Lovebird to possible PVC toxicity...

http://www.parrotparrot.com/birdhealth/pooh.htm

I read that article before but had forgotten it, I will be extra careful now.

Looks like tomarrow I will be pulling all baby toys from the Tiel room...this makes me sick and to thing these toys are also harming babies...

Thanks for the heads up Carrie Anne!

I didn't mean to scare anyone with the articles I posted. I just wanted people to be aware of the concerns about PVC in older toys.

Both of those articles are dated back several years...in the mid to late 90's actually. Since then, the government has made a lot of changes to the standards toy makers have to follow. Here is a more recent article:

PVC

I've never used any PVC products for my birds simply because of these risks. Even with the changes that have been made, I still won't use them.

But that isn't to say you can't use the hard-type of kids toys. The ones that aren't 'chewable'

Still going to pull them as I got most at yard sales..so who knows how old they are and I did lose two Tiels for unknown reason...so out the door they go...

Andrew's #1 favorite toy is his own feathers. I have to get a photo of him "dusting"... he picks up his big feathers and sweeps them all over his entire cage, I really have no clue what he thinks he's doing! It's cute though! When I clean his cage I just wash the feathers off and put them back in there.

#2 favorite toy is shoelaces. An added bonus is big thick plastic beads I got at Michael's strung on. I put one towards the top, knot under it, 3 in the middle, knot under them, 3 or 4 at the bottom, triple knot under them. I triple knot at the bottom so he can't get the beads off, I don't want him playing with the beads plain. The other knots are just to keep some beads at different heights. Sometimes he'll climb up onto the cage to get at the higher ones. I simply wrap the shoelace around the cage bar and knot it on.

#3 favorite toy is paper towels tied in two knots - 1 tight one in the middle, one loose one that makes the paper towel into a circle. First he'll untie the loose knot, then he'll shred the ends, then he'll untie the tight knot, then he'll shred the rest into oblivion.

The cheapest I have gottten one was $14.99 and that only lasted a day Thank goodness that un-treated 2 by 4's are fairly cheap
I was looking at a really cool toy with all kinds of things to keep them busy..but it had a $99 price tag!! Needless to say it stayed at the store.
Shelby has a GREAT time taking apart her cage..I have to replace srews and bolts on a daily basis!! I finally went to the hardware store and bought some stainless steel nuts and bolts and screwed them into a piece of pine and the silly girl will spend a few hours every day undoing each one

What about a roll of paper towels? It'd make a huuuuuge mess but that's what parrots do best anyway.

cool I sometimes find reasonably priced stuff at walmart too.
As I was cleaning my sons rom out tho I put alot of the toys he has grown out of or stuff he had when he was an infant. I keep looking at it hoping my creative mind turns on to make some fantastic bird toys out of it. Recycling in a way I guess stuff that isnt being used. One toy I found that my bird really loves is the barrel of monkeys toy. He likes pulling the plastic monkeys out of the plastic barrel and decorating with them. It so far keeps him entertained sometimes for hours.

I was browsing the little green chicken site and i can't seem to go to the page to find out if quakers are legal in my state. I live in kansas, i have heard they might be, but i dont know where to go to find out if they are. Can anyone help me?

I think it is one of the no-no states but i dont know how strict it is. Some states vary on the guidelines.

Audrey loves the little 1 cc tuberculine syringe that we had to give Beaker her meds in. She will carry that thing up to her water dish, dip it in, and take it out, looking down the hole. One would think she knew it could be somehow used to suck up water. She also likes the 1/2 oz yorker bottle that the liquid meds were in. She will carry that around. We got a picture of her with it cuz she looked like a little boozer bird. Even put a little water in it so she could take sips from it. Crazy how they like the cheap toys and not the 'spensive ones. I totally agree!

When i got Charlie I spent hundreds of AU$ on toys for him but u know what?? He loves wooden pegs and ripping his rope perch to shreds. Luckily tho i can get the rope perches for $6. We go thru about 2 a month. His next fav toy is the clip on fram for his feeder bowls. Everyday he piicks the bowl up and throws it on the floor, then proceeds to take off the frame and put it back on or take it to one of his perches and dangles it over the side off them.

I wish I had read this thread earlier. dobby loves the cat toys at Wal Mart. That's where they have the bells inside the open balls.

What are you all trying to do, put the toy makers and sales out of business...

Harley is about the same way with toys...He just doesn't care for them,,,right now he is playing with his coffee filters that I cut up and put on a sisal rope...He loves to destroy...

So yes, I guess you could say we may put the toy makers out of business...

This is the reasoning I am using trying to convince hubby that we need an adorable Green Cheek in our family! All them toys just going to waste. Need a little GCC so I won't feel like I have just wasted away so much money...LOL!

Thanks so much for this thread! I was just about to go and spend $70.00 on foraging toys off the net. I think now I may try some of these ideas first. (Although some of those toys on the net were pretty darn neat.)

Pippin's favorite toy is the newspaper in teh bottom of his cage. He'll sit on teh bottom, go to town on it, then look at me with a piece of newspaper in his beak.

Peanut used to be crazy for his Gladware--the smallest one that you put like salad dressing in. He'd talk into it, kick it around the bottom of the cage, wear it on his head, hide it in his Happy Hut, you name it. He wouldn't let anyone else touch the thing, even to give him a clean one. So I'd have to sneak him a new one when Dave took him in the shower.

Our cat's the same way. She plays with an .89 green furry mouse from one of those bins next to the register at PetSmart. Not the white or grey ones, only the green. They get all soaked and gross like dog toys generally do. So it's not only our birds that do this.

Or the 88 cent dog and cat toys can be adapted Sidney LOVES the kitty balls not the cheap latice ones but the bigger ones that are in with the doggy toys at the front of the store