Boring Budgies :-(

[mego634]

My babies Odin and Diana do not ever ever ever play with their toys. At the most Odin will peck at the mirror until its facing him then sing to himself for hours on end. Mostly they sit on their perch and talk to each other or preen each other.
At the breeders today Bongo and I were watching the budgies play, and man o man were they active....It makes me said that my babies dont seem to be having fun. I know that they are very happy and healthy, could this just be normal for them?
I bought a hanging play gym for them and a spiral rope perch today and a couple more half off toys. I'm thinking to take out their boring perches all together and maybe this will entice them to play a little more.
What do you think?

Heres a pic, this is not their normal cage, this is one of the cages I use while im cleaning the other one. They arent tame so I cant get them out to take a better pic.

[Weasleylover]

No, don't take their perches out. Leave the new one it there, though. My little budgie babies will leave anything new alone for a while, and then play with it or shred it. What size it their normal cage? Can you post a picture of it? Do they get out of cage time? What kind of toys do they have?

[MaximotheMacaw]

You might want to try different toys. Some with soft woods, shreddable toys, etc.. Just keep trying a variety of different toys to see what they like.
My budgie would play with her toys at first. But now she won't stop playing!

[GlassOnion]

You really need to get the *right* type of materials for Budgie toys. The one I see in the picture, your birds will probably never play with it. Budgies like super thin or crispy shreddables. I would look for "palm" frills and "balsa" wood, or even "wicker" and "vine". Balsa is a HUGE hit here, my Spice loves it. I get mine from Canada's Largest Selection of Bird, Parrot Toys & Parts from Things for Wings or MySafeBirdStore - DISCOUNTED Bird Products - Safe & Healthy from a Bird Free Environment. Best prices on the 'net. Same day shipping. carries them as well.

[AmberMuffinz]

If they are food motivated you could try foraging toys or putting food on their existing toys. Lots of birds love millet. I would try a variety of different toys too, even though I'm sure you have. They may have just never learned how to play and since they are not tame I'm not sure how well you'd be able to teach them. I think the best bet would be to put some food on their toys so they have to mess with them to get the food. Even if they don't play with them, this gives them something to do. I wouldn't get rid of any perches, a variety of perches is important. Without perches they'd have to cling to the sides of the cage or sit on the bottom, which would be no fun. Are they flighted? I feel it is very important, especially for budgies, to leave them flighted. They are very busy little birds and they should have a large enough cage to fly around in.

[Ziggymon]

Also, many birds are intimidated by toys that are large in comparison to their body size. All of my birds, except the macaws, will only play with toys that are petite compared to them. The toy in your photo - my tiels wouldn't do anything with it. My zons wouldn't either.

Mt tiels like toys I make by cutting straws into spirals, toys I make by stringing pony beads onto seagrass twine, the small *broom* type preeners, the very tiniest of the spiny balls, etc. All very small toys, even though tiels are substantially bigger than budgies.

Also, just because your budgies don't play in the way you want doesn't make them boring.

[mego634]

No, don't take their perches out. Leave the new one it there, though. My little budgie babies will leave anything new alone for a while, and then play with it or shred it. What size it their normal cage? Can you post a picture of it? Do they get out of cage time? What kind of toys do they have?

I dont have a pic of the cage. It was Clifford's old cage. I dont know the dimensions, but its about 3.5 ft tall and 1.5 ft wide.

[mego634]

You really need to get the *right* type of materials for Budgie toys. The one I see in the picture, your birds will probably never play with it. Budgies like super thin or crispy shreddables. I would look for "palm" frills and "balsa" wood, or even "wicker" and "vine". Balsa is a HUGE hit here, my Spice loves it. I get mine from Canada's Largest Selection of Bird, Parrot Toys & Parts from Things for Wings or MySafeBirdStore - DISCOUNTED Bird Products - Safe & Healthy from a Bird Free Environment. Best prices on the 'net. Same day shipping. carries them as well.

I make lots of toys with palm and shoelaces, and paper, and fingertraps. Still no luck.

[mego634]

If they are food motivated you could try foraging toys or putting food on their existing toys. Lots of birds love millet. I would try a variety of different toys too, even though I'm sure you have. They may have just never learned how to play and since they are not tame I'm not sure how well you'd be able to teach them. I think the best bet would be to put some food on their toys so they have to mess with them to get the food. Even if they don't play with them, this gives them something to do. I wouldn't get rid of any perches, a variety of perches is important. Without perches they'd have to cling to the sides of the cage or sit on the bottom, which would be no fun. Are they flighted? I feel it is very important, especially for budgies, to leave them flighted. They are very busy little birds and they should have a large enough cage to fly around in.

They are flighted, and I have a "bird safe room" lol that I let them out to fly for 1-2 hours a day and they love it. They can fly in their cage, but the whold bedroom is so much bigger!

[mego634]

Also, many birds are intimidated by toys that are large in comparison to their body size. All of my birds, except the macaws, will only play with toys that are petite compared to them. The toy in your photo - my tiels wouldn't do anything with it. My zons wouldn't either.

Mt tiels like toys I make by cutting straws into spirals, toys I make by stringing pony beads onto seagrass twine, the small *broom* type preeners, the very tiniest of the spiny balls, etc. All very small toys, even though tiels are substantially bigger than budgies.

Also, just because your budgies don't play in the way you want doesn't make them boring.

No no no im sorry if i sent the wrong message with the title of my post. they do not bore me at all. I LOOOOOOVE them and they can play any way that they want to. They love to sing to me and sometimes we can play the repeat game. I wistle and Odin will mimick what I did. He teaches me how to talk parakeet sometimes. He will make a sound and I will try to repeat it, he will keep doing it till i get it right, then move on to the next whistle.

I love them I really do I just fear that they are bored or un happy :-(