Difficult Foraging Suggestions

[PrettyBirdy]

I have a G2, and anyone who's been around them enough knows, they are like little engineers. She is one of the smartest birds i've ever met. She figures out every damn toy/puzzle I give her in seconds. Toys that would take some birds days or even weeks to really understand.

She's only 2 years old. She's still developing mentally.

I am genuinely concerned she may take over the world :evilsign:

I've come to a dilemma: She gets bored easily, like any cockatoo, but foraging toys that really only entertain her for a day, no matter how hard I make them, or so that cost me big bucks, aren't a habit I can continue.

Does anyone have any seemingly impossible foraging toys and tasks they give their birds? Cause I guarantee she will figure it out. I want to keep her mind stimulated (for her and my poor belongings that get destroyed) but I am, unfortunately, not made of cash and need something that will last just a little longer.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[simon777]

I have a kids' music machine with a partial keyboard and other buttons with tempos etc. Simon likes his music machine because he can stand on the notes/buttons and hear sounds. Sometimes he will even play a little made up tune of his own. Extra nice is that when he has stopped playing for about a minute he gets 'reward music'; a small tune the machine plays. The one I have is Kawasaki; Simon doesn't have the weight to play any others. If she is at all musical she will love making up her own tunes and getting reward music for doing so.

 

[SherLar]

Like you, our G2 is a destructive wizard, and also 2 years old. Since he destroys toys so quickly, we also make many of our own toys, which he typically destroys in about half the time it takes me to make them.
Something that we buy instead of make, are small plastic cat balls; the vented kind with a plastic jingle bell inside of them. We can usually find a package of a dozen for a couple bucks, and each ball will last from 15-30 minutes before he manages to break it apart enough to get the jingle bell out and smash it - his ultimate goal.
I use plastic rings from another bird toy, run several zip-ties through them in as complicated pattern as I can, and give him a couple each day. The rings can be used over and over, and zip-ties are cheap if you buy in bulk. I also put wooden beads on zip-ties and attach them to his cage and play stands in hard-to-reach areas, so it takes him a few minutes to figure out the best chewing angle. He chews through the zip-tie, then destroys the wooden bead. Takes him 10-15 minutes for each zip-tie, depending on how difficult access is.
He loves to pop buttons, eat rivets and zippers from jeans, and tear apart the seams, so I take pairs of my old jeans, cut the legs off, stuff a couple pistachios in the pockets, and give them to him. He'll play with them for several hours, until the button is gone, all rivets removed, zipper shredded, and most seams unraveled. Unfortunately, I don't feel like donating a pair of jeans every day, so it's a sporadic treat.
We also scour the clearance sections in baby departments at Target or Walmart, looking for interactive toys that are cheap. He loves destroying anything with lots of moving parts, and baby toys are usually safe to give him, I believe.
I string wooden beads which we dye with food coloring onto natural fiber string or rope, tie knots between each bead, and hang them on his cage or play stand, or just give them to him when he plays on my lap. He loves to untie knots and chew the beads. Sometimes, we'll also string small squares of cardboard between the beads, so he'll have something else to destroy.
He loves taking nuts off bolts, so Sherri found some plastic nuts and bolts online for a fairly cheap price, that he's had for several months and hasn't completely destroyed yet. Not sure where she got them. Will have her post when she gets time.
He loves roaming the house, so we have to keep an eye on him, or he'll climb on the cages of the other birds and remove toys from the outside, or go inside the cages and destroy the other bird's toys. Our macaw mostly ignores him, unless he goes inside her cage, but the conures, parrolets, and love birds don't seem to appreciate his intrusion.
I've learned to not fall asleep on the sofa when he's loose in the house, or I may wake up with pockets torn open, button and rivets gone, and wearing yet another pair of ruined jeans.
Good luck!