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Enrichment thread

TikiMyn

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Any ideas on some tough Macaw enrichment would be appreciated. I'm on a budget and make many of my own toys, but they go through them pretty quick. Does anything hold up to them? LOL
Could you buy big pieces of wood at home depot and cut them yourself? I know Some of them love cardboard boxes and those can keep them busy for a bit, but be careful they don’t Get hormonal with them.
 

Fergus Mom

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Great thread, and great ideas here. Love the holes in the wood and the willow rings, and other suggestions. Despite a cage full of toys, here is what Fiona is doing today. There is a hole in the plastic shelf their cage sits on. I put a piece of cardboard in the hole, and she threw it right out of there (after foraging in the hole, of course). Mercy, that girl!!!
 

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TikiMyn

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Great thread, and great ideas here. Love the holes in the wood and the willow rings, and other suggestions. Despite a cage full of toys, here is what Fiona is doing today. There is a hole in the plastic shelf their cage sits on. I put a piece of cardboard in the hole, and she threw it right out of there (after foraging in the hole, of course). Mercy, that girl!!!
O silly birdie! They love to do those kind of things don’t they!:rofl:
 

MagpieDragon

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Any ideas on some tough Macaw enrichment would be appreciated. I'm on a budget and make many of my own toys, but they go through them pretty quick. Does anything hold up to them? LOL
I have a similar problem with Nedd, he finishes toys way too quickly!
 

SquawksNibbles

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Great idea for a thread, Robin! And awesome toys, everyone! I have a couple to share myself, both of which I've shared by postings threads but I'll just leave them here, too!

First up, a simple foraging toy!



It's just a small piece of cardboard with the tiny holes along the side. I stuffed it with pellets and seed. Very simple to make. And a good way to get your birds to start foraging, in my opinion.

Last, a simple preening toy I made for my Skittles, who loves to preen my hair! Unfortunately, my hair can't be there for him all of the time, so I made this:

For being such a small and simple-looking toy, it took me quite a bit of time to shove the pieces of string to the beads, lol. And I messed up a few times and had to start over. But, hey, I was determined! :) And this toy is a big hit for Skittles now... most of the time. If there isn't a piece of wet parsley hanging in his cage for him to run through his beak, you can often find him running the strings through his beak.

I will most likely be back to post pictures of toys I will be making. And once I finally finish my climbing stand for them, I will post that here, too! Geeze, I really need to get on that. I would have liked to have finished it a while ago, but I've been busy. The seagrass mats for the stand are on their way! I think my family is confused and don't understand why I'm so excited for a couple of seagrass mats, lol, but I am! :D
 

faislaq

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Any ideas on some tough Macaw enrichment would be appreciated. I'm on a budget and make many of my own toys, but they go through them pretty quick. Does anything hold up to them? LOL
When Buzzard first came to live with us, he came with about 5 empty chains from toys. I had a bunch of cardboard boxes I needed to get rid of, so I cut them into large squares, punched a hole in the center and threaded them onto a chain with a quick link at the bottom so they wouldn't slip off.
1228162338-1.jpg
I'd recommend a box cutter instead of scissors, though, because this took over an hour and my hand was killing me.

Sometimes Home Depot has pine scraps they will give you for free. (One location said they had to throw their scraps out & couldn't even let me buy them and the next location gave me half a cart full!) Then we saw them into chunks & drill a large hole so we can put them on a chain, too. I think alternating the wood with a few squares of cardboard might be more interesting to him. And I want to try cutting the wood into chippy pieces next time.
 

finchly

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Great idea for a thread, Robin! And awesome toys, everyone! I have a couple to share myself, both of which I've shared by postings threads but I'll just leave them here, too!

First up, a simple foraging toy!


It's just a small piece of cardboard with the tiny holes along the side. I stuffed it with pellets and seed. Very simple to make. And a good way to get your birds to start foraging, in my opinion.

Last, a simple preening toy I made for my Skittles, who loves to preen my hair! Unfortunately, my hair can't be there for him all of the time, so I made this:

For being such a small and simple-looking toy, it took me quite a bit of time to shove the pieces of string to the beads, lol. And I messed up a few times and had to start over. But, hey, I was determined! :) And this toy is a big hit for Skittles now... most of the time. If there isn't a piece of wet parsley hanging in his cage for him to run through his beak, you can often find him running the strings through his beak.

I will most likely be back to post pictures of toys I will be making. And once I finally finish my climbing stand for them, I will post that here, too! Geeze, I really need to get on that. I would have liked to have finished it a while ago, but I've been busy. The seagrass mats for the stand are on their way! I think my family is confused and don't understand why I'm so excited for a couple of seagrass mats, lol, but I am! :D
Kiera! I love the stuffed cardboard idea! I’ll definitely borrow that one.

Yeah nobody understands the excitement about toy parts. It’s ok! That’s why we have each other! :laugh:
 

TikiMyn

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I just thought about this, and well why not post it here:D I like to let my fids experience the outside world as much as possible even though they are not harnassed trained yet by bringing nature inside and such, including snow. We don’t get a lot of snow, so when we did I grabbed a bit and put it on a plate. They were amazed by it, Fëanor walked(aka hopped because his feet were cold) one time, mosty they just explored it.
We do get a lot of rain, pretty often we have rain that is not really ‘soft’. I take the fids outside and cover half their travel cage so they can choose to be in the rain. Often they do choose to be there, they Will even bath in the rain. They enjoy it so much, especially Fëanor, he will be so excited and afterward he quietly Chirps with his eyes half closed:heart: I think that is great enrichment for them!
 
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jmfleish

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I saw a really cool one on a different group I'm on today. Someone made foot toys with the base being plastic bottle tops so they could hide treats under them. I'll try and make some up for a good visual. The bird had to lift them off a hard surface to find the prize and they were really cute to boot!:)
 

green&grey

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I just thought about this, and well why not post it here:D I like to let my fids experience the outside world as much as possible even though they are not harnassed trained yet by bringing nature inside and such, including snow. We don’t get a lot of snow, so when we did I grabbed a bit and put it on a plate. They were amazed by it, Fëanor walked(aka hopped because his feet were cold) one time, mosty they just explored it.
We do get a lot of rain, pretty often we have rain that is not really ‘soft’. I take the fids outside and cover half their travel cage so they can choose to be in the rain. Often they do choose to be there, they Will even bath in the rain. They enjoy it so much, especially Fëanor, he will be so excited and afterward he quietly Chirps with his eyes half closed:heart: I think that is great enrichment for them!
What a neat idea! Just be careful if they like to eat it, as snow in towns and cities can be very polluted! It traps a lot of emissions in the air from cars, etc. At least that's what I heard.
 

TikiMyn

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What a neat idea! Just be careful if they like to eat it, as snow in towns and cities can be very polluted! It traps a lot of emissions in the air from cars, etc. At least that's what I heard.
That is a real concern! I live in small town though and I use snow from my backyard where no one has been yet:)
 

SquawksNibbles

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Just thought of this. Take a straw and tie it around a perch or bar on the cage. Double knot it to make an even bigger knot, if you wish. Take sunflower seeds, seed, pellets, any type of small piece of treat/food and stuff them in to the knot. For beginner foragers you can leave the treat/food poking out a bit. But as your bird(s) become more used to foraging and the toy, you can shove it deeper in the knot, forcing them to work harder to get to the treat/food. A practically free toy. :)
 

SquawksNibbles

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I’m loving this thread - I keep coming back! :)

I’m sure people have already done this, but I thought I’d share anyway.

I took the paper cupcake holder thingies and sprinkled treats and seed inside. Wrapped up the paper, and secured it with string. I poked a whole in mine, as my birds aren’t the best foragers.

3668F76E-13B4-4418-A52C-A69DF9B0CF2E.jpeg
I had to poke at it a bit with my fingers to get him interested in it. Nico wouldn’t come out of the cage to try it, so it was only Skittles I got a picture of.

(Please excuse the crappy drawings and squiggles in the background of this and other pictures. My dad took our “drawings” that my siblings and I did when we were 4 years old and made a collage out of it, then framed it. :rolleyes: )
 

TikiMyn

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I’m loving this thread - I keep coming back! :)
Hehe and I enjoy reading your posts! I will post some pictures tomorrow morning too:)

That is an awesome idea, all my birds started foraging like that. They go crazy if I take the coffeefilter out to make foraging toys. Even my cockatiel adored it the first time I gave it to him:heart:
 

TikiMyn

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Any advice on parrot pockets in the UK? And where do you source snappy beads? Are they just untreated?
What do you mean with parrot pockets? As for snappy beads, I think you can get them At local craft shops. If you are unsure wether they are treated or not, the people there should know if they are or not I think:)
 

faislaq

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The parrot pockets are just vegetable tanned leather. You could probably make your own.
 
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