Home made foraging toys?

[JBosley]

Hey all!
Lychee’s favourite toy seems to be his hanging set of 3 boxes. It has little holes in it with shredded paper that he can pull out. He absolutely loves it! It’s the only toy I’ve seen him use.
Does anyone have some ideas or links for home made foraging toys? I would love some DIY ideas. Lots of foraging toys I’ve seen in stores are huge... too big for my little Cocokatiel.

 

[Familyof12]

Mine love love the cardboard inside papertowels and toilet paper. I glue the toilet paper to a paper plate. Cut with my box cutter two v slits on each side and fill with seed. They have to really fight and. push to get the seeds out if they want them. The top has a small cupcake up slid into it so if they want it from the top, they have to go through 4 muffin wrappers at the time that is strung through all the way from the plate, through the cardboard roll with two v cuts. They want the seed but they have to work at it with balance and dexterity.

My last favorite one are the ones I've made with playing cards and beads. I've alternated a playing card with beads and hung it. Charlie can't resist the playing cards and have been trying very hard to rip to shreds.

I had an extra basket that is all natural I super cleaned it and pulled coco fiber string through it and hung it with lots of little shredded paper, lots of Chinese finger traps on the string hanging the basket so they are a distraction before they get into it and millet on the bottom under all the newspaper and other paper. Keeps them busy for hours too.

Anything with chewable wood, yucca, balsa, anything is what my fids are after these days. They've been A LOT HAPPIER since I brought in huge branches and put them in the room and around the house.

 

[TikiMyn]

Alright I Will try to keel this short!
First, here are a few links for you
How to make cheap and easy foraging toys at home. | From Beaks To Barks

CPTT...pandora's box

Destructible Toys
(Go to the foraging page)

Foraging for Parrots

http://www.behaviorworks.org/files/articles/Parrot Enrichment Activity Book 2.pdf
This is a book full of DIY toys, foraging ones are among them.

Teaching Your Pet Birds to Forage for Food | Beauty of Birds

The things my birds like most:
-a sunflower seed in a straw
-coffee filter with food inside
-food wrapped in several layers of newspaper

-seeds/pellets sprinkled between pebbles and in baskets, my birds like natural baskets the most so they can destroy them too.
-they love a pinecone like this with pellets/seeds sprinkled over it

It is difficult to see but basically it is only two cupcake papers with a pinecone between them, they might chew the pinecone too so that is a bonus!
-lots of small foraging cups
-things wrapped up with paper:

Like spoons for example.
-gras mats! They love those.
Well, I kept it reasonably short! Good luck!

 

[Mizzely]

check out my website www.lilmonstersbirdtoys.com for ideas for the littles! Foraging toys don't need to be complicated. Anything you can sneak a treat into works. We like vine balls, finger traps, little cups and bowls, cupcake liners... you can also wrap treats in paper for them to tear into. My favorite is taking a basket from the dollar store, sprinkling seed in the bottom, then covering with crinkle paper and foot toys. They climb in and throw stuff for up to an hour!

 

[CeciliaZ]

@TikiMyn , I love that cupcake paper/pinecone idea!

 

[JBosley]

Wow!!

Gosh everyone who uses these forums are just amazing! I love all these ideas and can’t wait to scrounge around the house to see what I already have that I can use.

 

[TikiMyn]

You can use loads of thing me you have already around the house! Start saving all bottle caps I Make foraging toys out of them by making holes in the center and stringing them on a rope with the plat side down for example. Stringing cupcake papers on a rope is also a well loved foraging toy here. If she likes to chew boxes you can fill a box with crinkle paper for example with a few treats spread among them(you might want to start out with a lot of treats to keep her motivated), and close the box. Making a few holes is a good way to show her therethere is something inside. When she cathes the concept you can slowly start to decrease the amount of holes you make to help her

 

[MeganC]

Mine love foraging from paper egg cartons filled with treats and crinkle paper.

 

[Familyof12]

Cardboard from rolls of toilet paper can be cut and made into a box for them to chew up and get the treat inside. Clean cardboard without any writing on it can be cut, then folded zig zag, mine love chewing cardboard. I think they love that pop sound as their beaks break through the board.

 

[saroj12]

Hey Liz, playing cards are not bird safe.