How Can I make my cockatiel who can’t fly playful / exercise

[CustardTheTiel]

In Febuary of this year I adopted a rescused cockatiel named custard, I was told he is 8 years old but I’m not sure. He is missing half of his left wing and two toes on his left foot (the man I adopted him from said it could be a birth defect or other birds could have taken them off)

I have an open space connected to his cadge that he has acces too at all times and plenty of toys for him to play with, but he doesn’t. He’s a happy bird and I give him lots of love and attention, but he’s never been very interested in the toys. It concerns me because he doesn’t seem to be getting the exercise he needs to be healthy and I worry he will get health issues if he keeps gaining weight.
I have him on a diet of cockatiel seed mix, veggies, fruits and nuts and occasionally I’ll give him Millet.

Dose anyone have any tips about how I can get him to be more playful or ways to exercise him? Any help would be much appreciated

 

[SquawksNibbles]

Thank you for rescuing Custard and giving him the love and care he needs.

What type of toys have you tried so far? A lot of birds love foraging toys - they’ll do anything for food and foraging toys keep them busy. My two Budgies are not big on toys, either, but they do love their foragers. My birds are picky when it comes to toys, but my two also like some shredding toys, as long as they’re not made of wood. My two love to pick at seagrass mats, trying to undo the knots in it, I expect. You can try to put all kinds of foraging and shredding toys in the cage so that he has to climb all around in search of them.

Hopefully someone else will come along and give you a better answer.

 

[CustardTheTiel]

Right now I have a few ball toys with bells, and one that I can put small treats in, a skateboard, a woven platform that he sometimes picks at and rope that hangs from his cage that he can chew on.

 

[Garet]

Hmn... There are some things I can think of;

1. Ladders and plenty of places to climb to and lots of perches, including platforms. Hide treats randomly about his cage and keep him looking.
2. Set up some sort of jungle gym/perch for him. I have some birds that can't fly, and I lay a giant branch up at an angle to let them get about and explore the floor without being trapped there. If you have branching... branches, you can even set up treats on the far branches
3. Flappies! Take him on your arm and slowwwwly lower your arm to make him flap. Gotta train those cardiovascular muscles to keep him nice and healthy.
4. Maybe try and harness train him to take him out and about on walks.

 

[CustardTheTiel]

Thank you, they where really good suggestions.

 

[Tiel Feathers]

I would try more shreddable toys like balsa, sola, palm, mahogany pods, paper, finger traps, etc. in addition, make sure he has plenty of climbing toys.

Also, you should add some pellets to his diet if you can in order to make sure he’s getting all the vitamins he needs.

 

[sunnysmom]

Not everyone agrees with letting a bird on the floor for safety reasons, but in the wild, tiels actually spend quite a bit of time on the ground. My cockatiel loved walking around and exploring. If you have a safe place for him to walk around, maybe spend time with him sitting on the floor and encouraging him to walk around and explore. Just keep an eye on him.