Toy favorites for Pis

[KenDRAGON]

just curious, what are some of your Pis favorite kinds of toys? so far, Pia hasnt been interested at all in the toys i have for her, and after having a lovebird...that seems bizarre to me! play with your toys! so do any of your birds have a type of toy that they prefer that might be more enticing than what i have? (i have a wicker toy with paper shreds, a fingertrap-abc blocks toy, what i think is a balsa toy, abc blocks and plastic beads, and several random foot toys.)

 

[BayuCah'ya]

Ernie didn't know how to play with toys when I adopted him, either. I had to teach him. It isn't actually an innate behavior. It has to be learned. So if a bird was never taught how to play, they just might not know how to. Having said that, my birds certainly have their toy preferences, and Ernie is no different. His favorites are cardboard chewable toys, but not wood or woven palm leaves, oddly enough. He also loves his acrylic foraging toys, especially the Nut-in-a-can, the Carousel, and the Foraging Wheel. He isn't as big of a fan of noise-making toys, unless they are attached to foraging toys! Ha! And he looooooooves to chew up browse, like bamboo, fruit leaves and branches, fennel tops, etc. But he's not stoked on cotton preening type of stuff. So it's funny how selective he is.

 

[Feather]

Rowan loves toys with bells and cardboard the most. She also has this toy made from a rolled grass mat that she has been working at destroying for a long time.

 

[Miss Molotov]

Joy loves tag-board weight paper, wicker balls and wreaths-- mini and big, vine balls and shapes, balsa anything!! Shes not into bells or noise makers and hates acrylic-- in her previous home she was only allowed a few acrylic toys and I think they gives her bad memories.

 

[SallyQZ]

Hardy likes toys that he can shred, soft wood pieces, and toys with leather on them. Due to his handicap, he can't grab a toy in his foot and play with it, so I look for toys that can hang on the side of the cage next to his flagstone ledge. This is one of his favorite toys:

Blu's Fun Time Toy

He can play with it from the bottom while sitting on his ledge, but he REALLY likes to hang on to the side of the cage and growl & hack at it from above.

 

[KenDRAGON]

Ernie didn't know how to play with toys when I adopted him, either. I had to teach him. It isn't actually an innate behavior. It has to be learned. So if a bird was never taught how to play, they just might not know how to. Having said that, my birds certainly have their toy preferences, and Ernie is no different. His favorites are cardboard chewable toys, but not wood or woven palm leaves, oddly enough. He also loves his acrylic foraging toys, especially the Nut-in-a-can, the Carousel, and the Foraging Wheel. He isn't as big of a fan of noise-making toys, unless they are attached to foraging toys! Ha! And he looooooooves to chew up browse, like bamboo, fruit leaves and branches, fennel tops, etc. But he's not stoked on cotton preening type of stuff. So it's funny how selective he is.

how did you go about teaching him how to play? i almost feel like that might be the case with Pia, since she literally has not even looked at any of her toys and theres so many choices. closest thing i've seen her do to "playing" was fiddling with some strings on her rope perch.

 

[zoo mom]

My Andre loves to chew small pieces of pine strung on leather, and shred books or newspaper. He doesn't play much with foot toys. However he has 1 toy that has pieces of curled stainless steel and when he gets mad or extremely excited be beats the h**l out of it while screaming. The only time he touches this toy is when he is upset or overly excited.

 

[KenDRAGON]

just purchased a really neat foraging toy with clear cups. i figured she's super treat-motivated, so if she sees something she likes...like oh say, AN ALMOND?!!?!....she'll have to play with the toy to get it. hopefully we'll be successful!

 

[parrotluv]

I raise pionus and I find they love pine wood, leather strips, and especially pine cones (washed well of coarse).

 

[Tigra]

Codie loves anything she can shred!! She also loves Yoghurt Pots and anything that has a bell on it

 

[Leza]

Odin loves small cuts of pine wood, rope(she destroys her boings!) paper, paper cups, and balsa. she really enjoys metal too so I have to be sure I am giving her safe metals to gnaw on.

Loki will destroy just about anything. He is quite the buzzsaw! He definitely likes even the toughest wood. He likes to shred paper too.

I don't want to put Wyatt's beak at risk of breaking anymore so I make sure he has soft wood(balsa), paper, soft beads, string, polly rope, and finger traps to chew on.

 

[BayuCah'ya]

how did you go about teaching him how to play? i almost feel like that might be the case with Pia, since she literally has not even looked at any of her toys and theres so many choices. closest thing i've seen her do to "playing" was fiddling with some strings on her rope perch.

I generally play it by ear from bird to bird, but for non-foraging toys, since birds learn by observation, I will play with the toys in front of them and then play with them. I'll also play with one of my other birds in front of them so they can see another bird playing with toys. For foraging, I start out super easy and make things increasingly more challenging. I wrote a blog post about teaching birds how to forage on the blog in my signature, and Dr. Scott Echols made a DVD called Captive Foraging that discusses it as well.

 

[Cinnyluver]

Juni LOVES noise toys more than anything else. Tico likes foot toys, my tiels like shredding toys, and Curi likes toys that he can snuggle with.

 

[KenDRAGON]

today i tried covering Pias food dish with some foot toys i had for her, figuring if anything she;d just throw them on the bottom of the cage or eat around them, but instead she picked each one up and played with it! tasting them and holding them in her foot!! i cant wait until i get a new camera so i can post some pictures of our progress together!

 

[Leza]

go pia!!!

 

[Meatball]

Pine cones are a HUGE favorite of Angel's. Also she likes anything she can shred like finger traps and wicker stuff. She doesn't do a ton of playing but when she does that is the stuff she goes for.

 

[topazldy]

I have some really cool hand made toys that have interested VERY picky birds and bird that ignore toys..please check them out when you can!! Thanks

www.etsy.com/shop/crackedeggbirdtoys

 

[KenDRAGON]

Linda, i have a toy almost identical to the "chinese fingers" and i think i caught her chewing on it a little the other day, but havent seen her go for it again since. That "parrot party" looks AWESOME and i might grab it after i get paid, hopefully it wont give her a heart attack lol
i have a little wicker ball that she was originally scared of but i think i'll try is again