Ideas for cheap DIY toys

[Aves]

Parrot toys can be expensive, but I have ideas for cheap DIY toys.
Supplies:
•Baking Twine(Find this on Amazon)
•Coin Wrappers(Find these at the Dollar Store)
•Popsicle Sticks
•Plastic Beads
•Cardboard Squares
•Paper(Copy or Construction)
•Plastic Measuring Spoons(Find this at the Dollar Store)

String these items on the twine and be creative!

 

[Skye]

Those are great materials! Some others that like to use are cupcake liners, natural raffia, paper straws, shower rings, rope dog toys, baby toys, wooden rodent chew sticks, brown paper lunch bags, and even that brown packaging paper that you can sometimes find in your packages. Here are some examples of toys that I made:


Used: paper straws, plastic beads, thin rope. All materials are from the dollar store.


Used: originally, just shower rings. The foot toy and clips somehow came later... The shower rings were found at the dollar store.


I really like how these turned out; credit actually goes to Feather Beautiful on Youtube. Here is her video. Instead of a wire, though, I used zip ties.
Used: Cupcake liners, baby bath toys, plastic beads, zip ties. Cupcake liners are from Walmart, everything else was from the dollar store.


Here is a dog toy that I hung up on my stand. I also have one in my budgies' cage. I got them at, you guessed it, the dollar store!


Here are some plastic baby links and a cute froggy put together to make a climbing toy. I got the frog and 24 colorful links from the thrift store. Once I came home, I washed everything really well with warm water and dish soap.


Used: old round swing, that brown packaging paper, a random twine-like ribbon, regular twine, and raffia. Tbh, it kind of looks like a wreath. I only remember that the raffia and twine was from the dollar store.


Finally, we got the play corner of my budgies cage. The homemade toys are the paper towel/toilet roll "garland," the ladder, and the brown paper toys on either sides of the ladder.

For the toilet paper tube garland, I simply used toilet paper tubes and twine. The twine was from the dollar store.

For the brown paper toy, I used zip ties, plastic beads, colorful rodent chew sticks with holes already drilled in the middle, and either paper lunch bag pieces or that brown packaging paper. The colorful chew sticks were from Petsmart (in the rodent section!), the paper lunch bags were from Walmart. Everything else: dollar store

For the ladder, I used short pieces of natural wood branches that I collected and a fabric belt that we somehow had without the dress... I tied the branches together using this method.

 

[Skye]

Woah, that was a long post. I could finally share my creations!

 

[Shezbug]

We just need to remember to use only safe items for our birds toys but there are so many cool things in our homes that are usually cheap that can be used to make bird toys. Cupcake liners and new un used ice cream sticks are an example of safe things that are so easy to find and already in many peoples homes- un bleached coffee filters, paper plates, new corks are a few others not already mentioned. If in doubt about its safety then do not use it. I personally avoid a lot of things made in certain places where the rules are often bent to make mass production cheaper again as I will not chance the safety of my birds for the sake of saving a few dollars- if I can not find out all the materials used in the process of making the item then I will not use it.


I have never personally been comfortable even buying the dog rope toys except for the dog every now and then...... the bird rope perch I purchased (that Burt killed rather than use) had no smell at all but all the dog toys I have found smell strongly like they are dipped in some nasty chemical. Maybe it is just the dye used for the material in the dog toys but the fact they smell so strong and the perch designed for birds did not makes me not trust them for use with my birds.

I would also be very hesitant using thin string like the bakers twine- I think rope (paper or sea grass) is a much better option. The thinner string is the easier it is to knot and tangle which is why you should never see a bird toy from a good toy maker made with twine or string- we do not want our birds caught up in the easy to tangle string. Paper rope and sea grass rope is something you have to deliberately tangle and pull tight to knot up so it is much safer to use for toys.

Do you know what the colourful rodent chew sticks actually are @Skye? You might just want to double check they are bird safe, I can not even find them in your pics so either I am a dill or they are well hidden I really love that most of your cage is in natural colours, I do that every now and then for my birds..... give them a "back to nature theme" for a while- it is usually when I am either too lazy to dye what I have here or too scabby to buy more colourful bits to add to the natural things I have.

Other things that can be used is free stuff from nature like certain nuts, flowers and pods from trees as well as the sticks and leaves- always double check the plant/tree is safe and that no pesticides have been used on them and that they are not in a busy traffic area. I have picked and dried flowers for Burt in the past and picked him many nut filled sticks from bottlebrush trees and gum trees.
Appropriate sized stones can be fin for the birds to play with too, they work well for a foraging dish.

 

[AussieBird]

Other things that can be used is free stuff from nature like certain nuts, flowers and pods from trees as well as the sticks and leaves- always double check the plant/tree is safe and that no pesticides have been used on them and that they are not in a busy traffic area. I have picked and dried flowers for Burt in the past and picked him many nut filled sticks from bottlebrush trees and gum trees

@Shezbug do you clean your leaves and flowers and if so how? So many bottlebrush flowers at my place atm.

 

[Skye]

Thank you Shez for the thorough reply!

but all the dog toys I have found smell strongly like they are dipped in some nasty chemical

Hmm... all the dog toys I bought never had any smell. I would definitely be weary if they did smell though.

I would also be very hesitant using thin string like the bakers twine- I think rope (paper or sea grass) is a much better option. The thinner string is the easier it is to knot and tangle which is why you should never see a bird toy from a good toy maker made with twine or string- we do not want our birds caught up in the easy to tangle string. Paper rope and sea grass rope is something you have to deliberately tangle and pull tight to knot up so it is much safer to use for toys.

I did not consider that much because, not only do I rarely use bakers twine, but I also never allowed my birds to get to the twine part (since I usually used it to hold everything together) and tbh they get bored of the toy a lot faster than they get to the twine. However, that is definitely something worth noting for the future!

Do you know what the colourful rodent chew sticks actually are @Skye? You might just want to double check they are bird safe, I can not even find them in your pics so either I am a dill or they are well hidden

I just decided to double check and I actually could not find what wood they are made from! That's quite weird. The wood bits are wrapped with the brown paper, kind of like lollipops, which is why could could barely see them.

I really love that most of your cage is in natural colours, I do that every now and then for my birds..... give them a "back to nature theme" for a while- it is usually when I am either too lazy to dye what I have here or too scabby to buy more colourful bits to add to the natural things I have.

Thank you!

 

[Shezbug]

@Shezbug do you clean your leaves and flowers and if so how? So many bottlebrush flowers at my place atm.

I give them a real quick splash over to remove any loose bugs or dust debris with the garden hose then I spray them with F10 and leave the F10 to dry before I use them.

I have actually been told by a few sources I trust that I really do not need to bother with the baking or the bleaching that a lot of our members like to do to prepare branches and such so I do the F10 spraying just to cover any paranoia I may have. I only use healthy clean looking branches- if they look iffy - poopy from wild birds, grotty, spotty or not healthy then I will not use them.

Leaves and flowers I clean same as veg I pick from the garden...... wash in fresh water and use

 

[AussieBird]

I give them a real quick splash over to remove any loose bugs or dust debris with the garden hose then I spray them with F10 and leave the F10 to dry before I use them.

I have actually been told by a few sources I trust that I really do not need to bother with the baking or the bleaching that a lot of our members like to do to prepare branches and such so I do the F10 spraying just to cover any paranoia I may have. I only use healthy clean looking branches- if they look iffy - poopy from wild birds, grotty, spotty or not healthy then I will not use them.

Leaves and flowers I clean same as veg I pick from the garden...... wash in fresh water and use

Thanks! The budgies can expect leaves and flowers really soon.
With branches for perches I just soak in vinegar water and sundry, too nervous to use bleach on them and if I put branches in the oven my family would think I'm really weird.

 

[Shezbug]

Thanks! The budgies can expect leaves and flowers really soon.
With branches for perches I just soak in vinegar water and sundry, too nervous to use bleach on them and if I put branches in the oven my family would think I'm really weird.

Yeah I used to use the vinegar too until I realised how much cheaper it worked out for me using F10 now that we have a 5lt bottle of it so I no longer go through a heap of vinegar each week. I do not miss the smell of the vinegar washes lol. If you ever do use bleach (well away from your birds so they get no fumes) just make sure you dilute it well and rinse it off even better

 

[AussieBird]

Yeah I used to use the vinegar too until I realised how much cheaper it worked out for me using F10 now that we have a 5lt bottle of it so I no longer go through a heap of vinegar each week. I do not miss the smell of the vinegar washes lol. If you ever do use bleach (well away from your birds so they get no fumes) just make sure you dilute it well and rinse it off even better

Thankfully I've only had to use vinegar twice as they don't go through perches very quickly. I've been meaning to look at getting F10.