Top toys every conure (or any parrot really!) should have!

Amber

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Jun 1, 2011
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Feel free to add your favourite finds for your feathered little friends! I thought we could share the toys and things our parrots love so others can try them out :) it's surprisingly hard to pick out good toys some times, especially if you have a limited selection!

Alex's all time faves are...

1- Rope boings!
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I don't know about you guys, buy my jenday LOVES his boing. It's waaay too big for him (Hangs down 3/4 of the cage and takes up so much room!) but at the moment it is his all time favourite! I found the best place to buy these is at your local department store in the pet aisle, I've had no luck getting them in pet stores what so ever! Make sure your boing is cotton if your parrot tends to eat toy parts, it's more digestible then artificial fibres!



2- Cat balls!

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The best thing about these? 4 for $2 bucks at the local pet shop. Make sure to get heavy plastic ones and not the flimsy 'basket weave' type ones if you want them to last awhile and not to worry about your bird breaking them and hurting himself. Great foot toys, even if a little big for some conures!



3- Oversized rope ladders/three tiered swings
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Another winner for us is the rope/ladder type toys you can get that are just big enough the bird can't actually climb up and down them like a normal ladder. Alex LOVES these, in particular when they have bells and beads and things on the ropes for him to mess with. I like to get them big enough so Alex can comfortably perch on each rung without touching the one above so he can use it as a swing. Conventional little budgie and canary swings are too small for him, and I'm yet to find one in his size (we did have one once given to us and he LOVED it until he wrecked it)
so this is our workaround.



4- Ladders with moving parts
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Alex never liked ladders, they didn't move, or make noise, or have bells or do anything really fun. Until I found him one like the above. It has little movable beads that can be slid across the rungs, but it's more likely your conure will just chew the rungs off and use the beads as foor toys, if they are anything like mine! The lesson I learnt here was when going for ladders, ditch the plain dowel or plastic ones for ladders with bells and beads and all that fun, parrot type stuff!



5- "Danglies" or rope and wood chews.
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These come in many shapes and sizes, but usually they are made from cotton rope and bits of dyed wood and other chewables and fun bits like bells. Typically the wood is soft enough for parrots to chew. I find these preferable to shredable toys for us, as we have a local bird store that stocks many of these (Made by Birdie Toys i think, if your interested) very cheap, usually for around $5 each (Cheaper then making our own anyway) and they last longer then shreadables. These toys are made to be wrecked, and each has a different challenge to do so. Some, like the top right one will rotate making it hard to keep a grip, others have rope and chain dangle-y bits that make keeping a grip hard! Alex loves these as frustration toys, they are the first thing he will attack and chew when in a 'mood' and they provide a good challenge! Some are combined with vine balls or bamboo for some easy-to-shread parrot fun!
 
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Amber

Amber

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A lot of these 'types' of toys are combined, you get swing and ladder type "Danglies"and all that jazz. :) Two for one!



6- Vine Balls
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GREAT foot toys, and shreadable to boot. You can pick them up from your local pet store (Don't but the ones meant for decorating! You want natural, non treated, and parrot safe dyed ones!) One of Alex's favourite toys was made from these, and he pulled them off and used them as foot toys for ages. I could never find that exact same toy again, but stringing up some vine balls on some bird safe cotton rope is also another winner! Or, leave them loose for your birds to play with. They are light enough that most birds can carry them in flight and place them as they want (I find vine balls in some hilarious places, the best is when you open the curtains and a bunch fall out!)



7- Natural branches and leaves
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This one is further down the list because I am too cautious about this to give Alex many natural perches. He does have a few I had an avian orientated friend pick and sterilise, as well as some cactus perches from the store, a sand coated natural wood pedi perch, etc, but with the prevalence of PBD in native birds here, I'm worried about introducing it to our environment from naturally harvested perches. I use different sized dowels, pedi perches, cacti perches, mineral perches, 'stone' (actually shell fragments tumbled so they are not sharp) encrusted perches and so on of different diameters and textures to help compensate for this.

However, my mother who was caretaker to two rescue cockatiels would give her birds not only natural perches straight from the eucalyptus tree out back, sap and all, but the leaves and flowers and seeds in addition. Why? The tree was a natural food tree to that species, and part of their wild diet! if you have access to safe natural food sources your parrot would have in the wild, use them! Use the branches and leaves too, as the birds have a natural affinity to them. We still have a cockatiel keeping friend who raids our tree yearly for seeds for her birds!



8-Mirrors (Out of sight of cage!)
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One of the things Alex likes most in my room is the mirror. Wether or not your bird should be allowed to play with a mirror is your choice, and I certainly wouldn't recommend leaving one in the cage so your bird starts thinking it's a mate or rival or something and getting worked up over it.

But, bathroom (assuming no water access, your bird could drown if he got in a toilet or similar) and bedroom mirrors can be great fun sometimes! On occasion Alex likes to suss out the mirror. Slowly he is coming to the realisation that the things in the mirror aren't real (Something he figured out when rushing to my reflection as a chick! After that he seemed to 'get' that the things in the mirror didn't actually exist, whereas the things out the window actually do) Some birds seem to 'get' that their reflection is actually them and will use the mirror to groom themselves. Currently Alex is miffed, he knows the reflection is not real, but he hasn't quite gotten to the stage where he knows it is him. He likes to sit in front of it sometimes, moving a wing or leg and watching the mirror do the same! One day, I think he will figure it out! :D



9- Windows!
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First, please, if you have a bird, use sheer material or something like that to cover the window at ALL TIMES when out. Put up permanent drapes made of lace or something, they look nice, and you can slide them shut when birdy is out. Even if your bird is aware the window is, in fact, a window, in a panic he WILL fly for open space, and is unlikely to remember in his panic! Dangerous!

That said, if you have native parrots who like to hang outside the window, or birds you like to feed outside, or any other interesting (and non threatening, if you have eagles nesting out the window, your parrot will not want to see that!) your bird may like to watch! Alex LOVES getting on the floor and marching up and down our window (It goes from ceiling to floor) hissing at intruders he doesn't know, calling out to the people he does know (By that I mean full on conure screaming until they come over to say hello! We're working on that) and generally watching the world go by! The window is one of his favourite things ever! He will miss it when we move (We have small windows with no ledge at the new place! I'll have to put a stand in front of one for him!)



10- Teething rings (And other baby toys)
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Another favourite are baby toys! Bonus is they are cheap (If buying lesser known brands), durable and easy to find if you have next to know pet shops in your town, like I do! And they are food grade plastic, non toxic, and generally better regulated then pet toys so much less likely to contain toxic compounds. Teething rings are always loved by my boy!
 
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Amber

Amber

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... Lex, thanks a bunch! :) I think I just found a use for all those old yellow pages at my parents!
 

lexx510

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... Lex, thanks a bunch! :) I think I just found a use for all those old yellow pages at my parents!

Sure thing! Our girl loves to shred the yellow pages. I just cut the pages across into strips so that it's easier for her to tear into them. Popsicle sticks are great, too. We make a variety of toys using Popsicle sticks, but of course they don't last long, lol. Talk about cheap entertainment!
 

ScottRoberts

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Valdosta Georgia
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African Grey named Buddy and Marty
re-homed from rescues both are about 5 years old.
I just roll up all the adds from the Sunday paper bend it in half and put it between the cage bars... When I get home I have a pile of confetti!
 

Sylver

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Perth, Australia
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Sun Conure named Halo.
Some birds seem to 'get' that their reflection is actually them and will use the mirror to groom themselves. Currently Alex is miffed, he knows the reflection is not real, but he hasn't quite gotten to the stage where he knows it is him. He likes to sit in front of it sometimes, moving a wing or leg and watching the mirror do the same! One day, I think he will figure it out! :D

There's actually a way to check for this.
If you can manage to draw a mark on your feathered creature's head. Maybe the beak, with a white marker or something?
 
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Amber

Amber

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Some birds seem to 'get' that their reflection is actually them and will use the mirror to groom themselves. Currently Alex is miffed, he knows the reflection is not real, but he hasn't quite gotten to the stage where he knows it is him. He likes to sit in front of it sometimes, moving a wing or leg and watching the mirror do the same! One day, I think he will figure it out! :D

There's actually a way to check for this.
If you can manage to draw a mark on your feathered creature's head. Maybe the beak, with a white marker or something?

I'd like to, but I volunteered Alex as a lab rat for a cognitive study next year to help a friend get their phd (Living up to his name, he's named after Pepperburg's Alex, lol!) ... So I'm not actually allowed to try these tests myself (yet) as he is supposed to have no prior experience with them. :p
 

Sylver

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Perth, Australia
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Sun Conure named Halo.
I'd like to, but I volunteered Alex as a lab rat for a cognitive study next year to help a friend get their phd (Living up to his name, he's named after Pepperburg's Alex, lol!) ... So I'm not actually allowed to try these tests myself (yet) as he is supposed to have no prior experience with them. :p

Haha, awesome!
It'd be great to have a professional grade exactly how many smarts your bird has!
 
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Amber

Amber

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I'd like to, but I volunteered Alex as a lab rat for a cognitive study next year to help a friend get their phd (Living up to his name, he's named after Pepperburg's Alex, lol!) ... So I'm not actually allowed to try these tests myself (yet) as he is supposed to have no prior experience with them. :p

Haha, awesome!
It'd be great to have a professional grade exactly how many smarts your bird has!

Knowing my bird he will be sent back with a big defective sticker on him! :rolleyes: Just kidding, I love him anyway. It's extra credit for my course, helps a friend to get his phd, and I will be with Alex to handle him at all times, so no dramas. :p
 
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Amber

Amber

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That shower perch is nicer looking then the ones in the store here! I may have to look around for one now :)
 

Hochimama

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Malaysia
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{used to have} Fisher LoveBird, PeachFace Lovebird, Albino Indian RingNeck {used to have}
Thats nice .. great toy ^^
 

emilye2

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NY
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Moxie LOVES metal toys. Anything that makes a lot of noise! She adores this one as well as her teething beads I got from the dollar store. ;)
 

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