not really using toys??

i just brought home my quaker yesterday. he is doing good and eating/dricking/pooping great. he likes to do training and play with me and my family. but...he doesnt really use all his toys. in his cage i have 2 foragers, one shreder, one plastic one with bell(a few strands of plastic chain with bell in the middle), and one with a peice of shred paper acrilic/plastic and wood all in one and finally one of those really soft wood things with the disks on a string(i beleive its balsa wood?). so he has a good variety in his cage. he also has a dish of foot toys. and some straws and leather strips weaved in the bars near his perches.

even with all of that he doesnt really use it. he rang his bell a few times. and ripped a bit of the shredder but thats about it. he likes climbing around n his perches and hangs upside down on one of them...lol but doesnt use toys.

i am thinking either :

1. he is just new and needs more time

2. he doesnt know how to play really and i have to teach him

what do you think? i hope its the 1st one. lol. it would be easy. but if i have to teach him i will....lol. its more like being a slave to the parrot than you having it as a pet...lol

mrgoogls said:

its more like being a slave to the parrot than you having it as a pet...lol

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Ask any parrot-- that's the way it's supposed to be!

It's not unusual for a parrot to be cautious during his first days in a new home, so it's most likely a case of #1. Your QP has to get used to all the new things in his life. In the beginning, a new parrot is typically quieter and less active, and may not eat or drink as much. Once he starts feeling safe and comfortable, all that changes. Of course, you may still need to demonstrate how to use some of those new toys for your Quaker.

I say give him time! Oliver took a while to play with his toys, maybe a month-ish? But he was a rehome and REALLY freaked. Bella and Zora took about a week-ish to try and destroy everything in their cage. Have you tried cardboard, paper, and no-ink/the bottom half of egg carton with no ink? That's one of the only things Oliver will play with.

A bird won't play with their toys unless they feel safe and comfortable. If he is comfortable enough to have a good preening session around you, then it might be another reason.

Plus, you need to remember that they might prefer one toy over another. I found with my previous Quaker, he was more interested in playing with his toys if we played together. Sometimes I had to teach him how to play with a particular toy. Life foot toys.

Also, some birds will tend to play with only one toy in their cage and ignore all the others. Then they might switch to another toy in a week or two and just focus only on that one. They also have preferences to types of wood, or perhaps they only like bells, or maybe they don't touch toys with wood but love any made from plastic, etc.

Give him time and you'll learn what he likes.

Our beloved quaker Lulu (RIP) loved the plastic cat jingle balls. She treated them like her children, LOL. She would take them into a wicker hut in the bottom of her cage and beat the dog**** out of them, screaming mightly (punishment in the woodshed?) She would roll them around the bottom of her cage clucking and talking to them and drop them out the door, but come bedtime she would laboriously haul them up to her Happy Hut at the top of her cage to tuck them in bed with her for the night. I do miss that little bird.

thanks guys. ill give him some time and kinds show him some of the toys. see how he is. ill keep you updated.

Our Quaker has never really taken to toys. She has a multitude of different toys and she just doesn't seem to play with them. We have moved them, showed her, played with them with her, nothing. She does like to shred paper so we put pieces of paper on the bottom of the cage for her to shred (she won't shred the kind that is for birds and weaves in-out the cage). She is super picky about what she plays with. If have found she LOVES to play with metal. She has a crazy fork spoon toy that we picked up at a craft fair and she likes to play with that. Recently, one of my kids put a metal clamp (can't think of the name of it) on her cage and she spent hours working that clamp--it is the kind that is used to attach toys to cages. I have gotten a couple of those and she now likes to work on those and try and get them off. Strangely, she loves remote controls for video games. We have several broken ones that she plays with and happily bites. I have spent a fortune on bird toys and she doesn't care for any!! Birds can be picky. Just keep introducing her to new stuff so she isn't afraid and you will find something that tickles her fancy. Quakers are GREAT birds!!!

Give your new baby time to adjust and also try different toys when he is settled and comfortable in his new cage and with you. When we first got our qp we only had a couple of toys set up in the cage which we had just put together. I bought a forageing toy at the pet store that we bought him from and he did not touch it for at least 6 mo now he plays with it. some new toys he likes right away but most of them he has to be sure that the toy is not out to get him and that might take a week or so. by contrast my redbellied will check out any new toy you put in the cage almost before you can get your hand back out of the cage

Not sure if it's any help, but with my budgies, for whatever strange reason, they don't like or are scared of 'colourful' toys. (Weird, I know)

Their entire cage is outfitted with 'natural' coloured toys.

I've tried encouraging play with coloured toys, but whenever I install one, they kind of look at it, then shuffle away as quickly as possible. I've even tried feeding millet through the new toys to get them to interact with them and they'll stay as far away as possible from the toy and reach over to get the millet.

They've always been like that - so my solution was to go natural. They adore freshly flowered bottlebrush and branches, as well as eucalyptus leaves. But the coloured toy thing... have no idea, so I just worked around it.

he is getting better already. he is playing with some of the "easier" toys. like the paper part of one of them, the palm leaf shredding toy and the balso wood disks. hopefully in time he will move on to the harder wood and foragers but if not oh well.

sorry to kind of bring up a dead thread. but i already started this one and didnt think i should start another. so anyways. Cooper still isnt really using his toys. all he plays with is paper and not really that much. only right after i put it in his cage because i just had it. he will play with me. like if im pretending to chew some of his yucca wood he will go after it. or is i move around his plastic chains and make some noise with the bell on one of the chains he will play. but he wont play alone( except foraging off of his food skewer and foraging out of one toy). he ocasionally grabs foot toys out of the dish but drops them after a minute. other than that he doesnt really play much. and i have had him for a while now and he is comfortable. he prenns around us and everything. whats wrong? what should i do?

Each parrot has its own personality, they are some kids who don't play with toys and others who want a new one each month. Maybe he didn't discover the fun in a toy ? Or he just doesn't finds toys amusing .

kani333,
I dont think its that. he had been with me for almost a month and a half. and in every other way possible he seems to be settled in very well. preening in from of everyone. screaming when we leave the room so i guess he is bonding.

Birdlover11,
I just dont know anymore. It just worries me beacause EVERYTHING i have heard says they need the mental stimulation. I really dont want him to start over preening or plucking. or excessive screaming. or anything like that. i am dying some wood and drilling it tonight. making the toys tomorow. ill let him watch me make them. some people said that helps them see how to do it. i dont know how much it works. but its worth a shot at this point. ill let u guys in on what happens.

Do you have other birds ? You could make cooper see them playing with they're toys and will want to play with his toy ?

No unfortunately I don't. But, he shredded a piece of balsa wood. I was cutting a sheet for his toy making tomorrow and was left with a piece about 3 in by 1 in and an eighth in thick. So I gave it to him. He seemed to loooooove it. So I hope my toys are a hit tomorrow. That will at least give him a toy until he shreds all the balsa. Which shouldn't take long lol. I just want him to play with other toys! Maybe if he uses the ones I made he will start using others? Lol I just don't know anymore.

okay. i made 2 toys. one is some egg carton peices and a few peices or colored balsa and a few of pine. another is some popsicle sticks, one piece of balsa and a few bead things. the first one has a few beak maks in the wood. so i know he at least "tried it". the other hasnt really even moved. what should i do? he doesnt even seem interested in anything????!!!!