Tab, I don't buy bird toys any more! Can't afford it at the rate the Beaks chomp 'em up all the time! Instead, I go to the Op Shops and look for plastic baby toys and kitchen things and wicker baskets. Wicker baskets are especially good value because the birds get hours of fun chewing them to smithereens!
I've also posted a link in another post (it was called 'Cheap Australian Supplier') for a place where you can get a metre of plastic or stainless steel plated chain for the same price as you've been paying for a foot! I just spent $47 there and I got six metres of chain in different colours, four metres of stainless steel curb chain (1.6mm and 2.0mm) six stainless steel carabiners (a dollar ten each) and some joining links for the plastic chain. There's also a place on ebay that sells all kinds of rope by the metre and it's as cheap as anything! I got three metres of sisal rope (1" thick) for less than eight dollars.
Another thing I do is visit Spotlight and get the empty fabric bolts from them (they're happy to give them away!). The local newspaper office has bigger 'bolts' that hold newspaper and these cut up nicely into birdy bagels. I buy end-rolls of newspaper for three dollars. I can use the paper for my cage bottoms and cut up the cardboard cylinder into bagels. If you want, you can mix up food colouring and paint the plain cardboard.
Another thing I do is watch out on ebay for wholesale deals from China. I recently bought 200 wooden spatulas for leg waxing (actually, they're plain old tongue depessors) for three dollars. I've soaked these in food colouring and now they look exactly like the ones you buy @ four for a dollar from the bird shops!
What else? I save *all* plastic bottle and jar lids that come into the house. You can drill holes in them and string them onto something (haven't found a beak-proof string yet) for chewy toys. Also, soft plastic bottles like Masterfoods Tomato Sauce or American Mustard bottles make good chewies.
At the supermarket, you can buy drinking straws, paper cups, paper plates and plastic spoons to hang for Fargo to demolish. These actually last a bit longer if you string or tie them in bundles. At the Op Shop, you can buy cheap paperbacks (Mills and Boon) which are almost as good as a phone book for shredding.
Recently, my *dear* husband dragged a wooden pallet home. It's plain, untreated pine and he has cut half of it into little rounds (like 3" cookies) and drilled holes in their middles for stringing. The other half, he sliced into strips and I poke those at random around the cage for the Beaks to chomp on. They *love* their pallet-lollies, so Kim's going to get another one soon. We're lucky enough to have a timber supplier in the next street.
What we don't have is much bushland. If we did, I'd be checking out bottlebrush and grevillea and gum trees to put whole branches (leaves, fruit an all) in for the birds to chomp. I wish I had a chainsaw, because that would make 'acquiring' bush timber a bit easier. Nevertheless, I 'acquired' some nice sheets of paperbark the other day and Dominic spent the *whole* day turning it into confetti. The Beaks didn't like it: too soft. They prefer chewing on the lintels of my doorways and I keep telling them 'Stop eatin' mah house!' but they just ignore me...
I hope some of this has been of use to you? I know the nice-looking plastic bird toys *look* great, but really, see if Fargo goes for the colour or the feel of his toys. I've found that, while the Beaks definitely prefer things which are red and yellow, they don't really care whether a toy is coloured or not: they'll eat anything, basically. So don't be spending $$$ you need to buy fancy stuff for Kyros!
hehe
So not fair! 
