new toy ideas?

[psitticine]

Hi all, I am looking for new toy options for my 3 year old quaker. She consistently only really likes things she can chew on, especially the Planet Pleasures toys. She has two foraging toys that she has claimed as favorites, both from them! I'm so glad we've found some that she really likes, but I want to expand her horizons with some more enriching toys. I've tried giving her plastic ones like a treasure box with blocks, a hanging ball with toys inside that she can poke at, a locking treat toy for her to solve (think puzzle toy)... she used to unravel and weave her balls of twine into the cage bars, she loved playing on a play gym, she would play with that plastic ball and loved the treasure box... she doesn't do any of that stuff when I try to give those to her anymore. She even became randomly scared of the play gym so we have it tucked away.

Has anyone experienced this thing where the bird gets less interested in toys as they mature? She screams pretty frequently so I know she must be at least a little bored. She shows all the signs of a happy quaker, but I know they are super smart, and I want her to be using her noggin! Does anyone have suggestions?

 

[Corkscr.ew]

My birds love seagrass baskets filled with crinkle paper. I slide treats into the paper and they spend a while ripping the paper out. Also most birds are more enriched by easy toys. Get some soft materials like yucca, balsa, cardboard, etc. It might be more fun for her than working hard on a hardwood or plastic toy.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

You may have already tried all these toys. My female budgies love to chew and destroy. I find it important to give them chew toys or they may start chewing up my house. They love those woven toy mats and the crinkle paper and ball toys like the ones in my picture. The woven mat toy is mostly destroyed already. Paper towel rolls and cardboard egg containers are a huge hit and are free. Also popular with mine are the metal rings wrapped in colored rope (they eventually unravel the rope) and the hanging toy in the second picture with the round compressed fiber things that give them hours of chewing fun.

I've never had a safety issue with any of these toys and I've given them to my flock of budgies for years. Some people get nervous about things that may potentially get them in tangled or snagged in but my budgies never do. Just make sure you keep your bird's nails smoothly trimmed if they have a tendency to overgrow and get snagged in things.

I also give them plastic soda bottle caps just to play with. You can drill holes in them and string them into a hanging toy.