Toys for Meyers

[HeatherG]

Hi, can people tell me what kind of toys their Meyers parrots (or other poicephalus) like? They are newish birds for me.

Jasper has a big bird chew toy with 3” chunks of heavy wood on rope with sisal. He loves that. He seems to like chewing up cardboard but I am reluctant to give to rolls or tissue boxes because they’re dirty. He has big natural wood perches to chew and he has a colorful mop toy to preen. He doesn’t play with the whiffle ball I gave him. He also really likes raw vegetables and so I try to give those daily or more, or share healthy unsalted vegetarian food.

 

[foxgloveparrot]

My senegal loves foraging toys, especially basket toys stuffed with crinkle paper. She's much less likely to chew anything but loves figuring out how to get to her favorite treats. But of course this depends on the individual bird.

 

[HeatherG]

My senegal loves foraging toys, especially basket toys stuffed with crinkle paper. She's much less likely to chew anything but loves figuring out how to get to her favorite treats. But of course this depends on the individual bird.

Ok. I will see what I can do for foraging toys. I have some weird hanging boxes I inherited from a friend’s birds. And I can look for crinkly paper at dollar store. What kind of foot toys does your Senegal like? My first Quaker liked manipulative that she could carry around and arrange. Willow QP doesn’t go on cage floor so no real foot toys for him. I am afraid to give jasper QP foot toys because he could crunch them.

Do they like to play fetch? Jasper seems like that would be beneath his dignity. Maybe cleaned and baked big pine cones to tear up would be a good foot toy? I have lots of those… I will see if he still has shredders in his cage.

 

[foxgloveparrot]

Ok. I will see what I can do for foraging toys. I have some weird hanging boxes I inherited from a friend’s birds. And I can look for crinkly paper at dollar store. What kind of foot toys does your Senegal like? My first Quaker liked manipulative that she could carry around and arrange. Willow QP doesn’t go on cage floor so no real foot toys for him. I am afraid to give jasper QP foot toys because he could crunch them.

Do they like to play fetch? Jasper seems like that would be beneath his dignity. Maybe cleaned and baked big pine cones to tear up would be a good foot toy? I have lots of those… I will see if he still has shredders in his cage.

She's very smart and one of her tricks is "fetch". She won't do it just for fun though.
For foot toys...woven balls and barbell shapes. Again, please don't assume your bird will like what my bird does...it varies from bird to bird.

 

[HeatherG]

She's very smart and one of her tricks is "fetch". She won't do it just for fun though.
For foot toys...woven balls and barbell shapes. Again, please don't assume your bird will like what my bird does...it varies from bird to bird.

So do you throw the woven ball and she goes and gets it? Or something different? I had a green cheek who threw the ball for me to fetch and thought that was great fun.

 

[foxgloveparrot]

So do you throw the woven ball and she goes and gets it? Or something different? I had a green cheek who threw the ball for me to fetch and thought that was great fun.

She just tosses it around on flat surfaces, like the cage top or floor.

 

[HeatherG]

Well, I’ve started keeping an eye out for hanging toys with big chunks of wood on them. They keep Jasper busy as long as the wood lasts. He’s not much interested in the rope chews, though. Bites the wood off and abandons the toy. Maybe I can wash them and recycle to Willow Quaker?

Jasper also has a willow wreath that he’s chewing up, which is still hanging together after being sprayed in the shower. If I could just buy 3 or 5 or ten of those…. He has a big grapevine ball but seems like he hasn’t yet “discovered” it.

I have a big jar of pinecones that I cleaned and baked. I should attach sisal loops to a dozen of them so they can be hung in his cage.

Jasper likes the shredders woven palm strips tied to cage bars. I just bought some Sola balls and will try those. He needs a cage-side toy box because he doesn’t like to be on his cage floor. The extra food dish works ok for now.

I was thinking of building a bird basketball hoop and trying to teach him to put the ball through the hoop. I wonder if he would like that?

 

[Whistler]

My Meyer's, Jack, loves to chew apart wooden toys. They last maybe 2-3 days, with great fun. He also likes cardboard, so I give him a small cardboard box (with tape, labels etc removed, and opened on both ends, laid on its side so he doesn't get trapped) every few days. He meticulously peels the cardboard layers and chews it. That's been a great inexpensive way to keep him busy when I'm not available.

 

[HeatherG]

I bought a macaw chew toy so I would get more value for my money. This thing is bigger than Jasper but he’s slowly chewing it up.

I tried putting cardboard pieces and small boxes on Jasper’s cage floor but he doesn’t go down there. Maybe I could anchor it near a perch? (I hung a baked TP roll from a crazy link.)

He just used a Swan Pet Waterer for the first time ever. He saw it a week or two ago and drank out of the faucet but did not bathe. Today he drank and bathed from the rim before briefly hopping in. Jasper looks so satiny now! He hasn’t had a bath in a long time. He did get pretty excited and snappy but no bites happened.

Here is Jasper mantling over HIS water fountain. My hand isn’t allowed to splash in it.

 

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

I bought a macaw chew toy so I would get more value for my money. This thing is bigger than Jasper but he’s slowly chewing it up.

I tried putting cardboard pieces and small boxes on Jasper’s cage floor but he doesn’t go down there. Maybe I could anchor it near a perch? (I hung a baked TP roll from a crazy link.)

He just used a Swan Pet Waterer for the first time ever. He saw it a week or two ago and drank out of the faucet but did not bathe. Today he drank and bathed from the rim before briefly hopping in. Jasper looks so satiny now! He hasn’t had a bath in a long time. He did get pretty excited and snappy but no bites happened.
View attachment 47017

Here is Jasper mantling over HIS water fountain. My hand can’t splash in it.

Be careful using cardboard boxes!

I suspect one of the reasons causing my 27 year old Senegal passing was due to chewing on tissue and cardboard boxes for years. I have bought all kinds of toys for him and he has shown no interests. Despite his strong beak for his size he seemed to not able to chew on wood block except those thin pieces of soft wood. He loved his almond in shell and could easily chew a big hole to get the almond out in less than 5 minutes but almond is relatively soft compared to wood. He loved to climb onto a rope inside his cage with a little bell dangling at the bottom and kept shaking it making noises. He loved to use his beak to push the little plastic cover from peanut butter around and flipped it around on our kitchen island.

Later we realized his favorite are those wine carton from Costco which are free and could last a whole week. We have assumed the wine cartons would be cleaner than other types of cardboard that store fruits or vegetables and those from Amazon. No matter how hard we have tried to make sure they "look" clean visually there may be still have bacteria in it. While he has shown no issues in younger years but the infection can attack him when he aged. Of course, there may be other causes such as being too intimate with him by letting him pick up food from our tongue after chewing and kissing his beak all the time.

Those are only one of the things we have suspected and so regretted and blamed ourselves for doing it. We hope our experience can alert others about this possible cause of infection. We can disinfect toys by boiling water and sun dry them but not cardboard.

 

[HeatherG]

Well I took TP rolls and baked in the oven around 200 for quite a while. Then hung from a plastic link in his cage.
The boxes were a recommendation but he won’t go on the floor to play with them. So the point is moot.

 

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

Well I took TP rolls and baked in the oven around 200 for quite a while. Then hung from a plastic link in his cage.
The boxes were a recommendation but he won’t go on the floor to play with them. So the point is moot.

We have given him TP rolls but never thought about baking them (great tip!). We live in a house so the wine carton was put on his playground ie kitchen island. Inside the cage it will be difficult.

 

[HeatherG]

Jasper has been chewing up thick cardboard bagels. I put the TP roll in but he hasn’t started it yet. I need to pick up another wicker or grapevine wreath somewhere because he loves to destroy those.

He is perched on my hand right now and we have been making weird noises back and forth. The bath a couple days ago made him so nice and shiny.

I’ve only given them bits of the nuts I ordered. I should crack the shell partly open and put it in the cage or hang it up.
Actually I have some coconut shell halves that I was thinking I could wire to the side of each cage to make a toy box for jasper and for Willow.

Jasper is a bit mad at me because I squeezed his nose to see if there was any wetness (no there wasn’t). He makes clicking noises and I wanted to make sure they were made on purpose (not a runny nose). But he actually looks great and his nose is completely dry and little tiny bristles are present as they should be.

 

[HeatherG]

Jasper has decided to kiss me and try to pick my nose and now I suddenly remember they had jalapeños yesterday. Very warming.

 

[HeatherG]

Jasper had another fun bath in the Swan fountain today. He was anxious to get in, calling while Willow took HIS bath. Jasper dipped and splashed but did not actually hop into the fountain.