Homemade Bird Toys : Introduction
If you have a pet bird, the chances are it likes to play with toys.
There are an endless variety of commercial rope toys, bird swings, and bird chew toys that you can purchase at pet stores or online. They come in a ton of different colors, shapes and textures. Pet stores know that bird owners will go out of their way to make sure their bird is happy - so they stock a ton of these toys. But what if you want to make your own bird toys? Is it possible to do that on your own?
It sure is. While you may not be able to mimic the more complicated or fancier bird toys that are sold, you can certainly make some passable ones that your feathered friend will enjoy. It is true that sometimes the store-bought toys can be better because they've been tested out on different birds for safety and usability - so you know that you're probably getting something that the bird will enjoy.
However, most birds aren't THAT picky about what they play with. It is true that unlike some other types of pets like cats and dogs, they actually have a keen eye for bright and vivid colors. It's not only the shapes, movement or sound of the toy that attracts. So it might be a bit tougher because you can't just have all your homemade toys be a boring grey or brown. You'll want to figure out how to work in colorful items into the mix as well.
In any case, trying to buy something that your bird likes might be a bit of a challenge. There are just so many different choices for bird toys out there. Also, different breeds of birds react in different manner to certain bird playthings. Individual birds will also act differently to a particular toy. Remember that different birds DO have their own personalities. You can't expect one plaything or class of plaything to appeal to all birds out there.
Even if you're going to buy something, it can help to "prototype" a toy first to see what type of things they might like before you visit the pet store. Testing out a toy type using a simple model can be more cost effective than buying 10 different toys. For instance, you can make a homemade "swing" out of a cardboard toilet paper roll to see if they like that type of toy at all. Or you can make a simple rope and block type of toy to see if that tickles the bird's fancy. If it turns out well enough, then great, you don't have to buy one. If the bird doesn't like it, well, then at least you didn't spend the money on it. Throw it out, and try again with something different.
I guess it comes down to whether or not you enjoy trying to make things. Understandably, this is not everyone's cup of tea. If this is not your style, then you might want to just go ahead and buy them instead. But a lot of the fun of playing with a pet bird is seeing them interact with the toy - it can be a lot more fun to see the bird playing with something cool that you made!
Another thing to keep in mind before buying a whole lot of toys is that birds tend to chew on them. They WILL eventually destroy a large majority of their toys. Depending on how "destructive" your pet is, his toys may not last very long! That's another vote for making at least some of them on your own. It's simply cheaper in the long run.
In any case, whether you buy your bird toys or make them there are a few things to keep in mind. First, birds do like a good variety of toys so you may want to switch them out every so often. This also helps to extend the life of the toy when you rotate them out. You can change them out weekly or perhaps even monthly. Second, do not overwhelm a bird with too many toys. They do like variety, but if there's too many in there they may get confused with too many choices.
Third and most important is safety. In the case of both homemade and store-bought toys, you want to make sure that the materials are safe and non-toxic. You want to make sure there is no chance of the toy becoming entangled somehow and trapping your bird. You want to make sure there are no sharp edges - if you see sharp edges on wooden toys, you can sand or grind them down. Use caution with anything metal - some people say their birds enjoy carrying around small metal items like bottle caps but make sure that the bird isn't big enough so that it can somehow get that stuck in their mouths. Even certain plastics can be dangerous if the edges are too sharp.
Make sure the toys aren't too small so that the bird can swallow them. Keep the size of the bird in mind when designing or buying toys. Obviously, some toys will be too large for the smaller birds - and vice versa. You want to keep an eye on toys that have been "well-loved." Get rid of those items which are definitely on their way out before they become a hazard to your bird.
It's also worth it to mention that many toys involve some sort of bird food either inside or attached to the toy. This in general is fine, as long as the food in question in not harmful to the bird. Certain foods like chocolate can be extremely dangerous for birds. Most vegetables, fruits, and seeds are OK, however. You can even use the food itself as a homemade toy of sorts - try threading longer vegetables throughout the bars of the cage or near the cage door. Or for smaller birds, try stringing up air popped (no oil) popcorn or puffed oats on a smaller string and hang that from the top of the cage.
As long as safety and common sense is taken care of - you should enjoy experimenting with different types of bird toys. Hopefully you'll find a good free bird toy archetype on this site that you can build off of. Be creative and you're sure to find something fun that your bird can play with!