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Post by dorothydot on Jan 29, 2014 11:15:04 GMT -7
Trixie has discovered... the cardboard center of a roll of toilet paper! Yumm-mmmy! Attachments:
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Aquakittie
Weaned Todd
Joined: January 2014
Posts: 86
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Post by Aquakittie on Jan 29, 2014 12:55:06 GMT -7
hahaha!! My Gary is only meh about those...I tried making him some toys with them but the color isn't stimulating enough for him. He'll take a colored piece of card stock or business card, or mail flyer or anything colorful over the TP roll. We have plenty of the TP rolls so I'm kinda bummed he doesn't care for them too much. Strangely enough he enjoys ripping apart paper napkins to no end even though they're a boring white color. I need to start making him some homemade toys recycling the bits from the toys he's destroyed. I get him store bought toys (I think I alone, am keeping Amazon in business with all my purchases) but he's got them destroyed in no time flat. But he's a busy busy go go go guy so I gotta make him lots of things to play with.
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Post by dorothydot on Jan 29, 2014 18:01:15 GMT -7
Have you tried Gary on empty soda bottles, the plastic ones with lids screwed on?
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Post by welovedj on Jan 29, 2014 18:08:27 GMT -7
hahaha!! My Gary is only meh about those...I tried making him some toys with them but the color isn't stimulating enough for him. He'll take a colored piece of card stock or business card, or mail flyer or anything colorful over the TP roll. We have plenty of the TP rolls so I'm kinda bummed he doesn't care for them too much. Strangely enough he enjoys ripping apart paper napkins to no end even though they're a boring white color. I need to start making him some homemade toys recycling the bits from the toys he's destroyed. I get him store bought toys (I think I alone, am keeping Amazon in business with all my purchases) but he's got them destroyed in no time flat. But he's a busy busy go go go guy so I gotta make him lots of things to play with. Try hiding one of Gary's favorite treats inside the TP roll - make sure there isn't any glue on those rolls also. Amazon is OK for toys but I like these websites much better. Take a look see what you think www.drsfosterandsmith.comwww.mysafebirdstore.com
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Aquakittie
Weaned Todd
Joined: January 2014
Posts: 86
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Post by Aquakittie on Jan 30, 2014 8:37:35 GMT -7
hahaha!! My Gary is only meh about those...I tried making him some toys with them but the color isn't stimulating enough for him. He'll take a colored piece of card stock or business card, or mail flyer or anything colorful over the TP roll. We have plenty of the TP rolls so I'm kinda bummed he doesn't care for them too much. Strangely enough he enjoys ripping apart paper napkins to no end even though they're a boring white color. I need to start making him some homemade toys recycling the bits from the toys he's destroyed. I get him store bought toys (I think I alone, am keeping Amazon in business with all my purchases) but he's got them destroyed in no time flat. But he's a busy busy go go go guy so I gotta make him lots of things to play with. Try hiding one of Gary's favorite treats inside the TP roll - make sure there isn't any glue on those rolls also. Amazon is OK for toys but I like these websites much better. Take a look see what you think www.drsfosterandsmith.comwww.mysafebirdstore.comI tried the hiding treats in the tubes and tried treat bundles with coffee filters like I saw on another DIY bird toy site....he was just meh about it.....I think he was meh about the treats...so perhaps another kind of snack will do the trick. I got him some of that dried papaya or whatever it is in the bird section. Its like bird candy, I tried one. And he could care less about it. Isn't interested in the least...even when he sees me snack on it.....He seems weird about textures. I actually just bought some toy parts from this place yesterday. They seemed pretty comparable price wise. www.makeyourownbirdtoys.com/Incidentally we have a mom and pop pet supply store in the strip mall next to us and when a nearby exotic bird store closed, the pet shop decided to capitalize on it and started supplying bird gear. Thank goodness. I was either ordering or driving a ways to go to some bird shops to get Gary's food. The Pet store has only an OK selection of toys. Seems like they're expanding which is good. They have bulk food bins that you can get food by the weight which is also nice. Toys are just so expensive and he plows through them so quickly.....Gary's lifestyle is quickly becoming my "drug habit". My cat looks at me with disdain when I bring Gary another toy home. like "really?!?! This guy gets ANOTHER toy?" She can't be bothered with toys but I DO keep a stash of catnip on hand for her and just dump a little on the floor and she's good to go.
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Post by Adele on Jan 30, 2014 10:25:27 GMT -7
I spend next to nothing on toys for my birds. I do make toys for them, but also give them a lot of stuff from around the house. They get all empty cardboard boxes, old remote controls, old shoes, and just about anything else that I think they might enjoy destroying.
They didn't like the rolls from used paper towel rolls until I showed them, very slowly, that I was putting their favorite treats inside.
Parrots toys seem ridiculously expensive and I have plenty of things around my house that they can destroy. A big problem though is that now Manzi and Maui are highly trained in destroying things like shoes, remote controls, etc. So if they get their beaks on the wrong item, they quickly render it useless.
You can try going to the thrift shop to purchase items for Gary. I've done this before and it is quite inexpensive. I've bought wooden block games, brightly colored children's toys, and even wooden kitchen utensils for them to destroy.
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Post by Haz on Jan 30, 2014 11:35:23 GMT -7
My first grey was Mr. Destruction. I had to keep an eye on him at all times. He was so fast that he took a key off hubby's laptop while he was using it. He could take a pen apart faster than I could put it back together and destroyed one remote control. Pencils were reduced to toothpicks. Anything he could get his beak on was history.
Chyloe is usually so calm but does love to chew wood and paper. If we leave the room, she will voluntarily go into her cage until we get back. I buy her packages of wooden slats in two sizes and string them on a steel chain from a toy I purchased previously. She will destroy an adding machine roll in one day.
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Aquakittie
Weaned Todd
Joined: January 2014
Posts: 86
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Post by Aquakittie on Jan 30, 2014 14:33:41 GMT -7
that's a good idea...I have a goodwill in the stripmall next to me too. He's that same way with remote controls. I just ordered a replacement one for our Uverse remote cus all the pertinent buttons are gonzo. Little bugger. He loves the caps to soda bottles and what not. I'm reluctant to give him things like old remotes though cus we don't want him to start yoinking the good ones and demolitioning them too. We have to hide the remotes under couch cushions or he'll have it totally destroyed in moments.
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Post by stef on Jan 31, 2014 11:08:33 GMT -7
Goodwill might be a good place to look for baby toys. The kind people hang on cribs that make noise or play music when they're pushed have been popular here. It took a while for Hector to work the covering off of them. I use cheap disposable items like dixie cups; cupcake wrappers and straws. Also the dollar stores have things like bamboo placemats or the bamboo things that you put a paper plate on for picnics, then I pop toys on to that and hang it from the cage. I have gone slightly over the edge with toys and usually spend one night making 5 or 6 so that I can hang a new one every day. I have a big bin with parts, I reuse and recycle and re-string until the part can't be used any more.
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Post by Adele on Jan 31, 2014 13:34:39 GMT -7
Stef put some nice pictures up of toys that she makes. I totally use her ideas and even go to the dollar store for dixie cups. Last weekend, I had a couple friends help and within an hour we made a few weeks worth of toys for the birds. I hide treats in them as Stef's suggested and hang a new one in their cage pretty frequently.
Stef, I didn't think to look for bamboo items from the dollar store. That will be fun for them.
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Aquakittie
Weaned Todd
Joined: January 2014
Posts: 86
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Post by Aquakittie on Jan 31, 2014 13:51:55 GMT -7
Stef put some nice pictures up of toys that she makes. I totally use her ideas and even go to the dollar store for dixie cups. Last weekend, I had a couple friends help and within an hour we made a few weeks worth of toys for the birds. I hide treats in them as Stef's suggested and hang a new one in their cage pretty frequently. Stef, I didn't think to look for bamboo items from the dollar store. That will be fun for them. This is one of them huh? I poked around and saw this!!! super fun and I bet the cupcake papers make for great crunchy loud fun. Gary loves the Chinese finger traps too. I ordered a tool that curly-ques straws which it looks like what she has here. good inspiration!
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Aquakittie
Weaned Todd
Joined: January 2014
Posts: 86
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Post by Aquakittie on Jan 31, 2014 14:11:31 GMT -7
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Post by Adele on Jan 31, 2014 15:25:10 GMT -7
I do something similar, but much more lazy with the egg carton. I will put treats in each cup and then close it and put something on top so they can't just flip it open and instead have to chew through it. They really like that as well.
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Post by stef on Feb 2, 2014 7:28:45 GMT -7
you can also try looking at parrot toy angels they have similar stuff, toys and parts; if nothing else I get ideas of things to do based on what they have and they support parrot rescues with toys. I have donated a bunch of toys to them.
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Post by susan on Feb 2, 2014 12:35:22 GMT -7
I do something similar, but much more lazy with the egg carton. I will put treats in each cup and then close it and put something on top so they can't just flip it open and instead have to chew through it. They really like that as well. Adele are the egg cartons safe, I would worry about the salmonella from the eggs.
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