Hi! I have an umbrella cockatoo - very large bird with a very strong beak. I'm looking for suggestions on where to get some good toys for her. Anytime I get something from the pet store - she destroys it in a matter of hours. I don't think the toys at the pet store were made for large parrots like cockatoos %26 amazons. I need toys that will keep her busy for longer than a few hours - cuz once the toys are destroyed, she just goes right back to escaping from her cage (and it's not an easy cage - she's a freakin' Houdini!)...as if the 3 - 4 hours we take her each day isn't enough?!?!
Any suggestions on good online stores to buy toys for my cockatoo? I'd appreciate anyone who has a cockatoo letting me know their experience with specific toys.
Thanks!
Answers:
HAHA! That's just like my G2, Kai! Try a twisted paper clip (twist like a twist-tie) around the door and food/water cup doors. It actually works! Kai loves phone books (they last a LONG time) because she can tear out pages, rip things, make a nice big mess. Also, stringing things on a chain dog collar works as a re-usable toy. I got a huge sheet of 1/4 inch thick colored natural rubber (it was tye dye or something, check ebay to get it cheap) and cut them into 1 1/2 inch squares and drilled holes in them and had a HUGE stack of them that I put on a chain. Kai's had this toy for a month and a half and it's still in pretty okay condition! Dog chew toys are also GREAT because they're meant to be destroyed. The Chime Time brand toys are good, the rubber parts get taken off immediately, but the beads and chimes are indestructible! If you want to check out my website http://www.cockatootrainer.com/toys/... it will give you some good toy ideas. I don't really bother buying toys for her much anymore. I also like to take the parts of old toys that aren't completely destroyed and make them into a new toy. This way I get my money's worth out of the freaking $30 toy that lasted a few hours. If you want some more ideas, feel free to email me through my website and I can help you think of great toys made specifically for what your bird likes to play with.
http://www.birdsrus.com.au/
yes, for a bird like the cockatoo, get them toys that they can chew up all day. Like those pinata toys at petsmart or petco. Or you can make your own toys. Just give them ropes and wood to chew off to keep their beaks trimmed. Good luck!
I have had cockatoos and macaws for many years. The best woods are always hard woods. Manzanita, Oak, Cherry. Anything in the hard wood family. My best toys are always hand made. a skill or table saw, and a good drill. String the blocks of wood together on good stainless wire. Add colr with food coloring dies. It will keep them busy for hours. Remember, it is the job of the beak to be distructive.
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You can purchase UN-TREATED wood at any lumber or home improvement store at a decent price. Then use a saw to make it into smaller pieces in all different shapes. Drill a hole down the middle of each small piece so that you can string the pieces onto a heavy gague wire that can be loaded up with the little pieces and hung directly from the top of the cage.
To add interest, you can even dye the wood different colors by using FOOD coloring (such as used for decorating cakes) into a bucket of water and allow the wood to soak up the color. The only problem you may have with this is, if the wood later gets wet (by the bird dipping it in its water bowl), the coloring may come off and get onto the feathers which obviously will be difficult to hide on a white cockatoo!
Another thing you can add is jute or pure cotton roping (cut into about 5-6 inch pieces and tied in between the pieces of wood. You can also dye the rope if you like. OR, find some cute COTTON only fabric and cut that into 4-6 inch long and about 1 inch wide pieces to tie inbetween the wood also.
You can even use the heavy gauge wire to make a wreath type shape and tie the roping or fabric in knots all the way around. Since your birds likes to UN-do things (i.e., locks on its cage, etc.), it will probably spend lots of time happily untying all the knots and destroying the toy but the good thing is, you can keep making new ones! Birds just love to destroy stuff and its stimulating for them so might as well get used to it and get creative with some homemade toys.
Other safe wood toys can be made of those clips (WITHOUT the spring) for hanging clothes on a line to dry. You can dye them too!
CAUTION!! As with any new toy though, be sure to watch at first when the bird plays with any new toy to make certain that it isn't going to hurt itself. That's why I say to use only short pieces of cotton or fabric.
As an EXAMPLE, my cockatoo once (somehow) got a thin shread of the cotton rope wrapped around its ankle where his U.S quarantine band was attached to, and also wrapped around a cage bar and I came home to find him caught (one foot only, luckily) hanging from the top of the cage and he had been pulling away so hard that he kept tightening the piece of cotton and his foot was swollen to the point where I had to have a friend help me cut the rope away with a razor blade. Luckily, it had not been tight for long enough to cause him to loose his foot but it was certainly a close call.
Believe it or not cockatoos like their attention...so maybe the 3-4 isn't enough for her. They don't clal them velcro birds for nothing! lol Get hard wood toys instead of soft wood, those will take her longer to destroy. Also buy foraging toys! A couple of those will challenge her mind and keep her busy for longer. Shredders are great too! Although my bird goes through them so quickly, i usually don't buy many of them. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/na... This link will lead you tos some serious wood toys that can stand some hard chewing for more than just a couple hours. Read reviews and see which toys last the longest, those are the ones worth your money. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/na... There is the link for foraging toys. They challenge the mind and reward it for thinking when the bird figures it out! Make sure you pick toys that will stand up to her beak. just cause they come in a large sizwe, you know your bird better than they do. if it doesn't look sturdy, it probably isn't.
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