I have a female parakeet who is about 6 months old. She uses cuttlebone a lot to chew one. I've heard that female parakeets like to chew more so than males. I was wondering what kinds of chew toys are best for her. Thanks!
Answers:
Most birds love to chew. You can buy wooden toys at the pet shops, but they tend to be a bit expensive.
Here are some cheaper alternatives.
1. If you live in an area that has sycamore trees, their dried branches make great free chew toys or even perches!
2. Popsicle sticks are great as chew toys. You can get a large bag at a craft store for 2 or 3 dollars. Give them to the bird singly, or drill holes in the sticks and thread them onto strong cotton twine or hemp twine for a hardware store. You can even color the sticks using natural food coloring.
3.Wooden spoons make great chew toys, and can usually be bought for roughly a dollar for a bag of several spoons.
4. Wooden sewing spools make great toys too. Look for these as well wooden balls and other shapes at a local craft store.
5. The ultimate is a paper napkin! Most birds love to chew and shred these ordinary items which can be purchased for about a dollar for 200-300 !!
Its not difficult to find cheap chew toys!!
Good luck!
most of the ones that they sell in petsmart or petco are sutible... just look at the label and make sure its for small birds
Tissue/kitchen towel threaded through the bars is a fun toy. So is soft string to fray. Make sure its not the s kind that stretches and goes everywhere because they easily get caught in it.
Toilet roll inside cardboard bits are good.
Improvise!
Good luck!
This is what http://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/learni... says:
"Budgies love to chew, especially females. Toys must be free of toxic metals, hooks, sharp objects or small, easily consumed components. (One good chew toy is a small diameter, fresh-cut branches from nontoxic, pesticide-free trees- it is suggested for budgies. Check with your veterinarian for recommendations on locally available safe trees.)"
So pretty much any toy sold at a pet store that is made for small birds are good, as long as they are free of toxic metals, hooks, sharp objects or small, easily consumed components . Just because they're females and like chewing more than males doesn't mean she needs special "female budgie chew toys"
Popsicle sticks also going to a place you know does Not Spray the trees and getting twigs from SAFE woods is easy and fun. i use perches gathered at a organic farm near my home and some woods. I know they have never been sprayed. i use the woods listed on the safe wood list. My favorites are dogwood, apple, mulberry. They love small mulberry teigs they can shred them
They can use as perches as this helps thier feet stay strong as well as legs and nails to trim naturally if you offer many widths of branch for them to perch on.
They also tear the bark off them which they enjoy i make sure To gather some really thin ones too for weaving in the bars for them.
Be Sure to NOT add anything with a soft string or threads this can cause issues like getting it tightened around beaks tongues and feet and hurt or kill the bird.
Some safe toys can be made at home for a list check here they also have a safe woods list
http://www.birdsnways.com/birds/artgen.h...
mid way down it speaks about toys here are just a few links for specific articles
http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww70e.h...
http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww63eii...
http://www.acadianabirdclub.com/playtime...
there are other good articles and info here as well
just checking the many links on the front page
http://www.birdsnways.com/
Also this forum is wonderful
http://www.tailfeathersnetwork.com/...
as is this site for info
http://www3.sympatico.ca/davehansen/budg...
Also check the other areas of those articles they are full of great info.
Safe woods list can be found here
http://www.birdsnways.com/articles/plnts...
http://www.mdvaden.com/bird_page.shtml...
Well first off make sure the toys you buy at the petstore are soft woods, and are not too large so they don't intimidate her. I'd buy at least one wood toy for her to chew, I know parakeets don't look like big chewers but obviously as you know they can chew when they want to.
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_d...
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_d...
Things like that are great, jsut make sure it is soft wood, since that will make it easier for your budgie to chew i up. Cheaper ways to entertain your bird is toilet paper rolls(the cardboard tube part) Is great. My conure loves to try and fit through it, a bdugie actually would! And also it is great for shredding to pieces. Also take some vegetable tanned leather and ball up paper, tie the leather around it and hang it in your budgies cage. it's shreddable but also inexpensive. Although budgie toys on average cost less than 5 dollars, so things areound the house are good but really aren't that much cheaper.
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