In my last post, I talked about making wooden DIY parrot toys. But I only made one for Mika and got tired of drilling holes into the wood scraps. I rationalized that Stewie doesn’t really like wooden toys nearly as much (he has some untouched ones in his cage as we speak). But then I felt guilty 🙂 So I made the foraging toy below… it took me all of 20 seconds. (Step 1: get a stack of unwaxed Dixie cups. Step 2: poke hole in Dixie cups. Step 3: thread piece of leather through the hole (tie a knot on the bottom). Step 4: Put treats inside each of the cups. Step 5: Hang the toy and get out of the way)
He’s already turned it into confetti, but that’s okay… I have a huge box of those Dixie cups for just this contingency.
I buy them in bulk:
Wonderful post and a great idea. I had a bunch of those cone-shaped drinking cups from a defunct water cooler dispenser and I did the same thing. The birds loved it!
My sun loves paper towel rolls, so I unroll them, sprinkle food and treats on parts of it, re-roll it, and leave it on top of his cage for shredding/foraging fun.
Another good one is to take a dixie cup and a pack of coffee filters and a zip tie or two. Fill the cup with a few treats, layer 2 coffee filters on top like a lid, put a treat on top of those 2, layer with about 4 coffee filters on top of that and zip tie the filters to the cup right below the rim. My Amazon looooves it! It’s a bit too easy for him to tear through, but you can layer more coffee filters if needed 🙂
That Dixie cup toy gave me an idea. I will add some crinkled paper into each cup along with treats and see what happens. Off to make this toy now 🙂 Great post and photos.
This is genius, definitely will try it.
Thanks for this post. A good reminder that simple toys often do the trick, just like with kids 🙂
I will make this toy for my green-cheek conure / lovebird duo.
My green cheek loves shredding Dixie cups. Sh gets one almost every day.
Thanks again .
Does any harm come to them while foraging. Because i imagine they eat some of pieces.
No, the act of foraging is not harmful. You must, obviously, take care not to put harmful materials within reach of your bird. For example, be careful about loose strings that could wrap around your bird. But most birds are not going to eat non-edible materials. It’s important that you know your specific animal and pay close attention to the toys you give them to ensure nothing is being ingested that shouldn’t be.
I have a male Cockatoo that is insatiable. It doesn’t matter how many hours a day you give to him, he will always want more. I had to find ways of entertaining him that would last. I have a desk area in my kitchen, where I spend a lot of my time. If I put a brown paper bag sideways on the desk, my bird will go in the bag with a toy or two and spend hours playing inside a paper bag, or cardboard box. He also tires himself out shredding both. I know that this is a nesting instinct, but it really occupies him, and for that I am grateful!!
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