Homemade Toys & Playstands Latest Topics

DIY Toys

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 03:58:41 +0000

Here are the toy parts I got from California bird nerds ....

Alfie's Foraging Box

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 09:16:47 +0000

I did something a little different for Alfie's Christmas present this year. I normally get him a couple of new toys to hang in his cage. This year I decided to add a new toy to his shelves that he likes to play on in the living room... mainly to try and stop him chewing on the wall!

I found an untreated wooden box and stuffed it full of crinkly paper, wood chips and foot toys. It's been a big hit and after a bit of side-eye Alfie hopped up and started exploring. He has great fun rustling through the box and finding toys to fling out of it... most of them usually land on the sofa below... or on my head if I'm sitting there. 😂

Safe soft items for toys

Thu, 06 May 2021 13:54:52 +0000

I am looking through this section and seeing toys that involve straws and other soft plastics. My husband and I have always steered clear of toys with the shreddable plastics for fear our little ladies would swallow it. Since Vannah has joined us we have continued to stay away from them. I am wondering now if this is a bit of a mistake. We give them all wood, paper, cardboard, and seagrass toys to shred. I guess the feeling has been that at least those items will somewhat digest because they are biodegradable. There is nothing guiding our thinking other than our overly cautiousness. I was also giving Vannah swatches of flannel and cotton rope (un dyed) to chew on, and she was working them over so well, she would have little strings at the corners of her mouth. She'd let me pull them away, but they also seemed to still be in her mouth, so now I am second guessing that as well.

Longish story I suppose. Quick questions... Has anyone had issues with their birds shredding, then swallowing the pieces from straws, plastic nuts/bolts, aglets on shoe laces, etc? Does anyone here use fleece, flannel, loose rope or string in their bird toys? The only way I have been able to look for potentially swallowed parts is by gaging the amount of destruction and the debris field (never having been able to determine anything). Ideas anyone?

Paranoid bird mom (aka:JennS)

Homemade Bird Toys

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:50:54 +0000

I am starting to feel creative do to all the recent threads scattered everywhere here in the forum from you guys. I bought the cupcake wrappers, the coffee filters, got the pine cones, but it was very hard to find the various threads when I wanted to follow your ideas.

Could we maybe add to this thread so it will be easy to find when we are looking for something different and cheap to entertain our birds?

I'll go first:

I bought the buckets that hang in the cage, and wrap up foot toys, things like plastic bottle caps, sea shells, pieces of wood, bunny chew toys, small pieces of straws, uncooked funny shaped pasta, peanuts, pieces of broken toys (plastic or wood) and then I throw some almonds in there and plastic paper clips. Talon LOVES to chew the plastic off the paper clips!

I get them ready the night before work, and put them in their cages when I am going to be gone most of the day. They spend hours playing and unwrapping things.

Inspiring Room

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:05:34 +0000

This is a fun room in the forum. It inspired me to make some foot toys for my Timneh Grey. Thanks everyone for the ideas!

Sandpaper to rough up wood?

Sun, 21 Aug 2016 20:36:08 +0000

Hi everyone,

I got the birds a Manzanita tree stand that isn't sandblasted and have always read and was told to use sandpaper to "rough" up the branches a bit to make them less slippery. The problem is, sandpaper smoothes. I sandpapered side-to-side and back-and-forth to see if that would make the branch rougher but it doesn't. Input? Advice?

Edited to add: I suppose it is a tad bit rougher after being sanded than with the natural red bark on

Safe varnish for a playstand

Sat, 01 Sep 2018 10:51:43 +0000

Hi,

I have a home made playstand I'm looking to use this varnish on:

https://www.lakelandpaints.co.uk/testers-special-charts/woodstainshed-and-fence-matchpots/

I've emailed them to ask if it's safe for parrots and they insist it is, saying:

Quote

hi - its entirely non toxic for birds, fish, mammals etc
and toys (EN71/3/95) compliant

ingredients

acrylic copolymer
acrylic thickener
PPW wax
water
preservative MIT
pigments - various
UV stabiliser
defoamer oil
silicone defoamer

Is this definitely safe for use on a playstand?

Thanks in advance!

New toy day

Sun, 26 Aug 2018 22:38:28 +0000

GreycieMae and Huey approve of their new homemade net. Stevie even risking life and limb to give it a try. The old net just had enough. GreycieMae chewed it to death. Hopefully this one has a long and prosperous life.

New toy, not sure about it...

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 16:41:21 +0000

Hey all this is my first post here, hope it's in the right place!

Anyways...I got a ladder/bridge for my little girl today at the pet store. After I got it home I took a closer look at it, and noticed that some parts were being held together with what looks like glue. Now I don't think I should use this. I took a picture of it.

Home Made Stand

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 14:38:25 +0000

I hope the picture has attached.

This is the playstand my partner and I made for our baby grey. It took us 4 hours, but we both really enjoyed making it and we coloured it with food colour.

He seems to really love it but mainly only plays on the perch and not so much the other layers. the bottom layer now has extra toys, but he doesnt use them yet.

Issues with vet wrap over time

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 14:03:11 +0000

Has anyone else noticed their vet wrapped chain or PVC pipe getting tacky after a few months? I wrapped a bunch of stainless steel chain in vet wrap of different colors and all of it is really tacky to the touch and actually has a residue that it leaves on my hands. I will be removing all of the chain and cleaning it off to get rid of the sticky stuff. If anyone has an idea of what I am dealing with let me know. Maybe I got the wrong type and there is a better alternative?

New PVC swing

Fri, 22 Jan 2016 02:21:50 +0000

I put this swing together 2 weeks ago and she finally figured out that it would not kill her! I can finally step her up and place her on the swing. She seems to like the height and is getting used to the movement when she lands on it.

Homemade hanging play stand with debris catcher

Fri, 09 Oct 2015 20:29:06 +0000

I've been thinking a while now how to make a play stand with an easy to clean debris catcher. This is what I came up with

We've been using it for about 4 months now and has been great. I swap the drop cloth once a week. Throw it in the wash while I use the other cloth. No more than 10 minutes a week for clean up, (time is important to me).

Problems I was trying to solve with this.

-A perch Adrienne couldn't climb off of.

-A perch that could be easily cleaned.

-A perch that could catch 90% of debris and the roomba would be able to freely clean under.

-I also didn't want Adrienne to be able to be in contact with the PVC, so I made the center stick to descend far enough down that it would discourage her from climbing down it. She has not gotten on the debris-catcher yet.

I'm posting this because I couldn't find what I was looking for and hope that it will be helpful to others.

I'm also looking for any feedback for improvement.

Thanks!

Sully and his New Toys

Mon, 05 Oct 2015 17:40:48 +0000

So I made a huge order from birdy boredom busters, ordering all kinds of parts to build Sully new toys and they came last week! This is what I've got so far! Sully was a bit apprehensive at first but didn't take him long to begin destroying my creations! lol

New play area for Zoe

Mon, 18 May 2015 13:51:33 +0000

We are less than a week away from getting our Timneh baby and can hardly wait. I had an area that used to be a closet in the main room where her cage will be so I wanted to do something functional for her. This is what I came up with. I have some storage under the black curtains and the beige surface is laminated rolled edge counter from lowes. I got a damaged one for $25 We found a cool wall mural on amazon that is applied like wall paper. I clear coated it will acrylic coating so we can wipe it down easily. I used stainless steel chain and put 1 1/2" PVC pipe on the top to keep her from climbing all the way to the top. I wanted to be able to add and take out toys easily. It makes me want to climb on and play on it already but I wanted to get some opinions on what you all think.

New playstand!

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:56:58 +0000

I built a playstand yesterday. Let me know what you all think about this. I have it mounted to a 3/4 peice of plywood with a large lag screw coming up through the middle of the trunk and another screw to keep it from spinning. The stand is right around 5 feet tall give or take a few inches. I took quite a bit of time to get it balanced just right so the tree would stand by itself without the bottom. Makes it really stable. There are 4 locking casters on the bottom so it rolls really easily and the white plastic bottom cover is a sterilite lid from a large tote. The wood is Crepe Myrtle. I saw that it was on the safe wood list so I downsized one of our trees to make this stand . I plan to hang some small toys from this in the next few days. Any suggestions on perch placement, etc are welcome. We will have our Timneh African Grey within a month so this is for her. Thanks!

Cargo Net: Help!

Sat, 07 Mar 2015 04:05:21 +0000

I'm anticipating bringing home a baby grey this summer, and so while I wait, I've been brainstorming toy and activity ideas.

I have two green cheek conures and a cockatiel who all love to climb, so I've decided that I'd love to try my hand at making a cargo net. Ideally I'd love to be able to make it the correct size so that the grey and my existing flock can all use it at various times. I plan to be very careful about letting them all interact together, but I'd like my grey to feel comfortable on it and use it safely if he would like.

...But I have a problem! What thickness of rope would be appropriate for a congo african grey? The largest size in both sisal and supreme cotton rope that I've been able to find is 1/2". Is that too small for those big grey feets? I don't feel comfortable with using poly ropes, unless someone knows of a monster-safe brand. My little guys are very sure-footed and confident enough to use larger diameter ropes with ease.

I'd planned to make it about 3x4 feet, with maybe 7" squares. So I'll be needing a lot of rope haha.

...Should I just phone it in and save up for a premade parrot cargo net?

What about PVC pipe thickness? I have a 1/2" pipe stand that I made for my little guys. Would a grey need thicker pipe to be comfortable?

western red cedar for large parrot perches.

Sun, 08 Mar 2015 01:40:48 +0000

When I was at a birdshop today I saw a bunch of large perches for the resident Macaw that were made from 4x4 cedar. They had taken a vertical post and put a galvanized deck fastener to attach another one horizontally and did that a couple of times to create a pretty nice looking perch with a couple of levels to walk on. I thought that cedar was a wood to avoid with chewing parrots. The ends of the horizontal perches were chewed up pretty good so obviously that was their purpose. Does anyone else use kiln dried red cedar timbers for perches or other parrot related items/construction? If this is acceptable wood for parrots it would make my aviary plan much simpler.

Please help with toys and creations

Wed, 18 Feb 2015 06:25:20 +0000

I just got a 10 year old African Greg yesterday. I'm really excited to make him toys. Can anyone send pictures so I can try to be creative. Ty in advance.

Tree branch question

Wed, 04 Feb 2015 12:51:46 +0000

My SO and I want to make a perch out of a natural tree branch and have found a tree near our home that has a nice big branch that is already falling off. Problem is we don't know what kind of tree it is; there is no telling since it has no leaves or anything of the sort on it. It's just a bare tree. Is there any sort of precaution we should take before we place it in the cage? I read about someone baking the branch beforehand - would that help at all?

I'm a soon to be first time Grey owner so while I have your attention I had another question. I know fruit seeds and pits are toxic to Greys, what about kiwis and other fruits or veggies that have tiny seeds in them? Are they safe? Thanks in advance!

Anxiously awaiting my new baby making toys for him.....

Fri, 30 Jan 2015 23:11:01 +0000

I decided I would start making toys for my soon to be new addition to my family. I had bought a ladder that I was unhappy with, so I borrowed some of the shreddable parts from that, and the rest I just used a basic macrame knot I learned when I was younger. Still needs a hanger but wanted to add something to this forum, as I have already learned so much from you guys. Thank you so much for that and being such a supportive, knowledgable community.

Very Fun Amazon Order!

Sun, 14 Dec 2014 19:38:33 +0000

I had an Amazon order going & just checked for anything worth adding for the fids. Perfect timing! There was a bunch of "flash fun" stuff marked down to a few dollars. And even though Amazon prices change like the staircases at Hogwarts, they were still worth checking out last I saw.

This is the kind of thing that's good for a fun couple of hours destruction & particularly good for Kura when she's at her feathers. I set a loose $5 max & got at least a few month's worth of something for pretty much everyone.

These are my 2 fav's for under $3 (at the time). I have to say, anything made from organic material was a nice surprise. Individually wrapped, clean, very nice looking.

http://www.amazon.com/EcoLoofah-Model-Parrots-Chinchillas-Natural/dp/B00H7SGHYQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1418584893&sr=1-2&keywords=EcoLoofah+Model+No.+9

http://www.amazon.com/Fetch-It-Pets-Chew-Elephant-Bird/dp/B00C65VOMA/ref=sr_1_2?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1418584960&sr=1-2&keywords=Fetch-It+Pets+Zoo+Chew

There was an "expensive" toy that I really just couldn't resist, even though it was $19 @. List was $75 (?). But I ignored that, because sometimes list has no bearing on any reality I recognize. :confused: I did read the description & thought I got the size. But whenever I hauled this beast out of the box, everyone who was hanging over my shoulder flat out ran for cover! lol

It's a couple of feet long & must weigh 3-4 lbs. I put the dog in the pic for size ref. That's not the camera angle & she's right in front of it. Ok, she isn't very big. lol But it's like 2 times her height... Certainly worth a lot more than $19 for anyone w/big, aggressive chewers. But it will initially freak the more timid fids out, for sure!

http://www.amazon.com/Prevue-Products-62473-Bodacious-Monster/dp/B00DBW4IH0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418584783&sr=8-2&keywords=bodacious+bites

Huge score at Goodwill today

Sat, 13 Dec 2014 00:28:55 +0000

Found this awesome score at Goodwill today, 98 rolls of adding machine tape for $14.91. Never thought I would be so excited to find adding machine tape

Psychological Problem

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 01:09:11 +0000

For two nights in a row, Caesar plucked out feathers from his legs, first one leg, then the other. The vet ruled out illness and pronounced the problem psychological. I am leaving out details, but Caesar needs more toys, things to shred and he needs the challenge of foraging. By the way, we also moved his home into a quiet room when he goes to bed instead of the living area where humans continue to watch TV. Yesterday we made some crude toys with braided fabrics. Last night was good; no new feather plucking. Today I bought $50 worth of toys; they were actually dog toys made out of rope. These were only three toys and so expensive. I hope these toys work although the first, a Halloween like rope figure, frightened him. I also hid a peanut in a wrap of waxed paper, which eventually he solved.

So, we are trying hard to come up with new ideas to solve this psychological problem.

Made some toys

Mon, 06 Oct 2014 20:29:18 +0000

Here are some of my newest creations for my website.

Any one interested please message me.