munch Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Hi! Need some advice and help here. Took is one and half and for several months now seems to have lost interest in toys. And yes, we tried every single type of toy out! Paper, wood, plastic, coconuts, beads, bells, ladders, foraging, shredding, etc. The only ones she will play with for about 5-10 a day are a ball with a bell inside and the straws tied with a zip-tie (thanks for the idea, grey forums!!). We have tried EVERY toy in the stores, online, and on this site. We have also tried playing with the toy ourselves first. And then playing and not sharing. And making a toy in front of her....oh yes, she watches and she's interested in making it but doens't want it after! She is a happy grey but all she wants to do is wrestle, hang upside on my hand, or chew up our clothes (she loves destroying clothes but that isn;t a toy or habit we want to encourage!). Please help! I am starting to hide from her because i can't do anything when she is around- she constantly wants to wrestle, eat our clothes...I can't cook, clean, read, or do anything becuase the second she sees me she wants to play. And if i stick around-- this will go on for hours until its time for bed. When we are not around, she looks out the window and sings/talks. Still doesn;t play with her toys. I guess its not help with only getting her to play with toys but just finding her own hobbies! (lol- my husband collects coins, Took loves coin collecting as well. As soon as gets it ready, she runs over. She loves the sound. Unfortunately, she wants to put every coin in her mouth. At least then she is not eating his shirt.) BTW by eating i mean chewing, she doesn;t ingest anything other than food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdhouse Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 It's unfortunate that Took likes metal so much. But I'd be afraid that the alloys that coins are made from would include some of the heavy metals that are toxic to fids. Otherwise I'd say let her have her own coin collection for the time being. Shame that. But have you tried making a chain of nickel plated or stainless quick links for her? You know how much they love to unscrew things! Sometimes I'll just stretch a chain across the cage someplace & let my guys unscrew it for fun. Another thing I was thinking was a bowl of foot toys? How about a collection of pony beads, bells, small wood shapes, tooth picks, popsicle sticks, wooden clothes pins, tiny bits of leather, knotted up string, etc? Also you said she likes the "strawbursts" (our name for it). Have you seen the toys w/bunches of colored, paper sticks jammed into holes in wood? I've seen those straws sold as separate refills, too. Maybe something like that would interest Took. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thenabrd Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 maybe you can look into any bird fairs in your area. they usually have lots of things/ideas for toys for our birds. foot toys are great. i use a plastic kid's beach bucket hanging in the corner of kallie's cage to hold her foot toys. i get practice golf balls (small whiffle balls) at the store, they're fairly cheap. i also use plastic pen caps, plastic bottle caps, etc. also, since took seems to like "shiny" toys and bells (kallie LOVES shiny things) maybe you can find stuff like that. kallie figured out she can remove the clapper in a traditionally shaped bell, so i have to get the bells that are more tube shaped for her. we took a stainless steel water cup my husband used for hiking, straightened the handle, took some stainless steel chain to connect a couple of the shiny keys i found at a bird fair and hung that in her cage. she loves it!!! its shiny and noisy so its now one of her favorite "battle" toys. have you tried "keep away" with toys? i know sometimes that works to get a bird to try new food, it might work with toys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvparrots Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Honestly only my amazon is a real toy player. My greys do not play with their toys all that much. I am retired and home most of the so they are usually in the same room as I am. They do play with the toys in the cages occasionally. It has never bothered me that they like to interacting with me more than toys. As long as they are happy and eating well that's all I care about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelly Yokum Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Val didn't take to her toys at first either. She found a way to get to a calendar and she made bits of it. She I got her some cardboard and paper toys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovethatgrey Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I really would not allow my parrots to play with coins. Coins are so filthy. Do you realize how many hands have touched those coins? Sound like you are the best source of entertainment for your grey and she loves interaction and engagement. Alot like my Emma. )) I would recommend that you start teaching her how to forage or purchasing toys that stimulate and INTEREST her (puzzles, Fantastic Foraging Block which happens to be an (AWESOME TOY), etc) . You have to get to know her a bit better , learn about her and figure out what works and appeals to her. She is incredibly Smart. She is a Grey. Her brain needs to be occupied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munch Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 Thanks all! Coins and money in general are disgusting with all those germs...we thought about it and once we realized that she wants to hold every single coin, we stopped letting her. Birdhouse nailed it-- the items that interest her are metal (zippers, snaps, coins, etc). I'm going to try to be creative with stainless steel! Like that coffee cup thing (I am not handy! but i'll try). Nickel plated is also ok? Not that I know where to find that yet... I love that she loves us so much- but she chews up our clothes when she sits on us. We have holes in our shirts, pants, socks. If we are wearing a sweatshirt, she goes straight for the zipper. She has even attacked jacket zippers while on the coat rack (we changed location for coat rack). It's also really hard taking care of chores like cooking and cleaning with her on me-- especially now that her favorite thing to do is cimb down my arm and hang upside down on my sleeve to get to whatever I'm doing (which is so cute). Completely off topic- I love that is always wrestling and swing upside down everywhere. I was told when we bought her and through books that greys were not the wrestling parrot or the one to get if you want a silly playful bird (opposed to caiques or macaws). How wrong!! I loved everything else we read about greys except that they weren;t the silly type- So glad we didn;t base our decision on that! What a silly goofball! She is always grabbing our fingers and tumbling over, hanging upside on our sleeves, flipping herself on our laps, hanging upside on her one toy that she loves (the ball with bell inside). She'll head butt us and grab our fingers when she wants to wrestle. Don't listen to the stereotypes! Back on topic- she has a bucket of foot toys. I'm going to head on down to Bird Paradise ala Talon's recommendation for most awesome selection of toys ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I don't know about anyone else, but my greys LOVE to chew all the zippers off our sweatshirts. None of mine zip anymore. Many of my shirts have holes on the shoulders....it just goes with the territory, no big deal. There are toys with hanging pieces of cloth that may be of interest, but mostly, they want to be with you and not play like an amazon would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdhouse Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) Reading your last post gave me a couple of other thoughts. One of them being that Took sounds like she might be very happy w/activity toys for small children. Especially the little dolls they have to teach kids to zipper & tie. I don't know how long it would last her. But she might get a kick out of it. Or maybe you could pick up some plastic zippers, shoe laces, buttons & such & make your own kind of doll or pillow or something. The other was that you might head for the nearest big hardware store. If it were me, I'd pick up a piece of peg board, some zip ties & a bunch of of nickel plated & stainless fittings, especially washers which come in many sizes. I'd suggest rinsing in alcohol & boiling them in water to make sure to get any of the surface oil from manufacturing off. Then get creative about zip tying things to the peg board & each other for Took to start trying to pick off. Edit if it helps, Electro-galvanized hardware looks shiny like stainless steel, but it's zinc plated. So anything for the birds should be nickel plated or of course stainless. Edited January 12, 2012 by birdhouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingy Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 How about making an activity center with her own zippers (stainless), wooden buttons and what not sewn on a piece of fleece for her to destroy. This way your redirecting what she loves to do to a place appropriate for her. Heck choose a color of fleece that no one wears so she can see its hers. So she can play with coins too maybe try stainless steel uncut keys, or see if you can find a stainless steel fabricator and order round blanks so she has her own safe coins (plastic bingo or poker chips might work too if she doesn't chew them if not then use wood rounds). She might really like a noisy cup for her to deposit her metal treasures into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Life is Greyt Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Birdhouse and Wingy have a good idea. My Chickie's favorite toy is simply pieces of fleece that I have cut into strips and sewn buttons on. I sewed them on really tight so it takes her a while to pop them off. Maybe Took would like that too?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kins2321@yahoo.com Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I would suggest a metal gym. Sliding down the sides, around 90 miles an hour, will be entertaining. Greys LOVE it! Provide her with pinata's. Destruction, is the goal. Give her anything " paper", that she can destroy. Sophie has never taken to block toys. She insists on being with us, 100%. She wants to watch movies with us, she insists on doing bills with me etc. I learned a long time ago, she is my " youngest" child. I treat her as such. We have been blessed to have Sophie for past 12 years. Nancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munch Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 How do greys learn how to use a slide? Or was that a joke and I'm pathetically gullable? Sounds like I'd have a good time.... As for giving her zippers and fleece of her own to play with; I've considered that idea and previously rejected it because I thought it would encourage these behaviors and Took then wouldn;t be able to differentiate between chewing up her toy zippers and cloth versus my clothes and jackets. Is that incorrect? Is it better to give her some to play with or discourage her completely from those items? I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdhouse Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Funny. After I posted that yesterday I thought "Gee, if Took were a dog I would have said keep her away from anything related until she trained out of this phase. So how come it really seems like the right thing to do the exact opposite for a grey?" Well, we would be trying to train the dog. The parrot on the other hand has us trained. lol But seriously... (even though I think that's not too far from true) Dogs & parrots have a whole different perspective & motivation. So we lead a dog & negotiate w/a parrot. I think this is similar logic to giving a parrot wood toys that might hopefully distract them from eating the molding. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I also know a grey is going to continue any behavior as long as they have a reason to continue that behavior. In this case, it's fun for Took which is all the reason she needs to make it a mission. Particularly if you try to stop her. So I would hope that if you give her what she wants, she'll eventually get bored & move on to the next fun thing. Hopefully, you'll have found her some other sources of amusement by then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kins2321@yahoo.com Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 munch... Sophie's metal gym, she came with, 12 years ago. I have tried to replace it. No go! It has two circles in front, she slides down the sides at an amazing speed. She LOVES it! We have had to rescrew it a million times to make it safe. Its hanging by a thread, but my 17 year old is talented, and always fixes it to make it safe for her. Its on borrowed time. Nancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acappella Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 You've gotten some great toy suggestions. I'm wondering, are you reinforcing her behaviour? When she is hanging upside down from your clothes, are you stopping everything and playing with her? Making big fun noises and a big fuss? It might be really hard, but you might have to train yourself not to reward her, but instead put her infront of a play gym like others have suggested with all the elements she's attracted to, and reward the HECK out of her there! Oh, and be prepared to do it 1,000 times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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