Alfie's been a busy bird...

[neoow]

Like most parrot owners, I spend a fair amount of money on new toys for Alfie- whether that's to swap out old ones which have been destroyed or to try something new to mix it up a bit for him.
This week I found a couple of old bathroom catalogues I got given when I was picking out new stuff for my bathroom. I popped one in Alfie's cage and he's been busy working away at it all week, turning it into confetti. He has ignored every other toy in his cage all week - even the new ones- to shred his catalogue.

He's been so busy shredding it that a couple of nights this week when I let him out to play he flew over to his java tree and fell asleep. 😄 He tuckered himself out with the catalogue! 

Sometimes the best toys are the free ones!

[Greytness]

Oh, how they love ripping up paper and sheets of cardboard! Look how proud of himself he is!

[Timbersmom]

One corner of my kitchen is filled with small boxes. I don't think there is anything Timber enjoys more than industriously shredding his cardboard. Beautiful pictures of Alfie!

[Inara]

Oh I sooo love this, and the photos are adorable!  HRH is a total shredder. She could care less about chewing wood (hence I have to take her in a few times a year to get her beak blunted down) but she loves loves loves to shred, paper especially and her boings of course. She also enjoys untying knots, and unscrewing wingnuts that hold things onto her cage bars. I have to say that I have never in all of these years thought of putting a telephone book or catalog in her cage for her...... guess what I'll be doing.... :D 

[neoow]

Alfie has a new challenge this week - I stuffed a small box full of paper and he's been busy working on chewing the box and pulling every bit of paper out. I'm saving the second bathroom catalogue for another time... it's twice the thickness of the last one so might last a little longer!

15 hours ago, Inara said:

Oh I sooo love this, and the photos are adorable!  HRH is a total shredder. She could care less about chewing wood (hence I have to take her in a few times a year to get her beak blunted down) but she loves loves loves to shred, paper especially and her boings of course. She also enjoys untying knots, and unscrewing wingnuts that hold things onto her cage bars. I have to say that I have never in all of these years thought of putting a telephone book or catalog in her cage for her...... guess what I'll be doing....

Alfie is the same in that he doesn't chew much wood but will go to town on cardboard and paper. He also likes the sea grass mats you can get for birds, so I sometimes hang one of those in his cage. He occasionally chews his wooden toys but not often. He also loves the pressed cardboard/paper bangles you can get and will spend ages peeling and chewing those.

 

 

[SRSeedBurners]

Gosh he looks so much like our Huey.

[A.K]

I don’t mean to be offensive, but how can you be sure he’s not eating the paper? When I has budgies, they weren’t allowed near paper because I was afraid of them eating it. 

[Timbersmom]

Well, they just don't. I'm sure there is an exception to the rule and some bird somewhere, sometime has eaten a piece of paper, but they usually don't. Timber has been shredding cardboard and paper for the ten years I've had him, and I've never seen him eat it. Just as parrots who shred wood don't eat that. I guess most of them have the sense to know what is food and what isn't?

[neoow]

With the amount of mess he makes by dropping confetti everywhere (then flapping his wings to spread it across the whole room) I can be certain that he definitely is not eating it! 😂

It's no different to when he chews and shreds his toys. He doesn't eat the wood.

[A.K]

On 3/18/2022 at 10:28 AM, Timbersmom said:

Well, they just don't. I'm sure there is an exception to the rule and some bird somewhere, sometime has eaten a piece of paper, but they usually don't. Timber has been shredding cardboard and paper for the ten years I've had him, and I've never seen him eat it. Just as parrots who shred wood don't eat that. I guess most of them have the sense to know what is food and what isn't?

 

Makes sense. When I had budgies, the cheeky buggers would eat anything they could get their hands on. When I gave them paper, it was impossible to trust them!

Edited March 19, 2022 by A.K