We have two wonderful pet birds – or they have us. Willy is a Quaker Parrot, opinionated and fussy and egotistical and very smart. Zini is a Sun Conure, the baby of the family (though she’ll be five this year) and the most adorable (charming, spoiled, and did I mention egotistical?) person in the house. Here they are after a bath:
So my question / problem is… toys. They are both smart and active and when I’m nearby, their cage is open so they can wander around at will (on top of the cage, not through the house!) And we need more toys for them. Toys they can interact with, puzzles to solve, things to take apart – Zini especially thinks the very best toys are ones she can destroy. This is fine with me, but it’s so hard to know what’s safe.
Many commercial bird toys are too big for them – or uninteresting. (A series of alphabet blocks in safe finishes? Fun to look at but they don’t DO anything.) Leather strips? Fun to chew on – but potentially dangerous.
P.S. I should add, the very best toy we’ve found so far, is a peanut (with shell) wrapped in a square of plain white paper. Wrap the peanut in the paper, twist the ends, and they have to work to extract the peanut from the paper. They both love these. Willy likes to eat the peanuts, and Zini could care less about eating them – she just wants to destroy them. And they make a very satisfying CRUNCH while she’s at it.
I’m always on the search for fun safe toys. If anybody has a suggestion, I’d love to hear it.
