Playthings with a Purpose!

Instinctively, pet birds are still very much like their wild counterparts. Play is a natural behavior for parrots. Wild parrots have been observed engaging in several different kinds of play including object play, balancing games, play that involves movement, acoustic play and social play with other birds like “chase me” or pretend fighting.

However, in captivity, opportunities to participate in natural activities have been reduced to a bare minimum leaving a lot of “free time” often leading to boredom which in turn has been shown to result in the development of behavioral, mental, and physical health problems.

Providing enrichment in the form of purposely designed bird toys can alleviate boredom. Bird toys are more than mere playthings when it comes to your bird! Providing pet birds with opportunities to chew, forage, preen and explore is critical to their well-being.

Bird Toy Types and Benefits

• Foraging toys – Toys in which treats can be hidden, skewered and or imbedded to encourage movement and exploration.
• Destructible toys – Chewing is a major activity in the wild and essential to maintaining beak health.
• Exercise toys – Swings and Bungees challenge a bird’s balancing skills while ladders and ropes promote legwork and increase climbing activity.
• Comfort toys – Pet birds, especially when they are alone, like to snuggle up to or crawl into something soft and cuddly. Tents and snuggle toys help to alleviate their stress and provide birds with a sense of security.
• Preening toys – Materials like seagrass and crinkle paper provide an excellent outlet for birds to satisfy their desire to preen and to discourage feather picking and mutilation.
• Mechanical toys – Birds are very intelligent creatures, and many enjoy untying knots, undoing nuts and bolts and exploring and manipulating toy parts.