Now would be a good time to try potty training him (instructions here on the site). You could also begin target training in a very laid back sort of way.
Maybe teach him to climb a rope? An interest in ropes is a great thing for a parrot (not all have it) because it's one thing they can always play on and burn off steam. I began by dangling a rope in front of my bird and then gently picking her up with it when she'd latched on. Before I knew it, she was climbing and swinging joyfully on my rope! As the bird climbs up the rope, you can reach down and take hold of the loose end so you effectively have birdie on a swing between your hands. Don't you do the swinging: just let your bird discover and enjoy the sensation and he'll do the rest! As time went on, I eye-spliced a wooden ring to the end of Rosetta's rope and she was able to use that as a sort of swing/trapeze, depending on whether she hung upside down or not. That was a wonderful toy until she turned the wooden ring into matchwood. I'm looking to find another one.
Other ideas:
- If you can get paper cups, cupcake papers or the tiny paper cups they give medication in, you can put treats under some and not under others, letting your bird search and find the goodies.
- Wrap treats in paper packets and hide them (along with plenty of empty packets) in a basket of shredded paper or coiled rope or just stuff, leaving birdie to find his treats.
- I've just bought a whole lot of baby toys for my birds. The Alexes especially love the kind of toy that plays a sound when you press a button. Madge will sit for hours just pressing button after button and listening to the sounds. It gets pretty annoying, but she obviously loves it, so who am I to argue?
- cargo nets are fun, especially when free-hanging (ie. not against a wall). There are instructions in our DIY section.
- ladders are also fun. You can make one out of rope with beads or wooden dowels or you can make a traditional ladder with flat side slats and round dowels edged into holes. Bigger birds (such as your Amazon) really enjoy lo-oo-ong ladders. My hubby made a three-foot ladder for our Galah and he had a ball climbing up, down and around it. Until he ate the darned thing. Hubby has made a similar ladder for our corella and she's half-way through eating it atm.
- swings? You can either hang a loop of rope from the cage roof or make/buy a swinging perch. Or you can get a cane ring and hang that from the roof with the plastic interlocking links they make for babies.
- My birds enjoy fossicking about in their rummage baskets (just a wire plant hanger lined with cereal box cardboard and filled with small cardboard boxes, egg cartons, TP tubes, bits of bark and gumnuts from our trees and pieces of cut-up wood, which they like to turn into splinters.
- I don't know how Amazons play, but my corella loves baby rattles (and, indeed, anything that makes a loud noise). She races drunkenly around her cage with a red bangle round her neck and waving her red wooden maraca in her beak, looking like Carmen Miranda on steroids! I buy cheap plastic bangles from thrift shops and Rosetta goes through them at a disturbing rate. I don't know why she likes to wear them, but she does, so...
- just recently, I made a makeshift 'ladder' in the corners of both cages. All I did was harvest some inch-thick branches which had fallen from my trees and cut them into foot lengths. I gouged a notch out of each end and fastened them horizontally across the corners. The birds enjoy climbing these ladders rather than trying to climb the vertical bars on the cages.
It's been my experience that the very best toys for my birds are the ones I make to satisfy what they seem to want to do. Expensive bought toys usually just sit there and are rarely used, but my home-made ones are really popular. My best advice is to watch your bird and see what he enjoys to do most. If he likes to make a racket, get him noisy toys. If he likes to climb, get him ladders and interesting perches. If he likes to swing, get him ropes or hang swings for him. Probably the best toy you'll ever give him is your time. Start teaching and rewarding him now and you'll lay a great foundation for a well-behaved and self-motivated bird.
). He wants to “mimic” our behaviors because we are his “flock”, even if he doesn’t quite grasp what is being done. When sitting on the couch with us, we bring a few small foot toys with us and hand him one every so often. He especially enjoys flinging the toys and watching me retrieve it for him (who’s trained who here?
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