In-cage boredom

[wrench13]

So Salty plays and destroys toys outside his cage, but inside - he just plays for a bit with his foot toys, fighting with them and throwing them around. I;ve tried all sorts of in-cage toys, the same ones he enjoys out of the cage, but he never touches them. Even some types he doesn't have outside. He just ignores them. I tried playing with them inside the cage, to show him that yes these are for play too, but no dyce. We do have a lot of foot toys for him and he does play with those. He's too young to be a cage lump!

Any suggestions for more inside cage activities?

 

[Laurasea]

Take a millit spray and wrap, weave ir stuff it into a toy.

Take those balls with holes and stuff popcorn inside .

Use a shallow wide dish with enough water to float plastic bottle caps, then put a few seeds in each cup, so it still floats.

I usually have to use food to keep them busy

 

[texsize]

You could get him a friend

That sure keeps Merlin and Luna busy

I guess I have the opposite problem. The toys I have around the house are left alone. The birds are mostly interested in flying.

In the cage Merlin and to a lesser degree Bingo go into overdrive attacking there toys.

Wes

 

[chris-md]

Foraging, of course! Make them interactive, give him a reason to play. Places where a treat can be placed, place one. That’ll begin to get his beak on the toys.

 

[Teddscau]

I'm a fan of foraging toys. Even simple ones like a see-saw forager, buffet ball, or one of those awesome wooden puzzler are good. You can also make some by drilling holes in pill bottles. For all of his dry foods (pellets, seeds, nuts, etc.), I'd recommend forcing him to forage for them. Fresh veggies and birdie bread can be put in buffet balls and skewers as well.

I recently learned about the BeakBox. A company in New Zealand recently released it, and it's basically an in-cage music box for your bird. You put your bird's favourite music on it, then they can turn it on themselves, and choose which song they want to hear.

Noah is personally obsessed with pill bottle foragers and loves the sound of plastic bags, Rosie loves gathering nesting material and playing in dark places (she has a tunnel she likes to make weird sounds in), Sunshine loves foraging and investigating new toys, and Birdie likes toys made out of artificial materials (acrylic, stainless steel) to swing around and clank.

While a lot of birds will play with toys, shred things, etc., just for the fun of it, a lot of birds only want to interact with objects if it serves a purpose, such as obtaining food. For example, younger budgies love playing with toys and being goofy, but once they turn four or five, they rarely play anymore. They prefer more "mature" activities such as foraging or chewing bark off of perches.

I recommend giving him "activity" perches, such as perches that he can peel the bark off of, or atoms with chains on it that he can fling around, sisal ropes that he can preen, a perch that you can put treats in (there's a wooden puzzler perch that's both a platform perch and a foraging toy), etc. For example, Oliver's Garden sells a platform perch that has plastic beads inside it that birds try to remove from it. You could also try one of those little stainless steel foraging buckets that you can hide toys, treats, shreddables, and other surprises inside of.

Maybe he'd like toys with moving parts that he can manipulate? There's some great toys, like plastic nuts and bolts the bird can twist and stuff, as well as this new line of metal toys (stainless steel or aluminum) by Busy Bird for larger parrots (i.e., bigger that a lovebird) who are interested in manipulating items to figure out how they work. Here: https://busy-bird.com/shop/

 

[fiddlejen]

How much time does Salty actually spend Inside his cage vs Outside it?

I mean, I notice when my Sunny has a lot of outside-cage time -- or if we have a "big day," ie, drive somewhere and then go for a walk (in her carrier) -- or even if all she does is supervise from my shoulder when I'm making changes (ie moving furniture around), then when back in her cage, then she's less-active when back in her own cage. Kind of like, "now I will just relax myself, body and brain."

So just kind of pondering here. You keep Salty well-engaged, mentally & physically. Trick training, playing with toys Outside the cage, etc. So maybe, perhaps for him, his cage Might be his place to chill & relax? With lots of out-of-cage "enrichment" & physiomental stimulation, then perhaps being a cage-potato Only-When-Inside-cage Might be okay? perhaps it's his Rest & Mental-Refresh Zone?

Anyways. Just Pondering. And so many good suggestions above, of course. The easiest suggestion I was ever given was to just "hide" a treat of some kind inside a twist of paper or paper towel. Then stick that in cage bars or in whatever toy you're trying to get your birdie to engage with.

 

[wrench13]

Salty is up by 10AM and out of his cage by 2 or so. I'm going to try some of the suggestions, thanks folks, I appreciate the input. We've tried some already, but maybe it pays to revisit them. The treats twisted in paper towel we used to do but I was getting concerned he was getting too much nut nutriants (we used to hide walnut pieces in them), between that and his training treats of pine nuts. Salty has one of the small doggie toys that you hid treats in, and when we first got him, we would hide a peanut in the shell inside it, but I stopped peanuts years ago. He's had the wooden treat puzzle - ignored, he has an acrylic treat puzzle on his play chian, he loves it, but hang it inside the cage, nothing. I am going to look into some of these suggestions, theres got to be one or two I can get him into playing with.

 

[joliny718]

do you mean a kong toy for dogs? Salty sounds like a smart bird lol

 

[wrench13]

Yeah, thats it, a Kong toy.

 

[Ira7]

6 months now, and Archie can "amuse" himself half the day playing with his two bells, one chew toy, and little balls. Toy balls I bought for him.

And outside the cage? We play fetch, and he behaves just like a dog.