No interest in toys

[LaurenB]

Hello all! I'm new to the forum. After wanting a Green Cheek Conure for several years, I finally adopted one this past Saturday. After only 48 hours with her, she has completely captured my heart and I am SO in love!

A little about her background... I'm unsure how old she is as the people I adopted her from weren't sure. They had her for 5 years, but she had a previous owner before that. She is missing a toe, her owner told me she was like that when they got her.

She is unbelievably friendly which is impressive considering they told me she was rarely let out of her cage before. She had no toys in the cage she lived in, no snuggle hut, and only 2 perches But I immediately rectified that! She now has a HUGE cage on order. I also bought her several new perches, a snuggle hut which she LOVES, and a bunch of toys.

She makes kissy noises, says "Sh!" (which makes me think they sh'd her a lot ) and loves to dance. The only odd thing is that she has NO interest in her toys. She's not afraid of them, she just doesn't seem to want to play. I've had parakeets in the past and they LOVED their toys! But she only wants to snuggle and be scratched, and be held non-stop (which is fine with me because I love the attention!) I'm just figuring that because she didn't have any toys before, she probably doesn't know what to do with them. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to show her to play?

 

[Dopey]

The best thing is to let her see you playing with her toys. Sounds crazy I know but it works...for some birds.

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

Just play with the toys with your fingers, make fun sounds and hopefully she will catch on.

Good luck and congratulations!

 

[Ann333]

I just got a new green cheek also. Mine is a baby, however. I've had him for a week and he's finally starting to play independently and exploring his toys. Maybe your little guy just needs to settle in a bit. Good luck!!

 

[lquan]

I have my conure for almost 2 years now. I got her when she was 3.5 month old. She has a very big day-time cage (I can fit in her cage kneeling). I had many different toys, she had never touch any of them. I used to put scrap light plywood from my model airplane hobby in her cage. She used to love to chew them up for fun. After 3 months, she got tire of chewing plywood and doesn't touch them anymore. However, when outside of her cage, she loves to chew on my neck collars, sleeves, towels, and any loose strings. She doesn't bit hard enough to tear destroy my clothing so that is a good thing. I made strings of large plastic beads with lots of loose strings hanging out. She loves to play with those now.

 

[LaurenB]

Thanks for the responses! I'll try to play with toys in front of her and see if that works. She seems to always want to be into whatever I've got in my hands!