Techniques to teach birds to play with their toys?

[LakeDesire]

I've heard on other threads that you can teach a bird how to play with her toys. Awesome! Does anyone have suggestions for techniques?

My newly adopted amazon is the nicest, sweetest, most well-behaved bird... but she is uninterested in her toys, even when I place her favorite treats on top of them! She likes to bite holes in my clothes so I had my partner make her a toy out of his sewing scraps and she isn't even interested in that (I think she thinks she is grooming me when she bites my clothes).

 

[SandyBee]

Often it will take a while when your bird gets home to start playing. We got our Amazon 3 months ago and he is now starting to play more. Play with him is probably the best way. Bosley likes to chew on the sleeves of my sweater and preen me, I got him a felt ball and started playing with him on my lap, he now chews it, chases it around and plays catch with it. I also notice that he doesn't really want to play with toys in his cage, but if I have it on me he will chew and play with anything!!

 

[wenz2712]

I found it took Codie Weeks and Weeks to become interested in his Toys!! if I gave him one, then he would throw it across the Room... then suddenly one day he rumaged through his Toy Bowl and discovered that he really did like them after all LOL.

Now, he plays with them all day

 

[LakeDesire]

Hmm maybe I do just need to wait longer! Henry may not have had any toys in her first home so maybe she never learned how to play. (The rescue said she didn't play with her toys either.)

My conure doesn't like to play as much with her toys as she did when she was younger, either, but she'll at least play if she sees me playing with her toy. Suddenly that boring object is something fun and desirable!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Was she abused? Rosie was abused, and also lived 5 years without any toys when with my friends. I've tried many different types of toys in hopes something would spark her interest. When I got her a bigger cage it had a positive effect on her mentality and she started playing a little more. So far her favorite non foraging toys are toys she can preen.

Try buying one of a bunch of different types of toys and see what your bird leans too, that's what I did.

*edit*
Wanted to add that your bird might not actually know how to play, try shredding paper in front of him and randomly handing him a piece to see if he'll punch holes into it