How to Keep Your Bird Busy

In nature, your bird would be busy the whole day. Birds fly to find something to eat, play with their flock mates, bathe, etc. When we have them in our homes, we generally only spend limited time with them. Even when we don't have to leave for 8-10 hours to earn some food for them, we still have things to do, while they have to occupy themselves when they don't eat or sleep.

How can we keep them occupied? There are many toys that keep them busy for a while, but usually that is not enough. Some birds are happy to chew up all kinds of things, others need challenges, and a toy that is very interesting to one bird may be rather boring for the next. Usually with a little attention we can find ways to entertain them.

So, what can we do to provide stimuli and entertainment when we don't have time to interact with them? One possibility is to provide something to get your bird to work for its food. There are many different toys that do that; for example, Hide-A-Treats, Pyramid Puzzle and Carousel Treat holders. My birds always look to see if something is in there, even if they found nothing the last few times they looked. If they have several of these kinds of treat providers, the goody can be put into another one every day.

There are lots of simple things that give them something to do, like paper, boxes, old socks, etc. With 14 birds, I sometimes have to be very inventive to find the right thing for each bird. For some of my Conures and my Indian Ringneck, the wood blocks to shred can't be big enough. The smaller birds get the rest of the blocks that the bigger birds leave. One of my conures and my macaws don't touch anything but leather. They chew for hours on anything - even just strings, as long as it is made of leather - and turn them into tiny little pieces. My red-fronted loves metal things, which are best when they can be taken apart.

My cockatoo needs challenges. He needs things to take apart, and it is even better when he can rebuild something from them. His favorite is bunches of quick links on a chain. Unscrewing them and putting them on the bars of his cage occupies him for hours. Also, all kinds of chains are another favorite. I have one plastic chain that he tied on the cage bars in a way that I can't get them off anymore. I hope that one day he will get tired of them there and take them off again. He also likes goofy links, because he can take them apart and put them all over the cage on the bars or at the perch or on other toys. He has chains and ropes woven all over his cage. I just hang them there and he produces all kinds of art with them.

Some other birds like things that rattle. My GW, for example, sometimes likes to chew wood blocks, other times she does not even look at them for weeks and takes a sisal rope apart or rattles her plastic toys for hours.

Some birds just like to organize things, so for them some containers with things to take out and put back in are a lot of fun. For example, my grey loves a box on his cage floor, loaded with wood blocks, plastic toys, and pieces of bird kabobs. He takes them out, puts them all over the cage, and puts them back into the container. Sometimes he chews some of them up. The container can also be rolled around and makes wonderful noises that way. Socks also occupy him; he chews the most artistic designs into them.

For almost 9 years, I thought my budgies didn't like to chew anything, until the day I put some balsa buddies in their cage. The thing was gone within a few hours. It just takes the right thing.

It does not do much good to just provide a bunch of toys. We have to figure out the right ones. It sometimes takes awhile and some money, but when we find the right object, it is a lot of fun to watch our little artists working. So, go for it!

by Gudrun Maybaum, Avian Nutrition and Herb Consultant
www.totallyorganics.com E-mail: gudrun@totallyorganics.com