Need quick advice on a toy!

[mamalovesrico]

I'm sorry to have to jump in here and ask for your guys' advice, but........a friend of mine is leaving for Peru for 4 months and is staying with people who own two canaries. She has asked me to make toys for their canaries as a "thank you" gift for letting her stay there. I need to make them in two days and have not a clue in what canaries are interested as far as toys. Can you guys give me some advice on what kind of toys your canaries like? Thanks so much in advance.

[Monica]

Canaries and finches are not normally given toys... But I'm sure that they could enjoy something with some sort of strings, rings... just stuff they could pull at and maybe jingle too.

[mamalovesrico]

Monica, I should probably tell her not to waste her time with a toy then? When she asked me, I was clueless on what to make. I think I might just give her a call tomorrow and tell her to look for a different gift.
Thanks for your quick response.

[Monica]

Well, you could try anyways! Maybe the canaries would like a couple toys!!! Who knows?

[Kachina]

Just because most people don't give them toys, doesn't mean they don't like them. I don't know where along the line people decided canaries don't need or like toys, but they couldn't be more wrong. Like any other bird, those little minds need stimulation. Especially since most birds are sadly confined to their cages for their entire lives. To say that they don't need toys is like saying any other bird doesn't need them. Imagine life in a cage with nothing to do.

Just keep things simple. Mine enjoy bright colors. Pony beads, little colored wooden beads, raffia, the ends of knotted cotton rope when small rope is used for the toys, those tiny hard plastic pacifiers, small bells.. things that click or jingle, and things they can preen. They aren't destructive at all, but I have seen some toys receive quite a good pecking. Bird will play with practically anything and I challenge anyone to come on over and try to say he's not enjoying himself. He's in the middle of a full-blown molt and sings constantly even though most canaries are silent during this time. Bean has taken almost a year to come around and start playing with toys, but now that he has, he's a much happier little bird.

Here are a few that are Bird-tested and approved to maybe give some ideas as to where to start:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2003+113745
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2003+113745
http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx
http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx
http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx
http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx
http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx
http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx
This one is probably his all-time favorite
http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products.../Itemdy00.aspx

A swing with some beads on the arch is popular here, too. Let me know if you need more ideas. Happy to help.

Bird: "Who says we don't enjoy toys? I sleep snuggled next to mine"

[Tashk]

My sister once had a canary, and just for the heck of it, she put a few toys in his cage, and he ended up liking one of them... it was made of really thin rope...like piping on a dress, a thin little piece of manzanita, a couple other doo-dads, and a bell, and he would pull at the manzanita stick to make the bell ding. He loved this toy, but this is the only canary we have ever had that liked toys.

[Jenny_RS]

Hello, i also have 2 canaries and my birds love their toys, Romeo, my male, loves the mirror i have, most times i find him playing with that, hanging off of it. or he likes nibbling on the rope toy, or the bell thats hanging off the mirror. who ever came up with the idea that canaries don't like toys?

[birdsnthings]

Paper, raffia, sisal rope, paper rope.....let your imagination run wild. I find this is what the canaries do like here.
Alice