Frustrating Living in South Africa

[foxxxi]

You guys have NO idea how lucky you are to be able to purchase bird toys where you are.. Here in South Africa - they have REALLY crapy toys for birds.. NO foraging toys, NO educational toys, NO trick training props!
For every $1 I purchase in the US, I pay R10.22 of my own currency.. That works out SO expensive :(

I dont know where to even get the things to make bird toys with :(

Such a miserable state of affairs :( grrrrrr

[Andie]

I feel your pain!! I have access to the commercial toys but they are so expensive here in Australia (like $45 for the blue and green twisty rings).Cheap shops (the kind that sell lots of imported plastic junk for $1 - $5) are a great place to find stuff for bird toys. Now that I think about it, I think the only things I bought from a pet store are one rope perch and a giant whiffle ball.

Some ideas using $1 store things or free household stuff...Also, check out this great post from yesterday which details someone's loot from the $1 store. I get the impression that many people use these things. I don't think anything on that post is actually for birds!

Foraging:
LARGE PLASTIC BEADS to hide cubes of carrot and peas. The bird has to dig through the beads to sort out the food.
WHIFFLE BALLS of different sizes you can stuff paper and slivers of vegies. The bird has to work the food out of the tiny holes.
CARDBOARD BOXES stuffed with and treats or pellet food.

For educational toys: I have used some baby toys with no little parts. I have a set of talking keys where my bird had to work out how to push the buttons to get sounds. plastic puzzles with simple shapes are neat too. My IRN likes to pick the pieces up by the little knob and collect them in his food bowl. I am trying to teach him how to put them back.

Trick training I know nothing about. Sorry.

For general fun toys I have several dog toys with ropes and tennis balls, cat balls without catnip or bells, a fly swatter which I wove some shredded paper through, coloured jacks, plastic toy soldiers.
I have access to the commercial toys but they are so expensive here in Australia (like $45 for the blue and green twisty rings). Also, check out this other post which details someone's loot from the $1 store.

It is also worth looking in department stores. I don't know what they are called there but these stores sell well priced stuff for house, garden,dvds clothes . The ones here all have a small pet section and if you look regularly enough you find something neat at a good price.

I hope some of this helps.

[foxxxi]

wow.. thats awesome! thanks so much for the ideas! I am going to check out that other post and see what other ideas I can rack up :)
Another thing I have noticed that my birds enjoy is when I leave a bit of toilet paper on the toilet roll and then sortof squash it between the cage bars.. They love to strip the paper off the roll and chew the cardbaord :) hehe.. I see they have fun for HOURS playing with one :) hehe

[Andie]

LOL I need not to type so late at night!! So many typos in my message!! And where I moved something and forgot to delete it!

You could wrap long strips of regular paper around a cardboard roll, put a sisal string through the roll and hang it on the inside wall of the cage. They can have fun unrolling the paper and eating it! My lovebird, Squiz likes to do this and stuff the paper under her wings!!

[KDK241]

Most of my toys are made out of old toy parts and kid's toys. Bird toys are expensive here in the US and I hate paying for a toy and then no one plays with it.

Monty loves foraging toys but not that I bought, they are too hard for him and I hate to say it but he gives up very easily. One thing that he loves is I have a small plastic bowl that I tied onto the side of his cage and I place some of his wood blocks, beads, the plastic pieces from board games, shredded paper and some seeds, pellets and vegetables in the bowl and he loves to take everything out and throw it on the floor or play with it. Since he finds seeds in there it also doubles as a foraging toy. I also take seeds, beads, veggies and small chewed up pieces of wood and wrap them in paper and stick them in different places in his cage. He has to go around and find the papers that has the food in it. I put his veggies in a whiffle ball so he has to pull them out along with some shredded paper and other things. Plastic drinking straws are a huge hit at my house, all my birds love them.

The nice thing is that when you make toys for the birds they don't care what it looks like.

[Addicted to Tequila]

I like baby toys! Ones for teething (not liquid filled ones!) human babies are WONDERFUL. And as the baby toy market is MUCH better regulated than the pet industry... they are often safer!

[Tx mommy]

Oh man now I gotta go back to the dollar store no good pet stuff but I remember seeing a lot of baby toys didn't think about that.

[foxxxi]

hehe these birds are too cute!
I found a store here on the weekend similar to your dollar stores.. FOund some nice christmas presents there for them.. I found one of those multi colored bouncy balls that are tangled together for very cheap.. I found some stacking cups (found in the baby section) which I can use for training.. I found a little go cart type thing which I can also use for training.. I found a cute little nesting box type thing that I can fill with strips of colored paper along with some treats

oh, I also found a pack of 4 colored balls used for cats .. According to this thing, it says that it dispenses treats for cats as the ball rolls around - there is one hole in the ball, so I can see how that would work.. not really sure what I can do with this.. perhaps fill it with loose material that they would need to pull out and maybe have a treat stacked inbetween the material?
Anyways - I really think that this is going to be fun searching for more of these toy like things hehe :) Starting to get excited !! :) thanks again for all your fun ideas!!

[Andie]

I am glad you found some good stuff! You will begin to critically analyse everything you see in any shop and consider its potential/safety as a bird toy.

It is a sickness.


There is no cure.

[foxxxi]

hahahaha this is gonna be stax of fun!
:)