I am using items that were left over from various other toy making days just to give you an idea of what you can use for a toy for your bird.
The best toys are ones that can be destroyed, so making something quick and simple will mean that you aren’t spending all of your time making toys.
First assemble your supplies. I am using a 12 inch length of plastic chain, a plastic ball with holes, an acrylic soother, some cotton rope (from a new mop head) and some assorted beads.
I started by tying the middle of the plastic chain to the plastic ball with a piece of cotton rope. I tied once at the top of the ball and once more on each side.
This way, the chain drapes over each side of the ball.
At the bottom of the ball, I tied the soother and put the rope back to the chain and through it. Using assorted plastic beads, I threaded one onto the cotton rope.
After tying a knot, another bead was added and more until the bottom of the rope. String beads on the other end of the rope in the same way.
I had a couple of shapes that would slip onto the chain, so I put one at each end of the chain.
I then took another piece of cotton rope and put it through the chain at the top of the toy to hang it up in the cage. The plastic ball should stop the beaks from breaking it too quickly, but I could have also used a quick link. Here is the finished product.
It probably won’t take too long for the birds to destroy this toy, but it didn’t take long to make it either. It actually took much longer to take the pictures and put them together for this article than it took to put the toy together.
You could certainly put more rope pieces through the ball and attach more beads. You could use pony beads instead of the variety of beads I used here. You could just use the cotton rope without the chain.
Use your imagination. As long as you use safe products and keep strings short, or easy to break (like the cotton mop head ropes), you should be able to make lots of toys for your bird to play with.
This particular toy would be for a small bird such as a Budgie, Lovebird or Cockatiel but you could make something similar for a larger bird by using larger & more durable pieces.
See also
Birds and Toys
Bird Toys – Make a Bead Toy
Bird Toys – Make a BOING
Amazon.com and Amazon.ca have a book with plenty of do it yourself toy ideas.
If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to drop by the forum (see the most recent topics below) or come to the Bird Chat on Saturdays at 9:30 pm eastern, 8:30 pm central and 6:30 pm pacific times.
