By now, hopefully everyone understands how necessary it is to have toys for your birds – especially parrot species – but how many toys? Canaries and finches also enjoy toys, but not to the extent that parrots (large and small) need.

Once you start buying toys (although this gets expensive) for your parrot or better yet making toys for your birds, it can sometimes get out of hand. I have seen bird cages that hardly have enough room for the bird because of all the toys in it.

One or two birds do not need ten toys in the cage. Two or three toys in the cage at a time are plenty. It is great to have several more toys though, so that you can change them frequently. This way, if you change toys every week or so, your bird always has a new supply of toys to play with and/or destroy. If you keep three toys in the cage, you could also change one every second or third day. Your bird will always be looking forward to the toy change and it is almost like getting a new toy every second day.

By changing the toys frequently, you will find that your bird will play with them more. You remove a toy before he gets bored with it and he will be excited to see it again in a few weeks (depending of course on how many toys you have put aside).

Make sure the toys are appropriate to the size of bird that you have so that they will be safe. All toys should be checked daily to make sure they do not have loose threads or parts that could injure your bird. Any loose threads should be cut off immediately and any loose or broken parts should be removed.

Loose threads can get wound around a bird's foot (or head), which could cause serious injury or death. Broken parts can catch and hold onto a foot or beak and again cause serious injury. Even if you are home and hear your bird's screams, you may not be able to free him from the toy quick enough to prevent injury, so it is much better to catch the problem before it happens. It just takes a few minutes each day to check the toys.