Bird Toys Ideas: How to Choose Appropriate Ones?
No matter how cute and fun it is to keep a bird in your home, bored birds can become an annoyance to their owners. According to some studies, this boredom can lead to physical self-destruction as birds can begin plucking out their own feathers and bite themselves. Fortunately, this thing can be avoided by keeping them occupied with toys for birds.
Since the main purpose of these toys is to keep them mentally happy and stimulated, manufacturers have managed to create a variety of different bird toys. The best way to choose the appropriate type of bird toy is by understanding your bird’s personality. Simply put, you should observe your bird’s preferences for materials, textures, shapes and colours, as well as its activities (chewing, hanging upside down, playing with noisy things, etc.). Besides this, you should also take into account both the bird and cage size. For example, smaller toys can pose a choking hazard for birds of all sizes, while larger toys can pose a trapping and tripping hazard for smaller birds.
Chewing Toys
Chewing is considered natural birds activity which means that owners should give them this opportunity and pleasure. For this purpose, chewing toys are destructible and are usually made from leather and wood.
Note: Since the purpose of these toys is for them to be destroyed, don’t get upset if over time your bird manages to do that.
Exercise Toys
Just like we human beings love to exercise and stretch, birds need a variety of toys that stimulate different parts of their bodies. Swings and bungees can help them develop their balancing skills, while ropes and ladders can promote legwork.
Comfort Toys
Birds lovers are pretty familiar with the fact that they like to cuddle a lot with their mates as this makes them feel secure and protected. Thus, caged birds, especially the ones that are alone, need to be provided with the right mate’s substitute – stuffed toys for birds. Choosing a soft stuffed toy like this can help your caged bird feel better while having a friend to play and snuggle with when needed. Usually, these types of toys are available in a range of sizes, shapes and materials, however, the bird-alike ones are the ideal option.
Foraging Toys
These types of toys give birds an opportunity to want to work for its food. These toys usually have a secret place where you can place food in order to encourage movement and exploration.
Preening Toys
If alone and without toys, caged birds can often become too bored which can lead to over-preening or feather pulling. To avoid this, you can invest in rope preening toys, the purpose of which is to satisfy the bird’s desire to preen while discouraging feather pulling.
