Bird Toys
In the world of bird toys there are as many possibilities as there are birds, quite literally thousands if not more. Since bird ownership has increased with the importation of legally traded exotic birds from specific areas and jungles around the equatorial globe, the desire to customize and specialize the bird’s habitat is coming under renewed review. Te surge of interest is well warranted considering the multiplicity of options that you can have. Beginning with the cage and moving on to the feeding area. Perches are of primary important to your avian friends and they often come in playful configuration. Hanging puzzles, wooden blocks, and birdie bagels begin to diversify the play-oriented category. More often than not grinding posts and perches are available and the wide variety of colors only multiplies the options for personalization. In this article, we’ll go through each category and highlight the differences along with what to expect when and if you decide to go shopping.
The physical property of bird ownership is the bird, the cage, the water, the food, and the water. Almost every aspect of this list has been customized with various bird toys. The cage especially has been fitted with out-of-the-box bird toys. Hanging perches which act as swings as well as just a place to hang out are often the common additions. The most common additions are simply various perches from different heights and angles in the cage. This gives the bird the opportunity to meander around their own cage and see for themselves the advantages of different viewpoints. The food dishes often have a moveable perch that can be moved vertically to put the food dish in a relatively close proximity to the bird’s head. The water is also adjustable in the same way and at times these will have chewable ropes or birdie bagels hanging off of them.
Perches comprise the next most popular form of bird toys. They can be made of a variety of materials from natural woods to synthesized plastic or concrete composites. However, if you’re going the natural route it should be noted that birds chew on everything they can get their beaks on. It’s healthy for their beaks and claws, but that can mean upkeep further on down the road. Luckily if you’re going for a simple twig or other wooden perch, they’re fairly cheap so it won’t put too much of a dent in your wallet. The concrete or cuttlebone variants are a good method to improve the health and make sure that the perches last long into the future. A simple configuration of the perch is the swing perch. These hang from a platform or the top of the cage and give the bird a mobile place to place their claws. Depending on the bird they may really enjoy this, and they come in a bundle of sizes to accommodate any bird size along with any cage size.
If you’re looking for something just for the bird to play with, there are an abundance of toys that seem cluttered, but give your avian friend much to look through. Hanging puzzles are the most common form of bird toys. Typically these have a hodge-podge arrangement of blocks of different colors, spinning metal items, rope or twine, along with a suspension system that lets them hang in the air evening. They generally look like an abacus, but a little more bizarre. The more bizarre the more interest it will draw from the bird. A final common consideration is foraging balls. These are meant to resemble some of the herbivore and carnivore tactics that the birds use in the wild to eat. Generally, they’re hanging balls with a variety of edible and crunchable items inside for the bird to try and get out. Depending on the configuration you can put simple bird seed within them, providing a reusable toy.
Overall we’ve tried to emphasize the multiplicity of different composite materials that can render your pet’s new toy necessary of upkeep, or good to last as long as the cage does. And with the variety of different bird toys means that you have an almost infinite number of customization options at your disposal.