• Old fashioned wooden
clothespins (no metal parts).
• Clean
craft
(Popsicle-type), ice cream or wooden
chop sticks.
• Plain paper plates
or water cups (not the
waxed type).
• Natural coffee filters
or cupcake liners.
• Small paper lunch bags filled with
corn wheels or popped corn, dried hot
peppers, whole nuts in the shell, coconut fiber, shredded paper, seed,
JUST fruit or
veggies, broken wooden parts from old toys,
scrap vegetable tanned leather pieces, etc. and tied with
natural or
colored sisal,
100% cotton cord,
vegetable tanned leather strips, or
Paulie Rope to make your own Pinata for
parrots! (Note: If your bird doesn't like to hold onto things
with his feet, then hang it!)
• Pinecones! Great fun
but make sure they haven’t been sprayed and are free of pests, etc. (and you
can get very creative with these natural treats as well ... that’s a tale for
another day).
• Empty
wooden spools
(from thread).
• Whole nuts in the
shell.
•
ParroTraps (great place to hide those
corks, small nuts,
craft sticks, dowels,
clothespins).
• Broken toy parts from
hanging toys (keep an extra empty food bowl, stainless steel coop cup,
stainless steel
bucket or stuff into a box to put in your parrots house as a "toy box" so
you can put those odd pieces that still have life left to good use).
• Dowels (go to the
hardware store, buy a dowel and cut it into foot-size pieces appropriate for
your parrot).
• Wooden
ABC blocks
(make sure they are non toxic) that you can pick up at your local toy store
(drill holes or cut grooves in them for added texture.
•
Lollipop (ParroStix) sticks.
• Buy 2" x 2" untreated, pine lumber and
cut it into 2" pieces for cheap, destroyable
foot cubes!
• Clean old socks
(natural fabric only), washed (no fabric softener), knotted or balled (you can even put a
"treasure" inside like a pecan, almond, walnut, wooden block,
wheel of corn, etc.).
• Small baskets, straw
hats, etc. found in hobby shops small gift boxes that you can put goodies into
(dried or popped popcorn, whole or
shelled nuts, wooden pieces, etc.).
• Infant toys and
stuffed animals (you can find lots of safe, clean items at your garage sales).
• Old phone books, junk
mail magazines, old paperback books, catalogs (plus it’s a great way to recycle).
If they are too big, get someone to cut them on a band saw into more
manageable pieces, weave thru cage bars (messy and fun) or just open them up
and hang/drape over a piece of leather,
cotton rope,
sisal or
cord, the birds will take
care of the rest! (If you're bird is a "water dunker," then pass on
this unless you have tested the ink source for toxicity.)
• Clean cardboard box
filled with recycled (clean) goodies and closed up so they have to "open"
their box to get to the treasures inside.
• Plastic water
bottles with the plastic screw on top makes a great foot toy for larger
parrots, put a couple pieces of cork inside and
screw the lid back on. Makes a pleasant noise and the birds love to
play with it!
• Corn husks (tamale
wrappers).
• Curly shoe laces (ParroLaces)
are a great foot toy all by themselves but string some
beads onto it and viola! Instant
parrot fun!
•
Adding machine paper
(cheap, destroyable and easy to find at your local office supply).
