The Best Bird Toys

Providing toys for your pet bird is absolutely essential. He needs toys to prevent boredom and keep his mind active. Without toys, your bird can easily develop behavior problems like screaming, feather plucking, and biting. Bird toys come in all shapes, sizes, materials, and colors. However, all toys are not made for every bird. It's important to provide the right toys for your pet bird's particular species. Some toys for larger birds can be harmful to smaller birds and some toys for smaller birds can be harmful to larger birds. It's important to know what to look for. What To Buy Pet birds need a variety of different bird toys to ensure that their physical and mental needs are being met. Pick a few toys from each category to make sure your pet bird is happy, healthy, and well occupied. It is important for your bird to have: Foraging Toys Foraging toys are highly recommended by avian professionals because they provide an outlet that requires your bird to work for his food like he would have to do in the wild. Preening Toys Stress and boredom can lead to your bird over-preening or feather plucking. Preening toys (such as rope) are a great outlet for birds to satisfy their need to preen. Shredding Toys Shredding toys are also great for relieving stress and boredom for your pet bird. Nothing is more fun than tearing up a new toy! Chew Toys Chew toys are great for pet birds because chewing is a major part of a wild bird's life. Chewing is especially important for larger parrots. Comfort Toys Birds enjoy physical contact with each other in the wild. Pet birds need the same thing--they like to cuddle with or crawl into something soft. This help alleviate stress and provides a sense of security for your bird. bird toys Exercise Toys Exercise toys such as swings and ladders are perfect for encouraging movement and physical exercise. Important Toy Features For your own reference, and so you will know that the bird toys we recommend really are the best for your bird, here are the most important toy features you need to take into consideration when shopping for toys on your own: Attachments - The safest toy attachments are C-rings. They are safe to use for all pet birds. The most dangerous attachments are the keychain ring and split rings. Bird toes have been caught in a number of these rings because of their size and shape. Rope and Chain - Bird toys are usually hanging by a rope or chain. Make sure that they are close-linked chains (at the right size) and that whatever holding it is strong enough for your bird (or you'll just be replacing it the next day). Bell - No jingle bells. These are the round bells with small slits in them and are unsafe for any bird. Material - Toys are made out of all kinds of material. The most common are acrylic, bungee cord, fabric, wood, plastic, leather, and rope. Acrylic toys are easy to clean and are often interactive-type toys which are great for relieving boredom, but make sure they are strong enough for your bird. Bungee cords are fun and most are safe, just make sure that your bird can't get himself tangled in it. Fabric is another favorite and are great for birds with a habit of feather plucking. Wood is very common and great for chewing--choose wood toys that are made with natural wood and birds really like ones with colors (non-toxic, of course). Plastic toys are best for smaller birds because larger birds can crack them and ingest pieces. Leather is fun, but difficult to clean and you need to make sure that no toxins were used to treat it. Rope is definitely a popular favorite because birds love to preen them. This is probably the best preferred toy material for canaries--they just love it! Just make sure that your bird can't get any strands wrapped around his toes and that the toy is always clean.