Saturday, August 21, 2010

Archie Bunny!

This is to show what a horrifying mess a rabbit can make in just a few hours! It's a good thing he's cute!
(Sorry about the bad photos)
Archie making a mess
Archie
Archie being nosy

More toys

Crazy Wooden Bead Toy
Tonka loves little wooden beads, little sticks, and foam beads, so that is ALL that is on this toy. It also has some small pieces of dried indian corn, and some almonds with holes drilled through them tied on at various places.

He loves it!
He loves it!
I couldn't even get a picture of him still, he loved it so much. Since then I have rotated it through his cage several times, and it is over half chewed up. See all the empty stretches of string? Yay!

Foraging Basket #2

Foraging Basket #2
Foraging Basket #2

This one was really enjoyed, though he didn't chew the basket like I hoped, and he certainly didn't get ALL the toys off. But he would pick out the treats and have fun with any loose bits, so it was pretty successful in my book!

More toys!

Fleecy toy
I like experimenting with different things to see what Tonka gets excited about. I was hoping he would like the fleece, or the paulie rope at the top, but what he REALLY likes about this toy is pulling the scrap bits of fleece that I poked into the wiffle ball out. I kept poking more back in, and he kept pulling them out!

Quicky foraging cups parrot toy
Each beige cup has treats inside and some sort of toy covering the opening.


Foraging cups Parrot Toy
I put treats in all the measuring cups, and taped them closed with paper. He'll ignore this one for weeks and then chew every single treat out in one afternoon. Wierdo.


Party Hat Parrot Toy
Party Hat Parrot Toy
I gave this one to an Austin Parrot Society Member, as well as the next four!

Foraging cups Parrot Toy
Big Bird Toy!
Jumble of Fun Bird Toy
A big bird toy!

Foraging Ice Cube Tray

Tonka LOVES this, as long as I don't cover it with the paper, lol. He is starting to destroy paper a bit more, so hopefully I can try to cover it again in the future!

Foraging ice cube tray!

Foraging Ice cube tray!

Shopping!

Here are some examples of some shopping "sprees" at my favorite place to buy bird toy parts- Dollar Tree! Hands down the best dollar store. A "spree" here might run you a whoppin $20/$30. :)

Dollar Tree Haul #1

Dollar Tree Store Haul #2

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Foraging toys, thinking outside the box

I had one of these: www.amazon.com/Soda-Bottle-Watering-Well-Birds/dp/B00328QMN6


So I turned it into three foraging toys, for the birds at my work!
Three home made foraging toys

This makes a great simple foraging toy, with a few chewies and some seed in it!
Close up

Tonka's first foraging toy that he LOVES!

This was a quickie toy I threw together, but he LOVES it so so much, I have had to remake it several times after he chews the plastic up. This is awesome, as he tends to be delicate with his toys and I want to encourage more chewing!

Quickie foraging toy for tonka

close up

Tonka being a nut

Tonka being a nut

More toys!

Wood, beads, and plastic toys

Spiral with cards and foam beads

Shreddable stuff

DSCN2624

Little tinkly toy

First foraging basket

Also a bit ambitious! I just got excited, and over did it a bit! But he had fun, at least, even if it was a bit much.

I started with a basket:
I started with a basket...

Then gathered a bunch of crap, er... I mean goodies together:
added tons of foot toys, treats, etc

Put it all together:
and put it all together!
(see Tonka in the background? He was very interested)

Then added some fresh foods the night before and stored in fridge:
The night before...

It was in his cage for a day or two and he picked most of the fresh foods off it right away, then seemed to lose interest. I moved it to his playgym after that, and he liked it again!
Tonka enjoying his foraging basket

Tonka enjoying his foraging basket
Here are a few early foraging toys. They were a bit ambitious for a young Tonka. I had mixed results.

Foraging bag

Foraging Bag

Foraging Box

Foraging Box filled with goodies

I finally got him playing with this one, though he never really seemed to "get" that there was goodies inside, lol.
Tonka playing with foraging box
See in the background, the paper dixie cup? I had much better results with that- just a plain dixie cup, hanging wide open. All he had to do was reach right in and pick something out. Much more his speed at the time! :)

Some early toys I made

Leather Bird Toy with Goodies added

Three bird toys

Hanging Toy

Wooden Spoon with goodies

Two toys


I definately got mixed results, as I was/am still learning what Tonka gets really excited about. But he liked this one:
Tonka with a toy

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Post #1!

Hello all and welcome! Let me introduce my black cap caique, Tonka. He is just over a year old, and a real twerp, but I love him!



Tonka is not the smartest bird around. Though he is fearless and athletic and outgoing, he has the attention span of a gnat! He also is not very destructive- he prefers dangling by one toe from his toys. Chewing is just so boring! So teaching him to forage has been a step by step process. In my next post, I'll go over some of the baby steps I have had to take with him over the last year, to teach him how to work for his goodies.

I also have four cats, three dogs, and four rabbits, and they will be making appearances from time to time!