Making toys at home for your bird is a great way to have some fun, save money and, most importantly, provide your bird with a form of enrichment that will satisfy many of their instinctual needs as well as stimulate their minds and bodies!

There are a lot of bird safe items that you can easily find in your home and repurpose into bird toys like:

You can also find supplies at grocery stores, dollar stores, craft stores, yard sales, in nature and many more places.  There are even online stores that specialize in selling bird-safe toy making components.

To show you how easy it is to make a quick simple toy here is a video that enrichment guru Kris Porter made for use on our site. Kris has posted many more great toymaking videos on the Parrot Enrichment YouTube channel and MakeYourOwnBirdToys YouTube channel.

In order to create a great toy for your bird you will need to:

• Do your homework and learn what components are safe to use.
• Make sure your designs do not pose risks of entrapment or cuts.
• Be creative by incorporating a variety of color, materials, textures, shapes and functionality into your designs.
• Gain an understanding of your bird's play styles and preferences so you can create something he will really enjoy.

There are plenty of great resources online where you can get more inspiration on home toymaking, learn about bird toy safety and buy bird-safe toy parts.  Here is a list of recommended resources to get you started:

• ParrotEnrichment.com
• AvianEnrichment.com
• MakeYourOwnBirdToys.com
• The Parrot's Workshop (Facebook Toy Making Group)

Have fun!