Bird Not Getting Enough Play Time? (Try This)

Nice video Mr.Womack, I have a few more ideas to out now myself! My Pionus seems to like ropes to climb on, and will climb down his ladder to the floor to find his daily “rope trick”in view for him to investigate! Thanks Again!

Hi Chet,
Ref “5 Simple Tricks For Entertaining Bored Birds”.
Excellent video. Clear and to the point, and makes great sense.
We’ve got a tower, but it simply has a swing at one end and a swinging set of stairs at the other, with pegs around the pole.
I will now see about fitting the `food finding toys’ in as many places as I can to it, to give our Grey (George) some extra interest in life!
Keep up the good work,
Regards,
Bob

Your emal subject said 5 tricks for your bird but I could not find them with your links

What I would like to know is how you go about teaching a bird to use some of the toys that you cant see the food. Our bird tends to ignore them completely.

couldn’t see any of the video on this website.

cannue get audio on any your stuff

this e-mail link doesn’t work

Hello Chet,

Very informative video. Great ideas and products.

Steve Hartman

Another trick is to take old socks and stuff it with treats and hang it in the cage.

Aloha Chet,

What a great video & wonderful idea. I have 2 Ringneck Alexandrines (Popeye & Sweetpea) that are going to love this new tower idea. To answere your? Popeye & Sweetpea are members of the family..not just pets! As are my other birds…6 cockatiels, 8 lovebirds & 9 budgies.

Thanks for the video & tips,

Aloha,
Deb @}–}}——-

Loved your video, great ideas, thanks for the info. Do you have any great easy ideas on how to trim the birds nails without having to wrap them in a towel??

Mark,
I often use things like cardboard rolls that paper towel comes on and fill it with scrunched up paper with a few nuts hidden randomly inside. At first my eclectus ignored it, but i made it really easy at first for him to work it out. I packed the paper in really loosely and let him see an almond poking out, i even helped him a bit. He soon started trying to get them out and with some help pulling paper out etc he got it. Now, as soon as i put a roll in his cage, he starts trying to get the paper out and get to whatever is stashed inside…
Maybe you could do something similar to kind of “show your bird how to do it” with your food toys. As i’m sure you know, they are masters at copying and if they get a good treat at the end, they will be interested.

Cheers
Matt

Chet, have found your tips very helpful in the past. My Alexandrine parrot “Pedro” was a very aggressive bird with plenty of bad attitude, thanks to a lot of your tips he is now a great pet and a fun mate. He sits on my shoulder and nibbles my ears and never stops trying to have a conversation with me . My family and friends get a lot of fun watching him and being entertained by him.
Cheers

cHET,cOULDN`T GET ANY VIDEOS. wISH i could especially the free one ,parrot training video. ANN KING

I am very thankful for your video. My African Grey, Malik, is very much afraid of new toys and new people. I have already begun hiding some food based on your previous training advice and it seems to help. I look forward to trying some of the food finding toys.

Thanks again for your great work!

Chet I enjoy your newsletters, I live in Australia, I can never open any of your videos, I never receive any free offers by mail, even though I request ,therefore I am not confident about purchsing from you as I am doubtful that I may spend money but not receive it. Thankyou

Awsome !!!!! Thank You for this WONDERFUL Idea….Ky My G&B Macaw will LOVE this …I’m ordering 1 today !!! ;o))))
Thank You So Very Much,
Connie and Ky

Great tips on all your videos. One of the foraging toys I saw on the vid clip had unshelled peanuts in it. I have been told that any unshelled peanuts, even human food grade, could contain a virus that is fatal to parrots. Do you treat them somehow to render these safe? How do you know that the source of supply is really clean of this threat? My senegal used to love his half peanut in the shell each morning but I’ve quit giving them to him because I don’t want to lose him to some disease. Any ideas?? Thanks CB, Canada

Wish I could watch the video the dial up modem will not let Us watch it. I have a bored bird, Chuckles is very much afraid of new toys and things in her cage

You will laugh, but I have found that the parrot training tricks also relate to humans too much of the time and I have applied some to my fiance with great success! Interesting………………..

Hi Chet,

I’ve just watched the video, I think those trees would be great. I’m from Australia too, (maybe the video problem ‘Beverley’ has might be because of whatever internet server she’s with or the speed it might be, I’ve been able to access it fine).
I’m about to check out the http://www.bird.com site to see how much these trees are & see if I can purchase one to be delivered over here in Australia.
Thanks, M.S., Australia

Chet,

You have an amazing talent and I am so very thankful that you choose to share it with us. It takes special people to work with birds (especially some of the birds you rescue), and you are definitely one of those people. I have used sooo many of your tricks and tips with my Quaker, Skittle, and he is a very content and occupied bird, except with my mother (who lives with me).. He will ask her to “kissy beak”, make a kissy sound, but if she gets close enough to him for a kiss, he bites her – how can I stop this??? If she is THE ONLY PERSON in the house with him and he wants to get from his flight cage to his “playhouse”, Skittle will “allow” her to pick him up and place him on the playhouse, but even then, most of the time he tries to bite her once he’s safely on one of his perches? Any tips?

Sheri

Thanks this is very helpful. My birds are smaller but I can make due with substitues. Great to get the advise.

I’ve found that some of the toys suggested are a bit too big for my budgies… Could anyone suggest alternatives?

Hi Chet,
I enjoy all your tips, we have the deluxe tabletop tower ( Amazon I think its called ), I wish I had bought a bigger one though. Our Timneh grey doesnt use it much, but she is fully flighted, its not very common to clip birds in the UK. I personally believe this is much better for the bird, leads to less problems, feather plucking etc .
However she wont stay on the tower for that long. She has quite a lot of foraging toys in her cage, and as well as her pellets gets veggies, fruit, and soaked pulses and a few soaked seeds. She is five months old and just getting a little “beaky ” at times !! We had a Hahns macaw for many years, so an African grey is different !
Anyway, thanks again, and I know its early, but Happy Christmas !!!

cheers anyway but i already have a play area for martell [my grey]and have used they tin of nuts play thing in his cage for wen im not in the house they all help entertain him when there is noone about

I love your video’s my indian ringneck is only a year and a half old and still such a child. The problems we are having is that he is still biting his second care giver, and when he is in his cage all he wants to do is get out of his cage so he just screams and screams and screams, now I know why the woman wouldn’t sell him to us if we lived in an apartment. I have him out for hours for play and free flight and cuddling, but it never seems enough . He’ll be out for hours and as soon as he is back in his cage he will start to scream. Time outs don’t work anymore, he knows he can scream through his cover. Help what can I do, he’s making us all deaf. Please any advise will help. Ive read alot of books but they are so evasive with the training aspects that they don’t help alot. just basics. Thanks and keep up the excellent work you are doing with the birds.

Is it true you should not give your parrots shelled sunflower seeds? I have been told no way by our avian vet and yes by breeder. Should you also leave food in cage all day? Breeder said 2 hours at a time. WHAT DO I DO?

I can’t see the video – bird.com keeps popping up after 30 sec. I have tried several times….. HELP

great video … great ideas … actually my bird was next to me watchin the video .. now it’s time to try hiding hid food!!!

I liked the video an ideas,But I have used those toys for my cockatoo (Gabbie) an he brakes them to pieces if he cant get the food out fast enuff an even chewd up the tower hehe it keeps me busy making him toys. Got any more ideas
Thanks

The video is really interesting but the problem I have is that because Eclectus need a larger amount of fruit and veges than other types of parrots, filling foraging toys with them is very messy. My girl doesn’t get excited AT ALL about any sort of pellets (I have tried nearly all of them) and I although she loves most nuts, they have to be given somewhat sparingly. Any other suggestions that I could use for her would be greatly appreciated.

Linda

The video was great, I would soooo like to get hold of a parrot tower – but does anyone know who might have them in Switzerland – or could you arrange to export them? I know of a firm who sells parrots and parakeets, but they don’t have parrot towers. It’s one of the biggest pet suppliers and garden centers around here- Schilliger – in Geneva and Gland, Switzerland Schilliger.com

Thanks
Alison

PS – It’s especially the toys – I could build a tower with some spare wood – though not as good . Any ideas welcome.

Hi Chet,

What a great ideas! Actually I liked them so much and my african grey RUM too. Once again thanks Chet….. Best regards …. Raed

Hi ya..i have one of your videos and i very much like.
See some people cant open links or ya videos…Im sure its not chets links and videos it is at the other end..something may not be right or emails are blocked or security set to high.
I get em here in Australia..
All the best

Katrina for your budgies try little plastic swings or anyswings for that matter with bells attached…oh mine love them and what show offs

nice of you offer ths video

Thanks so much for making this video to share with everyone. If you have a bird that is not interested in the toys where they can not see there food or you have smaller birds that wont be able to use the toys provided try weaning them to the idea of having to look for there food by, covering there normal food bowl with paper or a paper towel with food inside. There used to being feed from the bowl so they should catch on soon! Then try using the same materials to wrap up nuts or treats inside of a paper ball or twist the side of the paper around a nut to look like a peice of candy and string these insde the cage or place in bowl, so that they being to be associated with finding there food. They will learn to explore these little bundles to see what’s inside. Then graduate to plastic materials like the toys or the woven pouches. For smaller birds you can just keep hiding food in paper, cardboard, napkins etc…

For those people who have problems viewing the videos or links won’t open – it can be a variety of reasons not related to chet’s sites or Linking engine.
For instance, you may need to install or update your media player or change settings in your browser or Security suite. For some, it may be your connection speed, for others it could be the computer’s graphics card may need updated drivers or codecs.
Wonderful info Chet, keep em coming! (I often apply the ideas behind the tricks to training my dogs and horses as well – every animal gets bored at some time)

Hi Chet,
great video, great info over the last few weeks, have my new senegal 5 weeks, she loves the tower treats. Your info is really helpfull in getting my sennie to bond with me and others. Thanks

Hi Chet,
I was dissapointed that I couldn’t get the viedo to play.I noticed several people that wrote in have the same problem.
Do you know why? Let me know.
Gladys

hey great idea but i own a lorikeet and they eat fruit and sloppy food i think it would be a bit of a mission to hide that type of food any ideas for rainbow loris?

Hi there you guys, I can’t thank you enough for all the info regarding training our birds.
I’f got one problem, African Grey coming out the wild, and screaming my head of when coming near her cage. I got all the videos for training and manual, but can’t find some info to get the stick’s (Training Video one) in the cage and tri to calm her in some way or tactching her and not to scream and be calm. She fladder and scream non stop and I did tri several times with the 2 sticks but with no resusults at all.

Hi there
We’ve been looking into the foraging toys and have become quite excited.
But I just wanted to recomend something that works well for smaller parrots as the larger ones might break it. I have a Hahns Macaw and she loves cat balls (cat toys-see-thru balls with a bell inside) so we got her a few hollow balls with tiny holes in them. I just took some sunflower seeds and stuffed them inside she started to roll it around and when they fell out she ate them. Soon she got the hang of it and ate nearly all of them, and, just to make it harder for her we got a ball with beads in it already. Something else that’s good about the ball with holes is your parrot can hold it in her feet.
Hope it helps!

Thank you so much for your video. My cockatiel used to scream for attention and would be bored all day, but after folowing your video, he would keep himself entertained for the hours I am at school.
Thank you!

The”parrot tower” looks grat and has given me some good ideas to help keep my conure healthy and happy, Thank you.

As always Chet, wonderful information. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Must now go out and try to find some of these items in South Africa!
Kind regards
Nola

Hi, I can’t understand how to add your site in my rss reader. How can I do this?

I’m disgusted that Bird.com does not ship internationally. I’m in England and i am denied the ability to purchase the 100 dollars worth of items i just spent an hour adding to my basket. UGH!

[...] way to fix this problem is to do what I talk about in a recent past blog video that I created about how to create a curious environment for your bird with play trees stuffed with [...]