Easy fun toy to make

[Beeks]

So...I'm at the petstore looking for something new to bring home to "The Girls" and come across this package that say...hours of fun...blah blah something about shredding and food reward so I pull out my money and shell out 10 dollars or so and run home. I open the package and inside is four cardboard boxes about the size of a pack of cigerettes with some stale seed treat inside. OK fool me once shame on you...fool me twice shame on me...SO

being a smoker I got to thinking (and you can do this with raison boxes too for all you healthy people out there) clean the tobacco out of the empty pack...stuff it with goodies...tape it shut and VIOLA...instant bird toy that appeals on all levels. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner as my U2 love to chew up my cigarette boxes anyway. DUH!!! Actually, she still drops the treats to the cage bottom and chews up the boxes but the Macaw has now come to identify Marlboro Light 100 boxes with great things. Yes, I will make sure I keep my pack of real cigarettes hidden away. I don't smoke in the house anyway.

Just thought I would share. I always love a bargain and hope you guys do too.

[CritterLover]

Thanks Becky! Great idea.

I'll pass one on for you. I bought a carton of those plain paper sip cups (the kind they serve those jello shooters in, or hand out meds in the hospital) and they are just big enough to wrap around a nutriberry or a few safflower seeds, or anything else I can think of. Twist up and shove in random places inside the cage -- voila, a fun foraging treat they have fun looking for. They also like chewing up the cup. All my birds love them!

[Beeks]

Thanks Melanie

Another really good idea. I usually give out the cig boxes when the birds are waking up waaay too early for me so, I could use your idea to hide "games" in their cages before I go to sleep to keep them busy and maybe extend the early morning hours of sleep.

[love_none7]

I really don't think cig. boxes are a good toy for a bird...you dont' know if they could get tabaco from it, and I wouldn't want my kid chewing on a cig box, so I dont' want my birds to either

[Lynn99]

I'll admit that my mom gave Charlie a couple when we first got him until I told her not to any more. I don't think it is safe for them even with the tobacco out (smell the box...or get it wet and smell it...theres still a smell to it).
But a safer way like you said would be raisin boxes. Or you could use toilet or paper towel rolls...put goodies inside and fold the ends. Charlie likes to get stuff out of paper bags and LOVES it when I wrap nuts and goodies up like candy, tie the ends with twine and hide it in his foraging toys and throughout his cage. Much safer ways of giving them stuff to keep them busy.