You don’t want to overwhelm the bird with dozens of toys; rather, a couple toys in the cage to start are fine. Again, if there are familiar toys from the bird’s last environment to place in the new cage, that’s great. If the bird didn’t have those, then offer him or her a couple of different toys with different textures or different colors. Some birds like to chew on wood, while other birds like cork or paper. Different species have different needs. Cockatoos are real chewers. Amazons also can be real chewers. On the other hand, I have a pious parrot that has had the same toys in his cage for years and years, because he’s not really a chewer. It just depends on the species of bird and on the bird’s personality. Let your bird be your guide. Offer him or her different textures and colors and see what he or she gravitates to. Then you can offer other toys that are like the ones he or she seems to like. I have a cockatoo that I have bought so many different toys for, but he only likes one toy – just a bunch of different colored wooden sticks sticking out of a ball. Over the years, I have learned that I do not need to spend a lot of money buying him all kinds of fancy toys, because all he really wants is those sticks. I have wasted lots of money on lots of other things but learned that he always chooses the simple sticks, and they make him happy.
We all have preferences – preferences for food, for clothing, for colors, for music, and for many other things, and so do birds. So, get to know your bird, and see what he or she gravitates to in terms of textures, colors, sounds, sights, and even tastes of food, and then go with that.
