No Enrichment is Parrot Safe

Plastic toys? Yay or nay?

There is no completely parrot safe toy or toy part out there. Period. If someone is marketing their toys as “100% parrot safe” that is false. Although the toy parts involved are not toxic to your parrots, the materials themselves, how your individual bird interacts with it, and the construction of the toy may be dangerous to birds.

Example: wood is parrot safe. There are types of wood that aren’t safe for parrots, but wood is known as a “safe” bird toy part. Alfie (moluccan cockatoo) loves to try to swallow wood. He will chew off a piece and try to swallow it often. Something deemed as “parrot safe” is not safe for Alfie, and can only be given under supervision.

Another example: sisal rope is considered parrot safe. Rukkas’s (red lored amazon) in her previous home was found hanging from a piece of sisal rope by her neck and she almost died. Sisal is parrot safe, but not safe for Rukkas. She gets stainless steel skewers in her cage for all of her toys only, no rope allowed.

Example: I got a stainless steel foot toy that was completely stainless steel. It has a froggie cutout on it out of SS and Jo (yellow nape amazon) got his foot caught in one of the gaps near the legs where he almost broke his leg. But, Ringo interacts just fine with it and so does Alfie. Again, a “safe” toy that wasn’t safe for one of my birds but is for two others. It wasn’t the companies fault, it’s how my individual bird interacted with the toy that made it unsafe.

All of my birds spit out plastic and never ever try to swallow it. But they’re happy to swallow natural parrot toy parts or get their feet stuck in stuff.

So, monitor your birds when they’re interacting with anything to judge what is “safe” and what is not. Don’t bash people who give toy parts you wouldn’t or couldn’t give to your bird. Just because your bird isn’t good with a toy part, does not mean that it isn’t with others. Everyone is free to share their experiences of how their bird interacts with “bird safe” materials in good or bad ways, but don’t ever go after someone who does something differently than you. Also, maintenance your toys in order to keep them safe. Cut off long strings, remove toy parts that have added dangers like holes, sharp points, etc.

We sell parrot enrichment of all types on our online store here.