Homemade Toys

I got home tonight to a clean house. My husband agreed to do the dishes and the laundry if I let him get a new video game. So with my newfound extra time I decided to make some new toys for the birds.

I love making bird toys. The birds always seem to play with the ones that I make more than the ones I buy for them from the store. I get them excited about play with them by letting them watch me make them. Tonight as I was making these toys I let Bert watch. Everytime I put a woodblock or piece of paper together Bert would approve by telling me "Yes, it's good." It is so funny to listen to him praise me as if he was my supervisor. He likes to watch me do housework and say the same thing.

I didn't have a whole lot of spare parts to work with tonight but I managed to make four new toys. I usually keep wooden blocks, rawhide strips, yarn, and hemp string in my toymaking kit. I also try to buy new toys that I know I will get "spare parts" from so I can make new stuff later. What I made tonight was a paper chain out of a cereal box for Miss Jackie.  That was fairly simple. I connected each strip together by cutting slits in the end of the strip and them hooking them together. It's a basic paperchain technique that you learn in kindergarden. I used the wood blocks and party paper to make a new toy for Johnny bird. And then I cut up paper from an old phone book and threaded yarn through it for Bert.

No sooner than a few minutes after I hung the paper toy up on Bert's playstand  did he begin to dig right in. As you can see it this picture this toy was an instant hit! Bert cannot resist tearing up paper and I have to find ways to keep him occupied otherwise he will tear into the newpaper that I use as a liner for his cage. Unfortunately he was being camera shy and wouldn't let me get a picture of him playing with it but you can see where he has already started chewing on it.

Finally I took an old toy that was on the communal playgym and refurbished it. It originally was a wood block toy with rawhide and beads on it. It was one of those common storebought toys that my birds lose interest in real fast. I took all the damaged pieces off and made this little toy using some left over rope I had in the toy kit. I don't know if this one will be a success but I am not worried. If they don't play with it I will just take it apart and make something else.