More in common than we thought...

Even in bird land, the women do the decorating and the men sit outside and wait...

LOL. It's like looking a women's clothing store. Women are in the change room, while the men all gravitate to the sitting area and wait it out.

But, why so little toys?

I know they are breeders, but it just looks sad. Needs a splash of color!

Hahaha! Ask Crystal about that!!

Great photo!

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Great photo!

Thanks I thought it was one that crossed the species divide!

zazanomore wrote:

But, why so little toys?

I know they are breeders, but it just looks sad. Needs a splash of color!

Actually, Crystal and I are working on some chew toys that I can buy in bulk from her.

That said, I feel a need to add that the fact that it "looks sad" and "needs a splash of color" is perhaps a human interpretation of the situation. I don't know that you're wrong, but I don't know that you're right either. I do know that when I've given my pairs toys, they've paid attention to the toys right up to the point that they started paying attention to each other. Even the males sitting outside seem to show no interest in toys - all they seem to be interested in is being ready to take care of their girl when she calls.

I do offer ALL of my birds enrichment in the form of fresh greens, vegs, and fruits that they can play in and with (and they do) every day. My birds that aren't in bonded pairs and the birds in my "hen house"(the flight where I keep my "ladies in waiting" and my juvenile bird) have toys to play with. My hen house, for example, has swings, hard chew toys, soft chew toys, a preen rope, and a stupid plastic hoop toy that one of my birds just loves. It's true that their cage doesn't measure up to some of y'all's that I've seen, but they seem to be pretty happy with it.

The birds in my hen house get offered a bath in a pie plate of Deep Rock bottled water every other day. The rest of my birds get spritzed with the same water twice a week and are offered a dip on a rotating basis - it comes out to about once every two weeks. They drink bottled water, eat cooked food (the recipes vary) 2-3 times/week and eat a custom mix of seed that I make with the help of a certified avian nutritionist because I couldn't find a commercial mix that I felt was good enough.

I spend, at a minimum, 6-8 hours each week just sitting and watching my birds. Just sitting and watching... not working, not talking, not moving around... sitting and watching. I know the behaviors of each of them intimately. If any one of them was not happy, I would know and would do something about it, you may be assured of that. They are quite possibly some of the best cared for "breeders" in the state - toys or no toys.

Stryder beak approves of the new toy He sat there for about 15 minutes talking to it...then dove in and has been nibbling away at it all weekend. It is still standing, and should be there for a few rotations.

The bigger boys are still nibbling at theirs - so it should live up to the rath of the budgie flight!

I got distracted by Mario Brothers toys and neglected the second half of our discussion

For our flights at the store, we used to weave green and red lettuce through the bars - the finches & canaries went wild for it!

My breeder amazons ignore toys when it's that time of the year. When there's no nest box around they will play with some toys but not like the pets do.They seem more content to just hang out with their mate.IMO their mate is more enrichment than any toy will ever be.A good example is Jake ,she rarely plays with toys if i'm in the room,unless i'm playing with it too.