Toys are necessary for the mental health of your parrot. Without toys, a parrot or cockatoo will suffer extreme boredom which can manifest as aggression, self-mutilation or reclusive behavior. Toys are not optional. They are mandatory enrichment items that help an intelligent creature survive in our world. That said, it is important to note that they can also be a deadly hazard to their health in captivity. In the wild parrots are known to exhibit behavior that is strikingly similar to children playing with toys. They have a whole wild world of natural toys in the jungles and forests with which to play. They have parents, siblings and flock members to show them the safe way to enjoy their freedom; large parrots and cockatoos have a five-year juvenile dependency period in which they learn how to live. In our world, they are taken from their parents before they hatch, raised in incubators, handled by human breeders and then sold frequently to novice caretakers that have no idea that they are bringing home a wild animal. These captive intelligent creatures are like autistic children in many ways. They do not know safe from unsafe unless someone takes the time to teach them. It is up to us to teach them how to play safe, watch them to make sure that they do, and choose toys carefully to both enrich their lives and ensure that they remain unharmed.

Choosing toys using good judgment is one key to safety. Another key is vigilance. To be relatively safe a toy must be nontoxic, free of entanglements, and must not have easily swallowed small parts. As the director of a parrot and cockatoo sanctuary, I have seen many toys that appeared safe turned into dangerous weapons by a creative bird. Fortunately, keeping a vigilant eye on our flock has kept us from having deaths related to these "safe" toys. One such toy was a hanging wooden basket. This basket had nickel-plated chain so there was no danger of zinc poisoning. The chain attached to two sides of the wooden basket and came to a point with a small pear quick link to attach to the bars of the cage. One of our umbrella cockatoos, Snoball, broke the pear link and the basket fell. The basket wrapped around the umbrella cockatoo's neck. He panicked. Running with the basket he twisted his neck from side to side and managed to wrap his neck with the chain; he could have choked to death. He had to be subdued with a towel and then carefully extricated from the toy. Because I was there and vigilant Snoball was not injured. I no longer have hanging toys of this type in the play areas.

Buying toys for your beloved companion birds is no easy task. There are many things to consider. I will go over the dangers in detail but do not let this make you paranoid. The issues that I will discuss are real and important. Nevertheless, you will need to make the best decision that you can based on available choices. This helps to limit the dangers arising from playing with toys; keeping an eye on them during play protects against unseen danger. Just do the best that you can; that is all that anyone can do. I make most of the toys for our birds myself both to cut costs and to insure their safety. I buy the wood, cut it into shapes, drill it, color it and string it on nickel-plated chain using split metal rings at the top and bottom. Next, I attach string and put on beads and plastic shapes. Sometimes I put colorful cloth ribbons or other adornments. A few of my toys have been misused by the birds, too. I just do the best I can. Again, safety is a combination of both caution in purchasing toys and keeping an eye on the parrots during Paw Patrol spielzeug .