As you will all no doubt know, parrots love to play!  Although they can amuse themselves, interactive play with you is a great way to bond with your beloved pet and a good way to teach them new skills.

Here are just a few of the games that you can play with your bird.

Fetch
We’ll start off with an easy one.  Sit on the floor with your bird and either roll or lightly toss a waffle ball or foot toy a short distance and let your bird chase after it, once they have brought it back praise them and give them a tickle.  As your bird gets used to fetching, roll or throw the toy a little further away each time.

Toss
Either you or your bird tosses and the other catches, a small soft toy of a koosh ball are the best things to use as they are very light.  When throwing to your bird lightly toss to land just to the right hand side of your pet.

Chase
Tap your fingers lightly on a surface and slowly walk them towards your pet saying ‘I’m gonna get you’ when you reach your bird lightly shake their beak then back off and start again, each time you reach them wrestle with them a bit more.  Noddy used to love playing this game and would flip over onto her back to have a good wrestle with me, grabbing my hands with her feet and play biting, then flip back over and run off ready for me to start again!

Find the Nut
This is a great game for teaching colours.  Using a two different coloured plastic beakers hide your birds favourite treat under one of them saying the colour of the beaker as you do, once your bird gets the hang of flipping over the correct beaker to find the treat start swapping the beakers around so your bird has to use colour recognition to find the correct beaker.

Peek-a-Boo
Using a towel, sheet or tissue (depending on the size of your bird) cover your bird and lift up the corner to reveal the birds face and say ‘peek-a-boo’.  If your bird is scared of being covered then take your bird to the bedroom putting your bird on the pillows and getting completely under the covers, make a little tent in the duvet and call to your bird encouraging them to come under the covers with you.

Story Time
Interactive kids story books are great for parrots, anything that makes a noise or has pop-up figures will be a great treat for your bird.

Aeroplane
Put your bird on your hand and fly them round the room or house, soaring them up and down and spinning round and round.

Floor Play
Get down on the floor with your bird and just simple play with them, use absolutely everything and anything that is parrot safe, straws, lollipop sticks, tissues, foot toys, anything.  Simply roll, toss, tug, stack and rip with your bird!

Interactive play with your bird is an excellent way keeping your bird mentally stimulated and preventing stress.  You should also remember that laughter is a tonic for the soul and your parrot will love hearing you laugh and laughing along as much as you do!

 

Dulcie
Avian Consultant