Fowl Play Offers Superior Toys at Competitive Prices
We are a family owned and operated business with a passion for parrots of all sizes. Our wood toys come directly to your home from the manufacturer...us. Customers benefit because our toys are better made and last longer than most others. See for yourself. Just hang a toy from an on-line or local "Big Box" store next to a similarly sized toy of ours and make the comparison. With ours you get more value added, a better product at a fair price.
Every member of the Fowl Play family takes pride in the quality of our products. Our quality control expert is a family member with a reputation for being a real five-star curmudgeon. No kidding! Everything that leaves our business for your bird must meet rigorous standards. Superior quality control is possible because we make all of our own hanging toys, foot toys, and many of our own toy parts. In the Fowl Play Workshop we do everything from cutting planks into wood shapes, to drilling, sanding, and dyeing.
Fowl Play tries very hard to give you an accurate photo of our toys as well as lots of other information on each specific toy. We tell you how our toys are constructed -- size of major toy parts, materials used, and so forth. We take pains to accurately size our toys to bird type, knowing that larger birds need larger toys for safety reasons. We use sturdy hangers (such as no Pear Links on toys for medium and larger bird toys) and we tie many, many knots to secure toy parts (trying our best to keep toy parts on the toy, not tumbling to the floor with one or two chews). The payoff is that customers, busy as they are, take time to tell us that they love our parrot toys and appreciate what we do.
Parrots at Play
Each bird has it's own individual play style. Some are very gentle with their toys, others are unusually rough. On average, most parrots love to shred, chew, and otherwise "make mulch" of their toys. It's what they do! Play substitutes for what energetic, healthy birds do in the wild. Play is a companion parrot's "work"...it's what they do to expend excess energy. Watch as your bird chews through a hardwood star or shreds a pinata. Notice how attention is focused on the task at hand; how the beak, feet, even wings get in on the action. Toy parts crash to the floor, depleted. Bits of wood, leather, cotton fiber, sisal rope are sent flying. Pleasure and lots of exercise are the end products of most parrot play.
Birds treasure shapes and colors. They are more likely to play with toys that capture their interest and can be shredded, chewed and otherwise picked apart. Sure, it's okay to have some "indestructible" toys, but be sure to also provide plenty of stuff for birdie mayhem. A bored bird is an unhappy bird. An unhappy bird may become a perch potato or resort to negative behaviors such as screaming, biting, over preening, and feather picking to reduce stress.
Remember that every bird has favorite play things and favorites do change over time. It's best not to clutter a bird's cage with too many toys, even favorites. Have a few staples, but switch and exchange toys often. You can even spread toys out on the floor, or a table and let your parrot choose. Put the rejected items away for a couple of weeks and do it again. When considering a toy, take the size of the bird and it's personality into account. Just because a product is labeled a "bird toy" does not mean it is appropriate for your bird. Carefully inspect all parts of a toy before giving it to your bird. Look for potential hazards. Sometimes a toy can be altered to make it safe for your particular bird.
It's not always easy to tell the size of a toy from a picture on the web or in a catalog. Unfortunately, some toys advertised for large birds are actually sized for medium and smaller birds, so take care. Fowl Play tries very hard for truth in advertising, giving you an accurate photo as well as information on the toy size. Toy length and width will help you gauge how well it will fit the cage or play stand.
Toys and Toy Parts
The Fowl Play Workshop uses only welded metal rings and chains on our medium and large bird toys. We do not use split rings (key chain rings) on any of our toys as they are a hazard to your prized feathered friend. It is possible for an enthusiastic bird to pry open a split ring, catching a tender beak or tiny toe. Quick Links are used as hangers on larger toys for maximum safety, while Pear Links are used when appropriate on smaller toys. All Fowl Play metal bird toy parts are nickel-plated, stainless steel, or anodized aluminum. During the anodizing process the coating is heat-fused to the item so the color is permanent and will never chip off.
The Fowl Play Workshop only attaches bells on our x-small and small bird toys. The clappers on all our bells are sturdy, not cut from of a thin piece of metal like those on some bird toys. We don't use bells on our larger toys because some enthusiastic parrots are masters at removing and dismantling bells, posing a hazard. You would think that as smart as birds are they wouldn't swallow a bell clapper, but many birds have. We use 100% natural cotton rope that is carefully stored to keep it fresh and clean. Almost all of the wood hangers and larger wood parts we use in our toy making are made in our Fowl Play Workshop. We use FD&C approved human grade dyes and strive to make sure that our parts are properly sized for the toy and the size of bird.
You will notice that Fowl Play handcrafted bird toys have plump, fresh, bright, domestic leather that is vegetable-tanned, zinc- and chromium-free and processed in the midwestern USA. After making our toys we take care to store them properly, keeping the leather fresh and clean for your bird.
We use some plastic parts on x-small and small bird toys and Marbella on larger toys to add the color and texture which birds crave. Only Marbella parts are used on our medium and large bird toys. Marbella (made by a small American company) is a high impact acrylic, meaning that parts made of it are much, much more difficult to break. If a parrot does manage to break Marbella, what's left is in chunks rather than in shards, making it safer than regular plastic.
We sell lots of toys for x-small and small birds. Many pet birds, however, are in the medium size category and you will find a wealth of hanging toys and foot toys on our site to satisfy their chewing needs. Fowl Play also counts many large Cockatoos and Macaws among our loyal customers. For these especially ENTHUSIASTIC chewers, we have a few truly large hanging toys that will keep them occupied while providing opportunities for chewing and shredding.
Our online catalog makes specific recommendations for all sizes of birds. We encourage folks to keep in mind that by watching their bird at play they can come to better know preferences and capabilities and become "the expert" at purchasing appropriately sized, challenging toys that their bird will love.
Suggestions About Toys
1. Avian veterinarians recommend keeping a wide variety of toys on hand and rotating them periodically. Birds need variety, otherwise they may become bored and begin to exhibit unwelcome behaviors such as plucking, biting, over-preening and so forth.
2. Some birds tend to be afraid of new toys. One strategy to help them accept new ones is to start out with smaller toys and over time gradually work up to larger ones. Another strategy is to place the toy where the bird can see it from afar, gradually moving it closer to the cage each day, placing it on top of the cage or hanging it outside the cage, then finally, inside the cage.
3. Some medium sized birds are BIG chewers that make "mulch" of small toys in record time. These feathered mulching machines would do better with a larger, sturdier, more challenging toy.
4. No toy is 100% safe, so always watch how your bird plays with new toys and frequently check all toys for wear that may pose hazards - such as loose fabric strips, frayed rope or strips of leather, dangling clappers.
5. As a safety measure when hanging toys, make sure you tighten Quick Links with pliers. Be sure the size of the Pear Link or Quick Link matches the size of the toy. Large toys require bigger fasteners.
Let Fowl Play Supply Your Flock!
Whether you have one bird or a feathered flock, please think of Fowl Play when you need toys and chewies. We offer a large variety of hanging toys, foot toys, shredding toys, and preening toys sized to fit birds ranging in size from X-small through Medium and Large. Be sure to take a look at our value priced “Combo Packs” of chewies and toy parts. We stuff them full of our most popular items, keeping in mind bird size and customer budgets. Although we make size recommendations for our toys and chewies, we encourage you to keep in mind your bird’s preferences and capabilities. You are the expert when it comes to choosing appropriately sized toys that are both challenging and entertaining for your bird!