As a bird owner, you know how important it is for your parakeet to have a plethora of toys at its disposal. Not only will toys enrich your bird’s life, but they’ll also keep them preoccupied and less prone to undesirable behaviors. Unfortunately, buying bird toys at the pet store can add up fast, and since your parakeet is likely to destroy its favorite toys in a few days or weeks, it can feel like a massive waste of money.
Luckily, you can cut some of the recurring costs of bird ownership by choosing to make your own toys. Keep reading to find nine of the brightest and most creative DIY toys for your parakeet.
The 9 DIY Parakeet Toy Ideas
1. Ladder by Serribrat’s Pet Rat Page
| Materials: | Wooden dowel, wooden craft sticks, plastic zip ties, screw-in mug hooks |
| Tools: | Yardstick, hand saw, drill |
| Difficulty Level: | Easy |
Though this ladder DIY was initially created for pet rats, you can easily use the instructions to craft a ladder for your parakeet. Using natural, undyed, and untreated craft sticks is the key to ensuring this craft is safe for your bird.
This project is very fast to put together and entirely customizable for the needs of your parakeet. You can make the ladder as long as you need it to be to have it make sense in your bird’s cage.
2. Beaded Rope Ladder by Talk Budgies
| Materials: | Bucket o’ beads, natural hemp rope, metal hook loops, pine dowel, coarse sandpaper, dust mask, protective eye gear, ruler |
| Tools: | Hand saw, electric drill will drill bit, scissors |
| Difficulty Level: | Medium |
This colorful beaded rope ladder is another relatively easy ladder project, albeit a bit more time-consuming than the previous one. The hardest part of this DIY is making the rungs; you need to be a bit handy with power tools to get them just right. Once the rungs are made, it’s smooth sailing as all you need to do is install the string and bead the rope. The more colorful beads you can find, the better, as birds love colorful toys.
3. Tasty Foraging Toy by The Parrot Forum
| Materials: | Homemade treats, millet, shredding material, cords, toilet paper rolls. random toy parts, papers, c-clamps |
| Tools: | Scissors |
| Difficulty Level: | Easy |
Is there anything better than a toy that encourages your parakeet to forage and rewards it with a tasty treat for its efforts? This yummy foraging toy is a great DIY you can put together in an afternoon using your favorite homemade parakeet treat. If you’re using toilet paper rolls for this project, find some that do not have glue, as it can be unsafe for birds.
One of the best things about this craft is that you can make the toy as complicated or easy as you like. The original creator used many different materials to make their toy, but you can make yours a little simpler by using what you have on hand.
4. Egg Carton Foraging Toy by Pet DIYs
| Materials: | Egg cartons, rope |
| Tools: | Scissors, something to poke holes |
| Difficulty Level: | Easy |
This super easy egg carton foraging toy can be put together in just a few minutes with items you probably already have at home. All you need to do is cut out the egg cups in a cardboard egg carton and poke a hole through each cup. Tie a knot at one end of a rope and add your cups onto the string, switching the direction of every new cup to create a pocket for hiding treats. You can make your toy as long as you’d like it to be.
5. Little Bear Toy by Alen AxP
| Materials: | Wood beads, wooden bear heads, rope, stainless steel rings, clip |
| Tools: | Scissors |
| Difficulty Level: | Easy |
This straightforward and affordable DIY bird toy uses supplies you can find at your local dollar store to create an adorable human or bear-shaped parakeet toy. If you’re a parent of small children, this is a fantastic craft to enlist the help of your kids as they’ll love seeing the figures come together as you add more beads to your rope. The more colorful your bear/human figure is, the better!
6. Cupcake Liner Toy by Ompb Club
| Materials: | Cupcake liners, paper straws, craft raffia, assorted beads |
| Tools: | A big pin, scissors |
| Difficulty Level: | Easy |
This cupcake liner toy project is super easy to do, and the results are colorful and beautiful. All you need to do is buy some bright cupcake liners and flatten them. Then, tie a knot in a long piece of raffia string and thread through plastic beads (the brighter, the better), a paper straw, and more beads. Tie a knot on the end of the string and repeat. You’ll then poke a hole in the center of the cupcake liners and the straws you’ve threaded onto the beaded strings. The final effect is a bright toy your bird won’t be able to resist.
7. Hanging Beaded Toy by Teagan Creates
| Materials: | Beads, string, rings, ponytail |
| Tools: | Scissors |
| Difficulty Level: | Easy |
This hanging beaded toy only requires a few basic supplies, many of which you probably already have in your home. All you need to do is cut your pieces of string to the length you desire, double the string over, tie a stainless-steel ring on the end, and start threading the beads onto one end of the rope. Once you’ve added enough beads, tie the ends to keep them secure and start beading the other ends.
8. Coffee Filter by Pet DIYs
| Materials: | Coffee filters, rings |
| Tools: | Hold punch |
| Difficulty Level: | Easy |
Most people have coffee filters in their homes, so this coffee filter toy should be a quick project you can whip up in minutes. All you need to do is grab your coffee filters, fold them in half three times and then punch a hole in the top folded area. Thread the filter onto your binder ring and keep adding more filters until the ring can’t hold anymore. Use the ring to hang the toy in your bird’s cage.
9. Beaded Cardboard Ropes by Aliboo TV
| Materials: | Cardboard squares, beads, parcel string |
| Tools: | Scissors, something pointy to poke holes |
| Difficulty Level: | Easy |
This easy project requires you to poke holes in cardboard squares and then thread these squares through rope, tying knots and adding beads between each layer. You can make the ropes as long or as short as possible. Feel free to connect a few of these toys in your parakeet’s cage at differing heights to keep it interested in its new toy.
Dangerous Supplies to Avoid
The one downfall of DIYing your parakeet toys is that not every material is bird safe, so you’ll need to be very careful with the supplies you use to put together your toys.
Final Thoughts
Bird ownership is costly, especially when you’re constantly buying new toys for your pet. With these nine DIY projects, you can refresh your parakeet’s toy supply on a budget so you can save your money to spend on other things like food and treats. Just make sure that the supplies you’re using for your projects are bird safe and if you’re ever in doubt, do your research before using them.
Featured Image Credit: Stephanie LeBlanc, Unsplash
