As some of you know, we went away for two weeks at the start of December and left Cosmo with my parents. Well, my mum with her grandmotherly tendencies decided to give Cosmo a toy She put in one of those toys with all the plastic rings that interlock and hang down in the cage, with a bell at the bottom.

 

Anyway, he has befriended the bell. He spends a lot of time with one foot on the rings, leaning down and talking to the bell. My husband was getting concerned that Cosmo is too obsessed with the bell and we should take it out. Normally I would agree, but when I thought about it, I realised that I'm not sure we really need to. He is very attached to it, and if we take it out of the cage he follows it and clings to the nearest side of the cage... but otherwise, he's not aggressive - he doesn't bite us when we go near it, he's happy to come out of the cage and spend hours away from it. So considering it's not causing any problems, I am thinking maybe it's fine for him to have it in there as something to play with when he is in the cage? Is there anything wrong with letting a budgie have an inanimate girlfriend, if they're not getting aggressive?

i think all parot type birds should have bells

but if it gets rusty ever tosit but replace with same type buy some now incase

go the bell

GN says go the bell

 

I say

 

Throw the bell !!!!!!!! Get rid of it

why is that kaz ?

maybe I need to make a poll about it? Go the bell vs throw the bell.

 

At the moment I'm thinking, because we're going to Melbourne next week but only for a few days, he'll be with my parents again... it might be nice to let him keep his favourite toy while he's away from us, and then take it off him once he's settled back home again. But if it's a real hazard I would get rid of it sooner.

I'ma fan of toys for my budgies. I only recently added them to my aviary including thngs with bells and even mirrors(which I wouldn't recommend for you of course), overall I'm very happy with the result, there has been about a threefold increase in noise from my aviary which I take as a good signand they are always chewing, climbing and generally having a blast with the toys when I go out there. I have some which are tame and have loved the mirrors and bells but will still talk to me when I go out so I haven't found it to be an issue from that respect.

 

 

So I guess you'll be carrying our box of budgies with you on the plane then

We were worried about Ernie getting to obsessed with one of his toys, a spiral rope with wire on the inside to hold its shape. He would go straight to it every time we opened the cage and just sit in the middle of it. So we decided to get another couple of toys and we were going to continually swap them over, but as soon as we put another toy in his cage he started sharing his time between his toys. I assume he just enjoys them and isn't so obsessed with the spiral rope.

Cosmo has a couple of other toys which he occasionally plays with, but is pretty obsessed with this bell. But right now he is sitting on my husband's shoulder while he plays the piano... and the piano is right next to the cage, so it's not like he's so obsessed that he's even trying to get back to his bell. He's just singing along to the piano.

Bells and mirrors are things budgies especially budgie boys get obsessed over. If you have a tame budgie I would say No bells or mirrors. If its in the aviary with aviary birds I would say, dont worry about it

Bells and mirrors are things budgies especially budgie boys get obsessed over. If you have a tame budgie I would say No bells or mirrors. If its in the aviary with aviary birds I would say, dont worry about it

 

 

now i know wher you are commin from kaz sometimes the toy can destroy lots of hard work of tamming

this can be true i dont give my pet birds mirrors but i do still give bells

does depend on the bird an idea is mabe keep it for out of cage play like a small reward play time treate

[does depend on the bird an idea is mabe keep it for out of cage play like a small reward play time treate

 

Smokey has a mirror for playing with when outside his cage, otherwise, no mirror inside the cage... just a bell, swing and some colourful dangly things. He's most infatuated with his swing... does the same thing (ie holding it with one foot whilst holding the perch with the other and talks lovingly to it etc)... but we won't be taking his swing off him... Like Cosmo, he isn't aggressive or anything about it.

If it's not causing problems then let him have it. There is no need to throw it away, if he loves it, because if it is causing no problems then throwing it away isn't going to achieve anything, but make him sad. Get some more toys and make sure to swap them around a though.

CaspersRose-- Cosmo used to do that exact same thing with his swing before my mum gave him the new toy

 

Thanks everyone for your advice. I think what I will do then is just leave everything as it is until we get back from Melbourne, give him a few days or a week to settle back home, and then rearrange the cage, which will involve either moving or swapping the toys.

CaspersRose-- Cosmo used to do that exact same thing with his swing before my mum gave him the new toy

 

Thanks everyone for your advice. I think what I will do then is just leave everything as it is until we get back from Melbourne, give him a few days or a week to settle back home, and then rearrange the cage, which will involve either moving or swapping the toys.

 

I also "re-arrange the furniture" when I do a major cage clean, and rotate toys etc