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Gus has a few forage toys but I kept hearing people talk about foraging trays so I decided to make one. I used a cardboard shirt box (like you would wrap a present in) and filled it with raffa, shells, nuts, dried fruit, popsicle sticks, shredded papper, millet, & anything else I could think of. Instead of leaving it open, I thought I'd give him a little more of a challenge so I put the lid on it & cut some holes in it. Most of them about an inch in diameter, but one larger one in the center. Besides making it a little harder, it keeps the mess a little more contained. He is loving it. I'm sure many of you make a lot of these types of toys for your little guys too. I'd love to hear your ideas!

Make sure the holes are too big to get his head stuck. That'll really freak him out. Too small and he can chew them to a hazardous size. Foraging is good.

Yeah, I thought about that. I think the holes are big enough that shouldn't be an issue. But even still, he only gets to use it when I'm there with him. He has such a good time with it!

a very simple toy you can make is simply to fill a bowl with a lot of wood beads (like 100) and put a pine nut or something else in the bottom.

Thanks for the idea! The wood beads leads me to another question. Recently I was going to buy some wood beads to make other toys with. I found plenty of them in a local craft store, but none of the packages gave any information about dyes or varnishes. I was looking at beads without a glossy finish, but I still didn't want to assume that they were unfinished. So I ended up not buying any. Where do you get your beads & have you ever had any problems?

Buy from a bird toy part seller. Birdsafe (birdsafestore.com) who posts here has some. Jan does too (pionusparrot.com).

The question is not only what do they have on them (finish, etc.) but where have they been? I get my supply directly from a wood supplier that sells only wood items, so you konw it hasn't been around anything harmful.

Thanks guys! Good info. I'll check out those sites.