7 Most Amazing Toys For Cockatiels (2023)

Pros:

• Promotes both shredding & foraging – Cockatiels will have fun shredding the wood to pieces while also foraging through the coloured paper for tasty treats! The best aspect of this shredding ball is that it encourages birds to both chew and forage, which are their main instinctive desires.

• Great value for money – The 2 pack of wooden shredding balls is easily one of the most valuable toy packages on Amazon. Spending less than $15 USD on two high-quality toys is definitely a bargain, especially compared to most other bird toy prices!

• Natural wood materials – The shredding balls are made from natural wood and rattan. There are honestly no better materials to be used in bird toys than natural materials.

• Broken toy parts can be reused – Once some of the wood is destroyed, it can be reused in a DIY toy or just hung on the cage. I did this with one long piece of broken wood and my cockatiel seemed to have more fun with that than with the actual toy!

Cons:

• Not very durable – A dedicated chewer can break through the wood in a week or even less. Once the wood is broken, the paper falls out, which makes the toy essentially broken. But I guess this is why you get 2 balls for the price of 1.

Pros:

• Ideal size for cockatiels – The Wesco bird kabob measures 19 cm in height, which is arguably the ideal toy size for cockatiels, who themselves are 30 – 35 cm in height.

• Highly durable – I bought this toy for my cockatiel back in October and it’s still going strong at the end of November. There are 7 separate blocks on the kabob and 5 of them remain untouched while the top 2 are almost gone. This toy is definitely one of the most durable toys on Amazon.

• Easy to shred – Since it’s made from a very soft and fibrous pithy wood, the bird kabob is easy to shred, especially for hookbill birds like cockatiels. However, it still retains high durability.

Cons:

• Difficult to install on the cage – One thing I wish I knew before buying this toy was that it does not have a quick link connector for easy installation on the cage. I found this very annoying and had to use a connector from an older toy to attach it to the cage. You could also just tie the top rope around the cage.

• Rope easily frays – The rope that holds the wood blocks can fray easily if targeted by your bird. If your cockatiel targets the rope more than the wood, it might be best to remove the toy.

Pros:

• All three toys are excellent for foraging – You can easily turn all three of these toys into great foragers. With the bottom two toys in the image above, you can add treats to the triple-stacked balls. The top toy in the image is best used on the cage floor and you can add treats throughout the coloured paper.

• Encourages shredding – As well as foraging, your cockatiel will spend a lot of time ripping apart the rattan balls and coloured paper.

• Good value for money – 3 good quality toys for $16 USD seems like a pretty good deal to me. That’s about $5 for each toy, which is not bad, considering you can pay more than 20$ for a single toy.

Cons:

• Includes metal bells – two of the toys have metal bells at the bottom, which have the potential to be toxic. However, they’re quite easy to remove.

• Not very durable (each toy) – The individual toys in this package are not very durable and each toy will probably only last a few days or less. However, the entire bundle of toys should last at least a week or two, depending on your cockatiel’s destructive dedication.

Pros:

• Good foot toy – The sola balls are very light and can be picked up by cockatiels and similar-sized birds with their feet. If your tiel doesn’t want to pick it up, they can kick it around like a football with ease!

• All-natural materials – As the name of the toy suggests, these sola balls are made from the root of the sola plant, an all-natural material that is 100% safe for cockatiels.

• Ideal for chewing – Although they aren’t very durable, the sola balls are great for chewing. It’s soft enough to shred and rip apart, but it’s also tough enough to keep your bird’s beak trimmed.

Cons:

• Cannot be attached to the cage – There are no quick link connectors on the sola balls, meaning you cannot attach them to the cage. You’ll need to place them on a platform or on the roof or floor of the cage.

• Will be destroyed quickly – Even a less active chewer will go through one sola ball within just a few hours. I’d say one ball would be destroyed in an hour or two if your bird is super dedicated. I guess this is why they’re available in packs of 3 – 6.

Pros:

• Good value pack – What compelled me to buy this toy was not the toys themselves, but how many different types of toys you get for the price. I would argue that it’s one of the most valuable bird toy bundles on Amazon.

• Each toy is unique – Although many of the toy parts are similar across all 7 toys, each toy has something different. Some are ideal for shredding (2, 5, 1), and some are better for foraging (1, 2, 6). Due to its variety, your cockatiel will have a different experience with each toy, which is good for keeping them interested.

• 6th toy is pretty durable – Out of all the toys in this package, the 6th toy lasted the longest. It’s a hand-woven toy that seems to be made from some sort of reed material. The materials used for these toys haven’t been specified, only that they’re natural materials. The 6th toy was used for both shredding and foraging as you can easily hide treats between the weaves. It lasted longer with my cockatiel than the other toys.

Cons:

• Included metal bells – The 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th toys have metal bells at the bottom. The 4th toy actually has 4 metal bells. Again, metal bells have the potential to be toxic for birds and should be removed.

• Not all toys are good for cockatiels – Not all of the toys in this bundle are good for cockatiels. The 4th toy in particular was meant for birds to go inside, but cockatiels are just a bit big for that. Also, the 3rd toy is made from hardwood that is almost impossible to shred, so it hardly served a purpose with my tiel. The 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th toys are definitely the best out of the bundle.

Pros:

• Highly durable – The high durability of the spiked pinata comes from how tightly it was woven together. Even when holding it in your hand, you can feel how tightly woven it is. The image above on the left was the toy after a few weeks of active playing from my cockatiel. Although it’s not in perfect condition, you can still see that a majority of the toy remains intact.

• Made from all-natural materials – According to the manufacturers, the spiked pinata is made in the Philippines from natural palm leaves, as well as renewable and recycled materials. Good for the planet, and loads of fun for your cockatiel!

• Ideal for chewing – Although I found some ways to hide a few treats within the spiked pinata toy, it’s best used for shredding. Your cockatiel will enjoy chewing on the toy’s body and ripping apart the strands at the bottom.

Cons:

• Bit expensive – Honestly, I couldn’t find any faults with this toy. But if I was going to nitpick, I would say that it’s a tad expensive for just a single toy. $20 USD per toy is usually not within most people’s budgets, especially during these current (2022) times.

Pros:

• Made for prop training – These aren’t regular foraging or shredding toys, these are prop training toys that you can use to teach your parrot a whole range of puzzles. This particular set allows you to teach your cockatiel how to place rings over the tower, how to bowl, and how to ride a skateboard.

• Ideal size for cockatiels – The ring tower measures only 16cm in height, which is a good height for cockatiels to reach up and loop a ring. The bowling alley measures around 30cm in length, which is good for cockatiels to walk around it and figure out what they need to do.

Cons:

• Your bird can’t use them independently – Foraging toys and shreddable toys can be used independently by your cockatiels. These puzzle toys on the other hand are only useful for training, which requires direct interaction. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, this is just a unique type of toy.