Thrift, or second hand stores, don’t hold the stigma they once did. And in this economy, more people are embracing thrift store shopping. You can find great bargains and items at the thrift store that can be used as parrot toys or toy parts. Dollar stores are another place to go shopping for bargains and items to make into parrot toys.
Many thrift stores have discount days. For example, on Mondays all green tagged items will be 50 percent off marked price at one of the thrift stores in my area. They have senior Wednesdays where all sales are marked down 10 percent for seniors.
At this page I will share my bargain store finds with you to give you an idea of what to be on the look out for when you go bargain store shopping.
BEAD MAZE
I found these bead maze toys in the infants section of the thrift store. The large one was marked $1.98 and the smaller one was marked at $0.99. I bought them on senior Wednesday. With my 10 percent discount the total was $2.67. While some parrots will play with the bead maze toys, mine don't. I still like to find these and take the beads off to use in making other toys. The holes are larger diameter than most plastic beads so they can be strung on the 5/8 " cotton or sisal rope. You can make foot toys out of them. Or, for medium size parrots, the bead alone can be an interesting foot toy. I ended up with 16 special beads for under $3.00.
MAKE BEADS INTO FOOT TOYS
BUDDY LIKES THE BEAD ALONE
STRING ON 5/8" ROPE
I purchased this natural grass mat at a thrift store for under $5.00. I used the large tin snips to cut it into smaller pieces that can be tied to cage bars or used to make toys. I will take pieces of the grass mat and string it on other toys to add shredding texture.
NATURAL GRASS MAT
BYRD
This basket was made out of natural material that looked like it had great shredding potential. It was priced at $0.25. I attached zip ties and filled it with foot toys, a couple nuts and shredded paper.
