Budgie enrichment toys?

[IRescue452]

My friend got a baby budgie today for her birthday present to herself. I already made her upset days ago by grilling her about how its alone and how much time will she have for it and will her place be warm enough since she likes cold and air conditioning. Her birthday isn't until Saturday so I want to buy some toys for the bird for enrichment. I know eventually she will buy some but right now she just got the cage and stand, food, and the bird. I want to know the best toys for a budgie.

[Karen]

Definitely a mirror, perches, and then things that it can toss around, like the cat toy balls, a little ladder - and some millet is a treat and busy work!

[Husky_mom]

the cat toy ball is great.. bells.. paper to shred.. but nothing in the world beats millet.. they just looooooove it..

[Bonny]

My two keets love their swing. It is attached from the top of the cage & they love to jump on their swing & flap their wings.

[IRescue452]

Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't know they played with cat toy balls. I went bargain shopping and found a bunch of interactive puzzle toys you attach to the side of the cage on clearance at petsmart for $1 each so I got all three styles. I also found a wood and leather dangly toy that's huge. And lastly I got one of the plastic springy parakeet toys that looks like a bird because I figure since this little guy was from a cage full of birds and is now alone he'll need at least a plastic companion. The puzzle toys will encourage this friend to buy different food treats for the bird, because all they got it was regular parakeet diet and nothing more. She hasn't even gotten a cuttlebone.

The situation with this friend is tough. She has personality disorders so I can't bother her too much all at once about how to take care of her animals or she'll shut me out. Her whole family likes to have pets, but the animals have no quality of life. They meet the minimum requirements to keep the animals alive for a full lifespan, but the animals just sit there with nothing to do and they don't go above and beyond how to take care of them. But they think they love their pets. She had two rats who had a small cage and food and water, but beyond that they didn't have toys or entertainment or out of cage time very often. They woke up in the morning because they had the requirements to live, but what did they look forward to, sitting in one spot for another day? Maybe getting 10 minutes of play while the cage was being cleaned? But nonetheless they lived to almost 2 years before dying of old age and poor health (they were bred as food by a local nasty pet store and both had tumors).