Several new budgie toys laid out.

Petco budgie toys unboxing

I recently went into our toy cabinet, typically a treasure trove of unused budgie toys, and found that the cupboard was empty! I’m not sure how it escaped my notice that we’d run out of new toys and the cabinet was just full of random spare parts, plastic chain and extra perches. Of course this wouldn’t do at all, so I resolved to restock immediately.

Typically I buy budgie toys from Amazon, but the last few times I’ve done that I have had trouble telling what size bird the toy is for. I don’t like ending up with a macaw-sized toy that needs to be returned. Also unless it’s a brand name I’m familiar with, I worry somewhat about the quality and safety of the toys.

I used to love ordering from Doctors Foster and Smith, and since they were purchased by Petco, I hoped the experience and selection would be similar. I went a little crazy and ended up spending about $130 on 13 toys.

By way of review of Petco, I have to say I didn’t really care for shopping on their site. They did have the ability to filter toys by type of bird, which I always appreciated about Doctors Foster and Smith. But, there wasn’t the ability to “quick add” anything to a cart, so if I knew I wanted a bird kabob I had to access the product listing, add to cart, end up in my cart, and then start all over again filtering products.

Price-wise, comparing against Amazon after the fact, I don’t think I made out particularly well. It seems like pricing is either comparable or I paid  bit more than I needed to.

Two boxes and a shipping bag of budgie toys
So many toys, it came in three shipments.

I waited for everything to arrive and then opened all of the boxes at once.

Several new budgie toys laid out.
I may have gone overboard…

Here’s a listing of everything I got. The product links do go to Amazon where possible rather than Petco. I’d rather not encourage you to overpay as well! Also Petco’s shipping took longer than Amazon’s would have with Prime. (Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial)

In every case that the toy was available at both Petco and Amazon it was less expensive at Amazon. Some by up to $5. I do see that there is a price match guarantee at Petco, but it feels like less legwork just to buy the item where it is less expensive to begin with.

We did have a lot of fun unboxing the new toys, I laid them all out on the floor and let the budgies run around and explore. For those who might be worried that this is overwhelming, I’m sure it could be for some budgies but ours really enjoy it. Additionally, I don’t swap an entire cage of toys out, these will be rotated in over a series of weeks or months.

That actually reminds me of a good tip, don’t ever put a new toy in your parakeet’s cage right before bed time. New stuff can be very scary to them, even if it’s a fun toy they will come to love. Always swap out toys as early in the day as possible to give them time to adjust to the new thing and find it non-threatening

A blue budgie examines a bunch of new budgie toys
Toby likes to check out all the new toys, don’t worry though, she doesn’t get them all at once!
A pale budgie examines her new selection of budgie toys
Kelly has chosen her favorite new toy already

While it was certainly fun loading up a cart of bird toys and doing a grand unboxing, I probably won’t order from Petco again. In the end I wasn’t thrilled with the way the site functioned, the pricing, or the selection. This doesn’t mean that I’m any more inclined to buy toys that I’m not familiar with from Amazon either.

I think the next time I need to restock, I’ll probably shop direct from a brand that I know and love. A couple of solid possibilities include Super Bird Creations and Planet Pleasures. They are both well-known and respected companies with products that we’ve used before and the budgies have loved.

What are some of your favorite budgie toys? Let me know what I’m missing out in a comment below.

11 thoughts on “Petco budgie toys unboxing”

  1. My budgies love the plastic bird swing where 2 of them sit on either side of the mirror as well as the wooden one that swings. They also like the plastic colored little balls with the little bell inside along with the little rattle toy. I put them in front of their food dishes and the just LOVE to knock them off and watch them hit the floor of the cage! As i pass the cage i put them back up from time to time. They like to play the game just like a toddler who throws something on the floor so you pick it up and they do it over and over. I also put little wind chimes in their cage as they LOVE to bump up against it and make it chime!

    Reply

    1. I love your wind chime idea! Thanks very much for sharing. I have a bunch of little toys in a feeder attached to the outside of their cage that mine love to throw on the floor too!

      So funny how an expensive toy can be totally rejected in favor of throwing something tiny. Kind of like little kids just wanting to play with the box a toy came in!

      Reply

  2. Have you ever purchased from Feathered Addictions in Canada. Bargain with the Canadian dollar so crappy
    Nicole and her team make awesome toys You can even buy stuff to make your own.

    Reply

    1. Thank you SO much for the tip, I had never heard of Feathered Additions but checking out the site their toys look awesome!!

      Reply

  3. I love following your birdie blog and hearing about your feathered kids. Since commenting last time one of my budgies has passed. i was going to get another cagemate for Scrappy but she seems so much happier and perkier now that she is alone. I have had them for 10 years and I am not sure how old they were when I adopted them. I couldn’t seem to tame them enough to let them fly free which saddened me. Growing up we had 2 budgies that were always free and it was so amazing. But I followed your advice and they have have a huge cage. And now that Scrappy is alone she is enjoying every inch of the cage. she is completely different now. She even lets me know if she wants her music on or when she is ready for bed. I also swap out her toys and rearrange her interior occasionally. I am still trying get her to eat anything other than seed and millet. Maybe now that she is by herself she will try it. I was wondering how long the shreddable bird kebobs last your budgies? I just put one in today and it is 1/3 gone. She adores it.
    Well thank you for all of your advice and stories. Kisses to yoor babies.

    Reply

    1. I’m so sorry for the loss of one of your budgies.

      It’s great that you took the time to see whether Scrappy would be happy by herself rather than getting her a new pal immediately. It sounds like she is flourishing as an independent lady. It is so sweet that she’s communicating her wants to you too, sounds like she is just doing great!

      The bird kabobs can get torn up really fast, especially by a female budgie since they tend to be tremendous chewers. About three days for a full kabob would not be unusual for one of my girls, Kelly (the palest one) just likes to chew all day.

      Best wishes to you and Scrappy on her continued happiness and maybe trying some vegetables someday!

      Reply

  4. Thank you for reminding me about empty boxes in the cage. I had a female one time who i actually made a jungle gym out of used cereal boxes! She LOVED going in and out of he holes i made.

    Reply

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