My galah has become completely obsessed with shredding cardboard box after cardboard box!
Not sure if this is too do with the breeding season behaviour but its a good thing keeps him happy and a free toy as well.
I'd rather he shredded boxes than his feathers, he is such a playful boy.

Both my Too and my Grey love shredding boxes and as long as they don't make a nest out of it it is fine with me! I just change them out practically daily!

I use telephone books, paperback books, and rolls of adding machine paper. At the moment there is about 12 inches of shredded paper in the bottom of Tut's cage. He plays it all day and makes a comfy spot to sleep in.

Oh, yes I use those too except for the adding machine paper. They love it!!

Tut would rather pull the adding paper than eat. I push out the core and pull the paper from the center making a tall cone. Or...I will pull from the center and make a big pile in the cage.

I very seldom buy them "bird toys" anymore. I make up toys with pieces left over but by far the paper is the most favored. Plus it's C-H-E-A-P! Ten buck=1 toy or ten bucks=24 rolls of paper.

Cardboard boxes are one of our favorite toys here. Phone books come in at a close second. I only use cardboard that is uncolored and has minimal printing on it. Can't recall trying adding machine paper though, will have to try that one.

a great place to get free cardboard boxes is the food section of Walmart when they are stocking shelves.

I use food boxes with Cassie. I nest small boxes inside bigger boxes from extract boxes on up to cereal boxes. Sometimes there are as many as 6-7 boxes together. I poke two holes in the back near the top and string a piece of raw hide through and tie it to the side of her cage. She loves it and some days she will go through two sets of these. I often wonder what the recycle guy thinks when he comes across these tiny pieces of cardboard and one sided cereal boxes.
Nancy

hee hee hee Keep 'em guessing! That's a really good idea, and i am going to have to steal it! I bet a little piece of something edible would be the "icing". . .if the "cake" needs any!
I like shredded paper of any kind for compost!

At the rate I'm going saving boxes and plastic grocery bags people are going to think I'm a hoarder! I have a 3x4x2 foot box that I load with food boxes so I always have plenty on hand. There is always a stack in the kitchen too waiting to go up to the box, if they make it that far.

My M2 is also obsessed with turning cardboard boxes into confetti. At first, I was cutting boxes and stringing them together to make toys. Then, I realized this work was completely unnecessary. I now throw in 1-5 boxes daily. Her favorite is a wine carton (with the dividers still inside) - you can get these for free from numerous places. Like JM47, I put the confetti pieces in my compost pile.

I do wonder about the ink and other chemicals used in cardboard/paper production - wish there was some evidence about whether the bird is ingesting any harmful toxins (same would apply to the frequent practice of supplying telephone books).

Just like Tuts cage Chuckles and Quinn shred and chew then to the bottom they go, they have a great time. Mango I think has OCD he likes his cage neat and organized, he dosen't like his toys moved LOL I haven't tried a phone book I will have to do that it all sounds like fun to bad we are humans.

My dad bought a new pair of shoes for work before coming home today. He sat in the living room putting foot pads into his new shoes and of course Krystal climbed down off of the sofa to go investigate what he was doing. He played with the empty box for a minute but as soon as he saw dad putting pads into the new shoes, he lost interest in the box and started trying to get the shoe away from my dad. He seemed to be more interested in the shoes that came out of the box than he was in the box itself.

That's a first, hahah! In my experience, all of my "kids" tend to prefer the packaging their toys come in to the toys themselves!

I'm wondering if he wasn't actually allowed to play with peoples' shoes in his previous home. He'll pick up a bedroom slipper or a flip flop and try to carry it off. He seems to have a definite thing for footwear.

At the same time, I'm wondering how much he was allowed to play with things like cardboard boxes because he hasn't shown much interest in them.