Foraging

Our birds love to forage. In the wild our birds spend most of their time foraging. It is an activity that they not only enjoy but need. Foraging toys should be given to your birds. These are toys where you can hide treats or that your bird has to work to open, etc.

A foraging toy doesn't always have to be about food. I would consider several of the puzzle toys as foraging activities. There is one where the bird has to remove items of various shapes through holes that are the same shape. I would consider this a foraging activity.

Foraging has been known to help birds that pluck as well as help with some behavioral problems due to boredom.

Captive Foraging DVD.

Lots of information on why foraging is so important for your birds. Also, foraging ideas. Just click on the picture below to order the DVD.

Some foraging ideas:

	Cover their dish with a piece of paper. You may have to start with a hole in the center so they can see the food inside. Once they get the hang of this, tape it down so it's more work to get off.
	Use a paper cup and put their food inside it, then crumble it up so they have to work to get their food out. Place the crumbled paper cup (with food inside) in their dish.
	Place food in various areas. Set up a foraging tree.
	Wrap their bean, rice, veggie mixture into a leaf of lettuce or kale so they have to tear through the green leaf to get at their food. Hopefully they will eat the green leaf in the process.
	String food along their cage.
	Hide food inside toys with lids that the bird has to open to get the food or toy out of.
	Use a skewer to hang food on. Use a whole corn on the cob, etc.
	Weave food or something chewable through the cage bars.
	Make a lettuce or kale ball. Like a pom-pom only out of greens. Then hang it up.
	Mix seeds in bowl with larger beads or clean stones. They have to search out for the seeds.
	Hide nuts or seeds in toys, rope strands, etc.
	Drill holes in a piece of wood and hide seeds or nuts inside.
	Hang a small stainless steel bucket on a rope with a treat inside. Your birds has to lift the rope up to the perch to reach the bucket to get the treat.
	Cut a coconut in half. Hollow out a coconut shell and drill a hole in the center of the top half and the center of the bottom half. Then use a stainless steel chain and put it through the coconut holes. Hang it from the cage. Put a treat inside the coconut and the bird has to open the lid to get the treat out.
	Cut a pomegranate in half and put it in their dish. They can spend hours digging out the seeds.
	Be creative!

Parrot Enrichment Activity Book. This is very good with lots of pictures.

Parrot Toys for foraging toys.

More to come

Last modified: November, 2007