foraging?

So I keep hearing cockatiels being referred to as grass feeders or something like that and I hadn't heard that before but I get the gist of it. Anyways, I want to provide some sort of foraging the mimics going to the grass and poking around. Could i get like a little thing of grass and hide seeds in it? what kind of grass would be safe? what about soil? Should I just grow my own?

Since I live in Colorado that would be an interesting conversation...
"Hi mom hi dad I'm going to the store to get some soil so I can grow my own grass"
"anna I thought we raised you better than this"

LMAO!! :35: Wish I could help you out Anna..lolololol..I'm curious myself as I see Beebs always picking at "things", imaginary or not and would love to see him forage.



Jim

Absolutely! I recommend you go out, find yourself some grass (appropriately far from any roads), I suggest grasses with accessible seeds for extra fun - and cross-reference the look of the grass with this great list of safe & toxic grasses:
Cockatiel Nutrition (Safe Grasses)

I'd personally just make sure I grab the cleanest handful of grass and just stick it in their cages in a bundle, but if you're concerned you can freeze for a week, or, soak the grass and stick it in the oven on low heat for a while and it should take care of anything potentially living in there. ...And then bundle it up and stick it in the cage! It should promote shredding AND natural foraging where they're able to actually pick seeds off of the grass like they would in the wild - cockatiels naturally eat plenty of fresh grass seeds!


If you want the grass more like a ground foraging activity where you hide treats rather than actually foraging for the grass seeds specifically, I absolutely recommend this guide for growing wheatgrass without soil:
Growing Wheatgrass without Soil | Prune+Nurture - Singapore Parenting Blog

getting grass grown outside in my area is a big no-no. We have to have our trees regularly sprayed for pine beetles and that's gonna leak into the grass.

I'll look at the guide to growing wheatgrass as that seems like the best option.

I read that budgies you could out said in s bowl a d hide the seeds in the sand...I haven't done it yet though

I would be worried about them ingesting the sand

You can get grass-patches ready made (the ones they offer for indoor cats) to try out if your bird likes it.

If you let sprouts from normal seedmix for tiels go wild you will end up with grasslike-plants anyway-- so no need to buy extra.

(It happens at work a lot: we do not discard some left over seedmix after feeding fresh- so the collecting bucket stays put for about a week or two, depends on what 'hothouse' it is in -- I prefer the orchid ones: a nice 26 degrees there, so everything sprouts like crazy and grows on "nothing but air and water" - nutritionally not so good as sprouts, but the birdies have fun!)

I remember decades ago when I had Wally the Budgie there was a company called "Hearts Mountain" that did birdie stuff. They had a little round plastic container that had a slotted grate on top,where you attached it to the cage bars inside,and just watered it and in a few days grass would sprout and grow.

Wally simply loved it! He'd sit in the grass chewing away to his hearts content I don't even know if that place is even in existence anymore



Jim

Do you think I could use turf? or fake grass?

Owlet said:

Do you think I could use turf? or fake grass?

Click to expand...

I think that would be like us eating TOFU!! lol


Jim

Well I'm not expecting them to eat the grass or trying to get them to eat the grass just pick inbetween it for seeds and stuff

Owlet said:

Well I'm not expecting them to eat the grass or trying to get them to eat the grass just pick inbetween it for seeds and stuff

Click to expand...

Gotcha! I guess "turf" is real grass,right? I'd be worried it was sprayed with some sort of chemical to promote growth or to keep unwanted buggies out,and be worried that birdie<s> would ingest some inadvertently while picking for seeds..I dunno call me paranoid



Jim

could you see about getting some grass seed and potting it and letting the grass grow and have it be a playing/foraging spot for your boy

AmyMyBlueFront said:

Owlet said:

Well I'm not expecting them to eat the grass or trying to get them to eat the grass just pick inbetween it for seeds and stuff

Click to expand...

Gotcha! I guess "turf" is real grass,right? I'd be worried it was sprayed with some sort of chemical to promote growth or to keep unwanted buggies out,and be worried that birdie<s> would ingest some inadvertently while picking for seeds..I dunno call me paranoid



Jim

Click to expand...

I think turf is essentially just plastic "grass" when my brothers did sports I commonly saw it used for fields.

LordTriggs said:

could you see about getting some grass seed and potting it and letting the grass grow and have it be a playing/foraging spot for your boy

Click to expand...

I just don't know what types of grass or soil would be safe

I would not use fake grass- ingesting pieces of plastic is never a good idea...