At wit's end with my Kakariki

Irissama · Feb 9, 2012

Hey folks. *waves* It's been a while. XD

I still have all my birds, though I've had a couple scares in the past months with them. I still got my big girl, Pixel... And now she's started to drive me nuts. See, I remember I posted here long ago about her eating newspaper at the bottom of her cage. Since that time, I changed the cage, I put a grid at the bottom of the cage... But then she went "Hey that grid is not very high you know. I'll just dig down and grab what just left me and give it a closer look." Grr. She's an obsessive eater of anything.

...So I raised the grid with rope, by tying it up to the cage higher up. So... She ate the rope. And I literally mean eat it. For a day she freaked me out by excreting rope bits. So after a tense day and a cure of emergency peanut butter by emergency advice from the vet, I removed all that. So needless to say she still continues eating her poo. And then she gives me kisses. I'm grossed out.

Now she started eating all the other rope toys in her cage... I don't think she ingested any but I'm freaked out at this point. The wood perches are chipped, there were rope bits everywhere at the bottom of her cage when I came back home today...

The vet said that I should find "indestructible" toys for her. Preferably with a foraging option since she looks bored out of her skull. She also said I should ask around on the internet to see if anyone has had the same problem with their Kaks. That's where I remembered... Hey yea, there's that cool forum I used to stop by with a ton of nice helpful people, I should stop by again and see if they have any great ideas again! I don't want my girl to hurt herself. Anyone had similar problems?

I swear, even my female budgie wasn't that scary for her health. Sure she destroyed things but then she just contemplated her handywork going "Yep. Nice work. Moving on." She didn't FESTER on it.

MikeyTN · Feb 9, 2012

When I used to have mine, she would chew things up like no tomorrow. But she never destroy her perches nor swing. Mine was a good girl! I miss her....

andrea.faerie · Feb 9, 2012

Kakariki's are high energy destructive little boogers! They can talk too! Try acrylic toys and maybe a tonka truck! (not kidding, try some heavy duty kiddie toys) maybe a croquet ball or a golf ball? ROCKS! uhhhh.... try some bird safe tree branches

They'll be destroyed but at least it's safer (and cheaper) than rope toys! Stay on the forums for a few days and when I go home this weekend I'll make a trip to my favorite bird store and ask what they suggest

I'll try to take some pictures of things I think might work for you

Irissama · Feb 9, 2012

Pixel doesn't talk! I've had her for more than a year now. She prefers to laugh in my face. However she'll often try to match our syllable count with her call. It's not talking but she mimics the intonations. It's adorable.

She didn't start attacking the perches yet, it's just the wood on that big toy I got her when I bought her. The wood is chewed, and that's the one I found rope all over the ground from. I have to point out, I have no evidence she has ingested anything from that toy. I'm just being careful here due to the past bad experience.

I wonder, is there any way that the plastic would be toxic if she ingests it? Can they even break plastic? She has a plastic merrygoround with bells that she rarely plays with. I wonder because she's one heavy duty destroyer!! And wood... if she starts eating wood would that be bad? I'd need something to put food in, the vet really insisted on her needing to forage around and find things. so I need to find something I can safely shove food in. I'm really freaked out by the part where *she already ate rope*.

Who eats cotton rope, that's silly... She's a silly girl.

I'm trying to make her some treats... We have some wooden rings that used to have treats inside. I added in some seeds with some honey... does honey dry up? I never tried before. I'm sorta hoping on that for it to work. We usually buy these rings full of food and throw them at the bottom of the cage, on her grid. When she has those she leaves the poo alone. I don't like throwing away perfectly good wooden rings so I'd like to see if I can just make my own refill!

EDIT: Oh yea, about balls... She has those plastic balls in her playgym, you know the things with a chime in that you give to cats? She doesn't play with them. She picks them up, goes "Huh there's no food." and drops it. However she likes bottle caps, but only if they're flipped. You really see she wants to *figure things out*. :O

andrea.faerie · Feb 9, 2012

Irissama said:
Pixel doesn't talk! I've had her for more than a year now. She prefers to laugh in my face. However she'll often try to match our syllable count with her call. It's not talking but she mimics the intonations. It's adorable.

She didn't start attacking the perches yet, it's just the wood on that big toy I got her when I bought her. The wood is chewed, and that's the one I found rope all over the ground from. I have to point out, I have no evidence she has ingested anything from that toy. I'm just being careful here due to the past bad experience.

I wonder, is there any way that the plastic would be toxic if she ingests it? Can they even break plastic? She has a plastic merrygoround with bells that she rarely plays with. I wonder because she's one heavy duty destroyer!! And wood... if she starts eating wood would that be bad? I'd need something to put food in, the vet really insisted on her needing to forage around and find things. so I need to find something I can safely shove food in. I'm really freaked out by the part where *she already ate rope*.

Who eats cotton rope, that's silly... She's a silly girl.

I'm trying to make her some treats... We have some wooden rings that used to have treats inside. I added in some seeds with some honey... does honey dry up? I never tried before. I'm sorta hoping on that for it to work. We usually buy these rings full of food and throw them at the bottom of the cage, on her grid. When she has those she leaves the poo alone. I don't like throwing away perfectly good wooden rings so I'd like to see if I can just make my own refill!

I save toilet tissue rolls and then I'll cut out a hole in the middle, and stuff the whole tube with tissue paper! Then ill shove pumpkin seeds, nutriberries, dried peppers, and pellets in there too. Then cover the ends and the hole with tissuepaper and let em at it!
Something else you could try is go to mysafebirdstore.com and get some vineballs. I fill them with big pumpkin seeds (just shove them through the vines where they fit) and you could probably put some freezedried mealies in there for your kakariki! and BAM instant foraging toy!
Try hanging her toys from the top of her cage and adding a reptile log on the bottom of her cage for her to play in and hop on (they have some that are realistic and made from plastic for easy cleaning!)
I'm fairly certain they can destroy plastic, but acrylic is QUITE durable. Not plastic... ACRYLIC. It's a bit more expensive, but my pi has had this one toy since he was 2 months old, and he's almost 6 years old and it's still going strong!

MikeyTN · Feb 10, 2012

I stopped using tissue rolls because I've heard they contain something toxic to birds....I used to but I was told by several people not to use them....

Mayden · Feb 10, 2012

I believe the toxic part was the glue holding the tissue to the cardboard. Not all have it though so check

Irissama · Feb 10, 2012

Oh my gosh, that website has so many pretty toys.

And rather cheap too. I wonder how their shipping costs are. Definitely looking it up!! I'll still have to buy some from the petstore first though, they have a lot of similar things there and I have a discount with them. But that website has a lot of cool toys I have to buy her too. Foraging drawers-like toys are usually insanely costly at our pet store. (I see the balls they stuffed full of veggies and I WANT THOSE.)

Toilet paper... Is it safe if she eats it? I see that website too has a lot of "foraging stuffing" things that look pretty destructible. I'm sure she'd love it but I always wonder if she'd be dumb enough to eat them literally. Not that I'd blame her. I did that as a kid. I don't know why. My mom fed me well...

Acrylic is better than plastic... Noted.

I'll buy her a lot of acrylic stuff.

I am gonna SPOIL her. :yellow2:

(You guys need a kakariki smiley. I should make you one.)

andrea.faerie · Feb 10, 2012

Lucy doesn't eat up the tissue roll, She pokes through the tissue paper to get to the food, I take it from her and re fill it once she's bored with it. If you don't want to use tiolet paper rolls you can also use cardstock (heavy paper) and roll it and fasten it with tabs

I've done that before too

No glue! haha

roxynoodle · Feb 10, 2012

My BCC needed toys she had to figure out. One of her favorite things though was untying big cotton rope knots. That one sounds like it would not work with your bird though! She also had an acrylic treasure chest that hung from the top of the cage. It had different shaped holes and was filled with little wood pieces in different shapes. And she had to figure out how to get them all out. She also loved unscrewing all the links that held her toys to the top of the cage. So I would string a bunch together and that would entertain her for a couple of hours while she unscrewed them one by one.

I did get her one of those drawers that she had to flip a lever and pull it out to get the treat, but she thought it was too easy. After she did it the first couple of times, she took it apart and threw it all over.

I did see some puzzle type toys on ebay that go on the bottom of the cage. I never got her one though because she hardly ever went down there. But, that might be right up your bird's alley.

Irissama · Feb 10, 2012

I been thinking too that shoving things at the bottom of the cage might help. Before leaving this morning I added up some leather toys and I had an acrylic toy with bells inside it I was using for my budgies. I crammed up a treat in there... Also for that toy she's destroying I added in some treats in holes in the wood... Maybe that's a bad idea I'll see tonight what she did with THAT.

Also I'm eating a peanut butter sandwich for lunch today so I spread some tiny bits of it over plastic or hard pieces of her toys... not much but maybe she'll spend more time there. XD

At the bottom of the cage I took her cuttle bone and just put it flat on the grid. She never uses it but maybe now it'll pique her interest... I also added the balls I been mentioning there. I doubt she'll play with them but if they're in the way maaaaaybe she'll figure it out.

To puzzle her some more I added some food in two dishes at the far end of the cage. I never use them, there's four dishes all over the cage and those two are flat against the wall and taking the trays mean I have to pull the cage. Still MAYBE she'll find it weird and go look over there.

Definitely going to the pet store tonight to find things to stuff. XD

By the way, I wonder if you guys think that putting buttons in her toys would be good instead of putting paper? We have a LOT of buttons in the sewing box, a huge pot full of them. And we don't have enough shirts to mend!

andrea.faerie · Feb 10, 2012

Lucy and Bleu both LOVE buttons

I get the great big ones (like, 1.5" - 2")

Irissama · Feb 10, 2012

I don't have big ones, just small regular ones. Kakarikis are not very big though, smaller than a cockatiel... So I guess that'd be fine, right???

andrea.faerie · Feb 10, 2012

I think they'd be fine as long as it's not small enough for Pixel to swallow whole. I keep the size big to avoid the choking hazard. I'm sure you also know they need a lot of space to play and they should have multiple level to climb on. Try looking in the reptile or small animals department for branches and structure for your kakariki to climb on if you don't have anything on the bottom of her cage. Giving her plenty of places to explore should also curb some of the random eating of things

Irissama · Feb 13, 2012

She doesn't have a lot of places to explore. Maybe I should get her some boxes and tubes and all, but I had heard it's bad to give those to a female bird??

andrea.faerie · Feb 13, 2012

Honestly, I'm not sure with that one, but I know kakariki's are usually ground level birdies. They eat meal worms and insects on the ground

aussie_wings · Jul 18, 2022

Irissama said:
Pixel doesn't talk! I've had her for more than a year now. She prefers to laugh in my face. However she'll often try to match our syllable count with her call. It's not talking but she mimics the intonations. It's adorable.

She didn't start attacking the perches yet, it's just the wood on that big toy I got her when I bought her. The wood is chewed, and that's the one I found rope all over the ground from. I have to point out, I have no evidence she has ingested anything from that toy. I'm just being careful here due to the past bad experience.

I wonder, is there any way that the plastic would be toxic if she ingests it? Can they even break plastic? She has a plastic merrygoround with bells that she rarely plays with. I wonder because she's one heavy duty destroyer!! And wood... if she starts eating wood would that be bad? I'd need something to put food in, the vet really insisted on her needing to forage around and find things. so I need to find something I can safely shove food in. I'm really freaked out by the part where *she already ate rope*.

Who eats cotton rope, that's silly... She's a silly girl.

I'm trying to make her some treats... We have some wooden rings that used to have treats inside. I added in some seeds with some honey... does honey dry up? I never tried before. I'm sorta hoping on that for it to work. We usually buy these rings full of food and throw them at the bottom of the cage, on her grid. When she has those she leaves the poo alone. I don't like throwing away perfectly good wooden rings so I'd like to see if I can just make my own refill!

EDIT: Oh yea, about balls... She has those plastic balls in her playgym, you know the things with a chime in that you give to cats? She doesn't play with them. She picks them up, goes "Huh there's no food." and drops it. However she likes bottle caps, but only if they're flipped. You really see she wants to *figure things out*. :O

Gremlin has a cat ball too that he doesn't play with. He is also highly destructive. He's destroyed everything on my art desk (paper, and broke a clean paintbrush). I've given him some mineral stones to play with, and he's currently chewing on a chess pawn right now... If I don't keep an eye on him though, there's no telling what he will try to get into...

At wit's end with my Kakariki

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