Forage toys?

[hiriki]

Hello everyone!


I have a Jenday conure - or "sun-day", depending on who you ask - and I've been banging my head against a wall trying to get her to eat pellets! My recent tactic has been mixing Zupreem pellets & Zupreem "sensible seed" in a forage wheel and leaving Harrison's and Zupreem in a 3:1 ratio to free feed in a bowl. I know Zupreem is dyed but my hope is it'll encourage her to eat. It does occasionally but I can see she's not eating nearly as many pellets as she is seeds, she just plays hunger strike if I take her seeds away :/


Anyway, the forage wheel has turned out to be a good addition since now if she's going to eat seeds - at least she has to work for them! It's put me on a forage kick, I know I'm late to the party but better late than never.


Now I'm hoping for more forage ideas! I've seen cardboard boxes suggested but since those are destructible they seem fun... but probably not a practical general feeding tool, since they're a finite resource. I'm thinking something reusable, like drawers - but wooden? Ultimately destructible but a little more durable?


Does anyone know of an online seller that makes fun, durable reusable forage toys?

 

[chris-md]

Foraging forum to come!

In the meantime, you can turn food items into foragers: stuff the food in peppers or artichokes, put food in a bowl with artificial grass to rummage through.

 

[SailBoat]

I'd love to add to this topic, but our Amazon see Forage Toys as a wall between him and Food!!! If the Foraging items is not easy to defeat, he simply takes it to the staircase and pushes it over. If it breaks open, life is good, if not, he then pushes it under something to hide it from future use.

 

[hiriki]

Like an entire foraging subforum?? That sounds fantastic & I'll keep an eye out for it!! Thanks for the tip.


@SailBoat: lol oh my gosh, that's so cute!! What a brat


My conure is like that, my cockatiels are just lazy enough to hang around the conure and wait for her to discard the treats she doesn't want. They're very skilled scavengers.

 

[charmedbyekkie]

Check out "Creative Foraging Systems" - they make a bunch of acrylic foraging toys. Do read the reviews to see if size is suitable for your bird. Along the way, you'll probably be able to find a few knock-offs or similar products.

I've also noticed a newer brand called "Busy Bird" that has metal foraging toys. I haven't tried them out, so I can't vouch for them either way.


That beings said, our boy (an ekkie) anyhow plays with his acrylic foraging toys. He's learned his foraging toys too well, they're no longer puzzle pieces for him - just delaying his access to treats.

When we humans need him to be busy but still want him out of his cage, we cover a food bowl with paper (I cover the mouth of the bowl with paper and tape it to the bottom of the bowl). He enjoys poking a hole, peeking inside, then tearing it open in different areas to get to the food. I find that more reusable than a cardboard box (our guy gets hormonal around boxes) because I just use scratch paper to cover the bowl and the bowl itself is reusable anyway.

However, what he enjoys most is when I give him actual veggies/plants to forage from. We grow basil and amaranth (not sure if the US calls it amaranth or Chinese spinach, but both are English names), so I put branches of the plants into his cage. He's happiest when he has those (and I can tell when I've been slacking putting them inside because he gets grumpy without them).

 

[hiriki]

Awesome!! This post was actually spurred by the purchase of a low-quality acrylic forage toy from Petsmart, so I definitely want to check that store out. I liked the toy in concept but once I got it home and tried to use it.....


We grow basil as well and it grows like a weed - I'll give that a try this year. My fids could use more fresh food, I'm not as good about that as I'd like to be.

 

[1oldparroter]

Use youtube.com and search wingsNpaws as he has some good video's. jh

 

[SassiBird]

Mine like balsa wood drilled with holes and stuffed with nutriberries. Also nutriberries wrapped in mini cupcake liners.

 

[wrench13]

commercially available acrylic toy with 4(?) draws is available on Amazon and some pet stores. We had one, Salty ignored it. Another one was a round tower with slides to let the treats fall into the next level, all 3 have to be worked to get some treats out of the bottom. We have 1 which Salty uses. Only down side to that one, hard to clean the inner levels. We also take crushed pine nuts rolled into a long 'cigar' and weave it thru his cage bars. That takes some time for sure.

 

[wrench13]

I like the idea of a foraging forum too !

 

[Malewicka]

Checkout Seriously Nutz, I have loved every single thing I have ordered from them, and more importantly, so has my birds. Fast ship, and great quality.

 

[Tami2]

Foraging forum to come!

In the meantime, you can turn food items into foragers: stuff the food in peppers or artichokes, put food in a bowl with artificial grass to rummage through.

Yep, what he said ^^^

 

[hiriki]

@wrench13: I think I bought that same one! I'm waiting for them to come in from the vendor, my birds also ignore the one I bought the other day with the drawers (might be the same one) so I'm hoping the ones I bought today are a success.

I found this one at creativeforagingsolutions & it's easily the one I'm most excited for lol.


@tami2: I LOVE THE ARTICHOKE IDEA!!!!! I have to try that!!!!!!

 

[Adamc1303]

My TAG loves clear plastic foraging toys. I do use others like cardboard as well. However she takes to the plastic toys immediately since she can clearly see the treat. This treasure chest toy is for an advanced forager. You'll see when loading it that it's difficult even for a human to perfectly line up both keys. Don't be discouraged if the bird gives up. If foraging really gets your bird excited to eat whatever they forged for, you can always stuff pellets into coin wrappers or finger traps and leave those on the food bowl. I feed almost all of my food via foraging. I mainly use the (Food Tumbler by Creative Foraging). I have it mounted over the food bowl so what ever falls out falls into the bowl. It keeps my parrot occupied and also keeps the food from getting soiled in any way since its protected in the toy. It's almost like a dispenser at this point. I do make it harder and easier by putting shelled almonds in which block the toy from letting out too many pellets at a time. Hope I helped.

 

[Cycletim]

We have 2 parrots and they eat seed \ pelot and fruits and vegetables . We give them fruit and vegetables in the morning. And we make it easy for them to get in a food bowl and a puzzle box (same as the one in the post above )respectively. The rest of the day they have to forage for seeds and pellets They have no bowl delivering seeds and pelots at all. We have bought them the clear plastic fraging toys you see on amazon if you search parrot foraging toy. They are expensive about 20-30$ each. So far they have been worth it , they don't get very much seed and pellets its hard to get them out. They have to find the ones they want and work for them. Our African grey has 6 of them in his cage. Our red belly has 3. When we introduced them our red belly gave up on his food bowl for seeds he used to have. Our grey is new to us and 18 years old with a barbing/plucking problem. His plucking has reduced 90% and he's much happier and way less nervous. Good luck hope that helps.


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