Teaching your parrot to forage

Our parrots in our homes have it made. They receive a bowl of fresh veggies served to them upon a “silver bowl”, not to mention all the treats throughout the day and the pellets that are in front of them 24/7. Parrots in the wild have a completely different lifestyle. They will spend the majority of their day foraging for their food. This does not leave much time for self-destructive behaviors that we see in captivity.

We have a Goffin Cockatoo, Marty, in our flock. Marty has a tendency to be a feather picker. There was a time when he had no wing feathers, and was just covered in down feathers. This was very sad as Marty had been a well accomplished flier with beautiful feathering and I had to wonder if he would ever fly again. Marty is also what one would call a “spoiled rotten” cockatoo, which led to the very manipulative “crying” behavior that a Goffin cockatoo produces.

I am always on the look out for information in regards to birds. I stumbled upon many articles in regards to the importance of foraging. It was even mentioned that keeping a bird busy not only helps distract them from feather destructive behavior, but also helps to keep them busy which cuts down on the crying and/or unacceptable vocalizations..

I have always considered my birds to be rather spoiled due to the fact of their cages being loaded with toys which I believed would provide hours of entertainment. It had not occurred to me that I was missing a very important aspect of what they needed to keep their mind and body busy so as to distract them from negative behavior.

The first foraging toy I purchased specifically for Marty was an acrylic one that had cardboard inserts which treats could be hidden in. This toy really helped to introduce Marty to the fun activity of foraging. The trick is to start of with something easy. These cardboard boxes came with little holes you could punch out so that the treats were visible. It did not take long for Marty to learn that there was treats inside the cardboard boxes. This was a great foraging toy for Marty to start with.

Over time I found myself looking at every object in the house and wondering how I could turn it into a fun foraging toy. It is amazing the things we all have just lying around that could be made into inexpensive foraging toys.

I found myself frosting a cake and standing there with the plastic container the frosting came in and thinking that the container, once washed and the label removed, would make a great vessel for such an activity. I washed it out, took the label and glue off and proceeded to find fun stuff to add to the container. I took pieces of paper and wrapped his favorite large weaning pellet that he still considers to be a treat despite his age. I also added things like bottle caps, ink pen lids, and of course a few almonds.

I poked two holes in the container and used a zip strip to fasten to the cage. When I first added this to his cage, he seemed rather apprehensive of this new object in his space. I had filled the container before hanging it in his cage, but added a couple more un-wrapped pellets while he was watching so he would know what was in there.

It was very interesting to sit back and watch his curiosity get the better of him and he had to check it out. This proved to be the first quiet evening in this house in a very long time. He kept quite busy checking out the contents of the frosting container forgetting all about the fact that I was sitting on the couch watching him which usually sets him off in a tantrum to be out and with me on the couch. His philosophy was always that if I was sitting down, he needed to be in my lap and he would let me know with his often very incessant “crying”. I would usually give in just to keep peace in the household which led to the predicament I was then experiencing.

Since that eye opening evening I have been always on the look out for objects to use as foraging toys. There is no need to spend the big bucks on the high tech acrylic ones, use your imagination and place many things for your bird to forage through during the day. This will lead to a much happier bird which leads to a harmonious household.

I encourage you to look around your house, find some everyday things to use to create a foraging adventure. Happy Foraging!