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Foraging for food in the wild is a major activity for birds. Not only does it provide them with life sustaining nutrition, it provides an important activity for other reasons. The foraging process keeps them active and "entertained". Greys in the wild organize their entire day around foraging for food. They get up early in the morning and often fly far distances just to reach an area where they can forage. They forage both on the ground and in trees. As you might expect, there aren't any shiny clean stainless steel food dishes full of food in the wild. They literally dig, tear, rip and root their way around for food. This process provides them with physical exercise but more importantly foraging keeps them mentally engaged. Most of their day revolves around foraging for foods. After a long day of foraging, they return to their roosting areas to rest up to repeat the foraging process the next day. Contrast the life of a wild parrot with that of a parrot in captivity.
Captive parrots are stuck in a cage and fed from a stainless steel bowl. What used to take all day (foraging) has been replaced by a stainless steel feeding bowl. We can vastly enrich the lives of our parrots by attempting to duplicate their foraging process. We can attempt to duplicate the process even though it may be very different from what they would experience in the wild. And we can do this with very cheap materials and very little work. All you have to do is fill these foraging materials with toys and treats and put them in their cage. And be creative! Mix and match these foraging materials. Kibibi's favorite foraging toy has treats wrapped in coffee filters, wrapped in paper, stuffed into half a paper towel holder. Check out the bottom of this page for ideas for stuff to put into the foraging materials. Here's ten very cheap ideas for material to use to create foraging opportunities for your parrot.
- Paper - Colorful construction paper, just regular white printer paper or newspaper works as well. Feeling really creative? Learn a few origami designs to stuff treats into and both you and your parrot can have some fun. There are great origami links on the web to learn some beginner origami designs. Just wrap it and hang it.
- Small Cardboard Boxes - Small boxes are ideal because they'll root and dig through everything inside and if you're lucky sometimes they won't destroy the box too! And you'll get to reuse the box. You can fill it and hang it from the top of the cage or put it in the bottom of the cage.
- Muffin Cups - These are very inexpensive and easy to use. Just sprinkle a few items into several cups, stack them together and thread a piece of leather string through them and hang it in their cage.
- Paper Cups - Similar to muffin cups, these are also very inexpensive and easy to use.
- Coffee Liners - Used similar to Muffin and Paper cups, you can purchase these unbleached and organic if you're concerned about the material used.
- Organic Items - Looking for edible or organic foraging materials? Lettuce, Bell peppers and corn husks fit the bill (no pun intended) and they can be filled with stuff and hung from the cage using your veggie clips.
- Paper Towels - Looking for a quick foraging material. Grab a paper towel, wrap up a couple items and put it in their cage.
- Paper Towel Holders - Some people are concerned about the glue used in paper towel holders so this one isn't for everyone but I use them. My parrot quickly rips it open to get what's inside and doesn't spend much time with the paper towel holder. This can can be used with other items such as coffee filters by wrapping the treats inside multiple layers of filters and then stuffing them all into the paper towel holder.
- Feed Bowls - This one is already in their cage. Just take some regular paper, construction paper or paper towels and wrap up their normal food bowl before putting it in the holder. Just make sure they're not afraid of it otherwise they won't be able to get at their food.
- Whiffle Balls - These balls provide a cheap easy way to create a foraging item. Just stuff treats, paper shreds, craft sticks and anything else you can fit in the holes then hang it or toss it into their cage.
I hope you find these ideas useful and hopefully they'll ignite your creative side to come up with more ideas. Let me know if you come up with any other great ideas. Now that you have the foraging ideas, here are some ideas for things to stuff into your foraging materials.
- Pellet food mix of different brands, varieties and flavors
- Store bought treats like Lafeber Nutri-Berries, Kaytee Yogurt Dips or Crazy Corn
- Their favorite breakfast cereal
- Seed mixes in small quantities
- Small pieces of wood or leather
- Small toys
- Nuts in the shell or shelled
- Shredded paper
- Peanut butter smears
- Birdy Trail mix
- Fruit pieces
- Popsicle sticks or craft sticks
The Author is the creator of the InfoSuperFlyway.com. It's a webpage dedicated to Kibibi a Congo African Grey Parrot with parrot recordings, funny parrot videos, top ten lists, parrot jokes, clicker training info and a large database of parrot articles. For more articles about African Greys and other Parrots, check out Kibibi's Parrot Article Archive.
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