Ground foraging 'table' or tray

[Eric&Rebecca]

Ok so I want to get a table or ground foraging type accessory for my tiel for inside his cage.(soon to be tiels). Edmund likes to fling his fruit and veggies on the floor of the cage and then eat them... which is understandable. However, most of it falls to the bottom of the cage meaning I have to give him more of it or it lands in with the droppings. Even though I change him twice a day I wouldn't want to eat my dinner from my toilet, no matter how clean I kept it!

He forages outside the cage during his playtime and he's allowed to eat things from our hands such as fruit and veggies if it's offered to him but I want something that he can have inside his cage which keeps the food clean but allows him to have foraging. We use a keybob or millet clips for his fresh herbs (which he loves) and tougher fruits, like apples but these all hang higher up. For softer fruits and veggies he likes to hold them or at least put his foot on them (unusual for a tiel but Edmund actually holds his food in his foot while eating.)

I thought about using bowls or plates on the floor of the cage but he doesn't like these, the sound on glass or china from his feet freaks him out... The only two things I've seen are a manzita flat perch. Which is a flat piece of wood which I could put his offerings on and secure on the bottom of the cage like a platform. A large one would be able to take space for him and his food.

Another alternative, is the shallow dishes you use for plants. The ones that sit under the actual plant pots... These would be easy to clean and remove multiple times a day but I'm worried about the toxicity in the plastic.. Edmund looooooves to chew!


Does anyone have any suggestions...

[Strawfrawg]

My tiel preferred to eat from the ground and I bought him a shallow reptile water dish...the odd-shaped kind that looks like a fake rock. I put some real lava rocks around it (good for keeping nails trim) and he loved scrambling up to the dish. Inside the bowl I mixed some bird-safe litter and wood chips with his loot, and while he never once left droppings in the dish, he had a ball nosing through the "debris" to find the treats.

[friend2parrots]

perhaps you could try spreading a towel under an area of the cage that is not under any perch, so that no poop will land in that area. then you can place a shallow stainless steel bowl (thats what I use -easy to clean) with the foraging materials, food etc, on the center of the towel. i would not recommend using any plastic dishes for anything. i got the stainless steel bowls that I use in the cat section of the pet store. sometimes the lapdog sized stainless steel dog bowls work well too.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Hmmm I might try just a bigger stainless steel one then. I am concerned about plastic toxicity levels even in pet products. He tips the stainless steel ones over in the smaller bird sizes, maybe I can find a stainless steel tray or something, he hates deep bowls as well. Fussy little thing.

With towels and cloths he pulls pieces of them out and I'm worried about him ingesting it, hence the need for something non-chewable. Thanks though I will look into stainless steel trays/bowls that may be suitable

[marie83]

You can get shallow stainless dog bowls fairly cheaply. You could always put something heavy in the middle of your worried about it tipping up, we have one we sometimes use for the birds baths.