The bottle cap game

[marie83]

Here Ollie showing how we forage in bottle caps. This was one of the ideas I used to teach him some independance. To start off with we only used 3 caps with the open end pointing upwards so he could see the treats. These days they are all upside down, or stacked inside one another, we use up to 30 caps in a game and have reduced the number of treats to be found- sometimes there wont be any at all.

[Andromeda]

Aw, this is so cute! What a great idea, Marie!

I want to do this with my GCC because he is always trying to forage around on the floor for bits of food he dropped (and even though I vacuum every day he still does this). In the wild they forage in groups on grasses so I guess this is just something he wants to do, regardless of if he gets food or not.

Where do you get the bottle caps? Do you just collect them from bottles you use?

[Eurycerus]

What a great idea! I'll have to start saving milk caps and such. He's so cute to watch ^_^

My floor also gets covered in little bits of food/seed/feathers etc. It's pretty ridiculous. Especially with the recall flight training since she eats the treat wherever I am standing in the room. Ah messy little critters.

[marie83]

Yes I just saved them from empty bottles and gave them a good scrub with a brush before use. When we do this I tend to put them in a corner and Ollie Will keep going back to them during his out time.

[friend2parrots]

very cute! it looks like a really enriching activity - awesome idea to keep him busy!

[Strawfrawg]

Thanks for sharing this...what a great idea for enrichment! I'm learning so much from you guys...this is great. I'm going to start collecting my caps!

[GreenWing]

Ollie is so stinkin' CUTE. And srsly, that is a GREAT idea. I am going to try this for myself!

[Andromeda]

Okay, so after seeing Marie's video I wanted plastic bottle caps immediately. If you live in the states you can find them at Michael's---they have a product called Girl Scouts bottle cap craft kit that contains 12 different colored plastic bottle caps.

It costs $7 but don't pay full price because Michael's always has coupons for anywhere from 40% - 60% off a single item. You can find the coupons either in the Sunday newspaper or online. There is also a smartphone app. I used a 40% off coupon and considering what I spend on bird toys I was okay with spending a little over $4 for 12 bottle caps. Not as cheap as saving your own but I wanted some now.

Just thought I would share in case anyone else is impatient like I am.

[janetafloat]

This is a great idea, Marie! The avian vet I saw on Sat told me to have about a dozen places around my house where I might hide a treat & show my Sennie where they are. Then each day leave a treat in half of them. I thought that was a really good idea, and I'm going to put a bottle cap at each place to put the treat in

[marie83]

I'm suprised by the reaction this video has as it is such a simple idea, it does prove a point that having fun with your parrot needn't be expensive though. I may post some of the other variations he plays now.