"cheap foraging toys"

[skeetersunconure]

well Alot of foraging toys for parrots are rather expensive and I always wanted to get Skeeter some but I dont have $15 dollars plsu to spend on each toy so Petsmart has these foraging toys that are cheap but I wanted to know if any of you bought it or if you think its any good so here is the link: I would appreciate it. http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3800192
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[entrancedbymyGCC]

I think those are sized more for budgies and 'tiels and might not hold up for Skeeter. If you save up for one of the acrylic ones, it will last forever. On the other hand, some coffee filters, paper bags or glue free toilet rolls and some string or leather strip and a hanger offers a pretty cheap, if routinely destroyed, option. I got a carboard box thingy at Petsmart that I can't find on the website. I think it was pretty inexpensive. It's a heaxagonal cardboard box with a compartmented interior thats sold a package of 5 or so with a hanger. Works well for both birds and lasts for a while because there are a lot of spaces to work through.

[zazanomore]

Boxes of raisins make fun foraging toys!

[michellet]

Another foraging idea was discovered by my 11yo son...he found an oragami website, taught himself to make little origami cubes, and tucks seeds, nuts and treats into the folds of the cubes...both Missy and our budgies love them! Easy, quick and inexpensive...and you can do all sorts of things with them....hang them in the cage, wedge them inbetween cage bars, make larger ones and place small balls with bells inside them

[skeetersunconure]

Thanks! those are really cool ideas!

[javelin]

I've been twisting some craft paper into paper ropes and hoops. Sunflower would shred paper on occasion but its also a good way to let her discover items of interest in them.

[snakesentwined]

Home-made pinatas are kinda easy and cheap to make: http://familycrafts.about.com/od/makeapinata/a/makepinata.htm - just use a non-toxic glue (like flour-paste) if you are using papier-mache. Fill em up with seeds and treats - and watch the birdies rip em to shreds

Or - for a really easy alternative - We just roll up a handful of seeds in long strips of plain paper, twist the ends, and then either give Isis the resulting 'seed-cigarette' as a foraging foot-toy, or weave them between the bars of her cage.

[Jack-Do]

We just roll up a handful of seeds in long strips of plain paper, twist the ends, and then either give Isis the resulting 'seed-cigarette' as a foraging foot-toy, or weave them between the bars of her cage.

I'm doing almost the same thing for my amazon. Only, I roll up only 1 treat at the time (usually a piece of dried fruit), in small strips of paper. It makes her wrapped candies
The cool thing is that it gives her better grip to her treats, because in some foraging toys, she has difficulty to catch them in the bottom of the toy.

[jayebird]

Idea one: We did buy some of those "habitat defined" foraging toys for Mango, our GCC - not too much smaller than Skeeter. We got the one with drawers, the one with pull strings, and the one with a swinging door. One took him a day to learn and one took a few days of disinterested poking before he finally got it and now he's a pro at all three - BUT that's not the point. We use all three in his cage to feed him his supplemental Nutriberries (sometimes we'll use all three at once, take one or two out, etc). We re-position them everyday (and his cage is pretty large) so that he has to find them and then use them to get one little chunk serving at a time. They're weak toys, yes, but he seems to have no intention of destroying them, plus the repeated activity of finding the toy and using the toy over and over to get his servings is really the essence of foraging for food. His Nutriberries are his favorite bits so he's more than willing to work hard to get to those!

Idea two: In addition, we have two cheap plastic food cups (also the kind of budgies) that contain the rest of his diet, his Roudybush. Those also move around the cage to different spots everyday and we also sometimes sprinkle shreds of crinkled paper over the food so that he has to throw the paper out and/or dig through in order to get his food. This is a really, really easy way to increase the mental stimulation of your parrot. Don't use the food dish holders that come with the cage - just buy some little cheap ones that hook onto the bars and move them around every day - plus add toys or paper on top of the food and BOOM: foraging stimulation.

I really like the paper seed tube ideas! Although Mango hasn't really shown interest in tearing through cardboard or coffee filters to get food, those might be easy enough to keep his interest and still give him something to do...

We're working on finding more premades/devising little toys to eventually have Mango feeding exclusively through foraging toys & activities in order to give him the most stimulating environment possible - since, of course, parrots in the wild are not so lucky as to find all of their food in a convenient little metal dish next to their water A parrot that has to work for its food while you're away is a parrot that is not getting fat or plucking feathers or screaming all day.

[Becco Lunatico]

well Alot of foraging toys for parrots are rather expensive and I always wanted to get Skeeter some but I dont have $15 dollars plsu to spend on each toy so Petsmart has these foraging toys that are cheap but I wanted to know if any of you bought it or if you think its any good so here is the link: I would appreciate it. http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3800192
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The Nanday took to this one right away:
http://www.amazon.com/Super-Pet-Habitat ... 961&sr=8-3

I intend to get more! My only complaint with these are the plastic 'fasteners', the first one broke a hanger leg ):