"cheap foraging toys"

[entrancedbymyGCC]

We got this for Scotty and it is working very well so far. Just enough challenge, and the acrylic is holding up:

[zazanomore]

That seems like something my budgies would really enjoy. Einstein isn't very inquisitive, and it took him ages to figure out the moving parts in some of his toys. I'll give the budgies the same toys, and typically Bonnie has them figured out in a matter of minutes.

[skeetersunconure]

entranced: I ACTUALLy GOT THE EXACT ONE YOU HAVE FOR CHRISMTAS! Skeeter wasnt to sure about it and wouldnt eat from it so I had to put a bigger hole without the slide in thing and he got it and knows there is foodd then I put the compartment in and he didnt eat the food on the bottom of the compartment just the top and he wont even look for the food past the top like he wont dig deeper even though there is alot of good food on the bottom. what was scotty like? oh and mine faces the other way like horizontally not vertically because thats the only way I can put it conveniatly in his cage.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Scotty will do ANYTHING for an almond, so once he figured out there were nuts in there, he became very persistent. However, I've tried a couple of other foraging things with him before, so he kind of knew the drill. And I don't offer the box exclusively, I use it for treats primarily, although I'm considering putting more of the regular ration in them. For Scooter I have a hanging hexagonal box that is similar, but without a rigid frame.

I think his beak geometry actually makes this kind of challenging. And it does take several days to go through the whole thing. It's really quite a bit of work for him. The first day I put it in for him he worked on it for a while, went off to the other side of the cage to get a grape, ate his grape, and then went right back at it! But he's definitely more of a thinker than Scooter.

I've found with this sort of thing sometimes offering it for a while with limited success, then taking it away for a while, and then re-introducing it later leads to more enthusiasm on the second go. Kind of like I did some of my college homework in my sleep (I'd struggle with something until 3 AM, fall asleep exhausted and wake up knowing exactly what to do!). Don't know if that's what is going on, but sometimes it seems that way.

[Grey_Moon]

If you can scale this down for sun a really simple thing that used to keep Jacko my TAG busy for hours was a well-washed gatorade bottle dried and I'd cut a few holes (make sure they're not sharp obviously) in the bottle and liberally stuff with treats, paper shreds, small toys and then place it on the bottom of his cage or in his dish----alternatively you can make two extra holes and hang it in the cage.

[TheNzJessie]

i get a lot of ideas off this website

http://www.parrotenrichment.com/foraging.html

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Nice website! One thing bugs me a lilttle, though -- is chewing through the plastic on a ziploc type bag really OK? I'd be a little afraid it would shred into small pieces that would be too easy to ingest. But birds seem to be better about not ingesting such things than other animals... And the poor person with the prize tomatoes! Ouch!

[Giantmoa]

here's a cheap foraging toy idea (though it doesn't last very long) its good for beginning foragers or smaller birds:

[zazanomore]

I think I might try that with the fids when I get back from vacation. I'm sure it will take Einstein a while to understand it, but knowing the budgies, they'll have a blast!

[TheNzJessie]

Nice website! One thing bugs me a lilttle, though -- is chewing through the plastic on a ziploc type bag really OK? I'd be a little afraid it would shred into small pieces that would be too easy to ingest. But birds seem to be better about not ingesting such things than other animals... And the poor person with the prize tomatoes! Ouch!

if you read on he was not supposed to have the plastic bag