My philosophy:
It makes no sense for a parrot to have access to 100% of their diet in a little metal cup in their cage. A bird should have to find their food and work to get at it, whether they spend most of their day in a cage or on a playstand, and up to 100% of their diet should be fed in this way.
Why?
Parrots in the wild are not so lucky as to find all of their food and water in convenient little bowls and spend almost their entire waking lives seeking out food. I don't see why living with a human should be any different - why we should endeavor to entirely "starve" this instinct just because our birds live in cages instead of jungles. Wild birds certainly don't spend 100% of their days playing around just for fun or even chewing on wood, so why should we expect them to keep themselves busy with a bunch of toys in their cage?
Parrots are not domesticated and once taken out of their wild environment and placed in a cage the bird instantly loses a huge percentage of what it instinctually wants to spend its time doing: flying around, building a nest, finding a mate, raising young, being a part of a flock, and of course - looking for food sources. Toys for chewing, preening, climbing, swinging, etc, are all extremely important and combined with spending time with their humans satisfies many of these needs and are meant as substitutes.
- A preening rope toy is a substitute for preening a mate.
- Human companionship is a substitute for flocking behavior.
- Shredding and chewing toys are substitutes for the modification of their environment that parrots would be undertaking in their wild environment to build a nest or a roost.
- Rope swings are substitutes for the exercise and movement a bird would get from bouncing around branches and flying from tree to tree.
- Playstand trees and rope nets are substitutes for being able to climb in actual trees.
We should be trying to create substitute activities for all of that time they would be spending foraging, too!
The drive for foraging is one of the most basic instinct for all animals and especially birds and needs to be satisfied for a fully happy and mentally healthy parrot - and unfortunately this aspect of a bird's life is more often than not neglected even by loving and conscientious bird owners who work really hard to satisfy every other need of their parrot.
If you think about it, even trick training is a foraging activity!
You're not just laying out his favorite treats for him on the table. He has to think about it and work for his treats and there isn't an infinite supply or easy access.Obesity from being a "perch potato" is also a health concern - the bird who sits at or near his food cup all day and just eats out of boredom. Did you know that an overweight parrot is much less healthy than an underweight parrot? (Confirmed by avian veterinarians).
Trust me, even if you feed your bird 100% through foraging activities and toys, they will still have plenty of time left over to play on their swing and preen their favorite rope toy and take a nap - also important parts of a parrot's life.
Even if you only have 10 different foraging activities/toys and your bird figures them all out that's okay! You can rotate these in and out of his life just like you do with his other toys. The initial stimulation of trying to figure out how to get at the food is NOT the only important part of the foraging - it's the working for the food that counts, too - if not even more. Think about it: a bird learns to chew wood toys, and one kind of wooden toy in particular is his favorite. Once he's destroyed it you don't say "Well, he's learned how to chew that type of wood and destroy that toy so I guess wood is boring for him now and I'll never buy him that toy again" - no. You switch his toys in and out, keep wooden ones available so that he can exercise his skills, and occasionally give him that same toy again so he can have the joy of destroying it all over again. So even if he knows exactly which drawers to pull or switches to operate to get his food, he's still getting more stimulation than just sitting at his food bowl and he's performing tasks that require his focus and intelligence to complete.
A similar situation can be found in the canine-owning world. I know people who are owners of dogs of all breeds, but for example: border collies (NOTORIOUSLY intelligent dogs that can develop neurosis similar to a bored parrot if not given a job to do such as herding sheep and working for most of their day.) These people have found that by buying or making "foraging" toys - and feeding their dogs exclusively through up to 5 different toys - these behavior problems have disappeared (in combination with other steps, of course.)
But really, in the end, a bird that gets 100% of its diet through even the simplest of foraging activities is a happy, mentally stimulated, healthy parrot. A parrot that has to work for its food is a parrot that is not getting fat or plucking feathers or screaming all day.
If you disagree with my above philosphy, please don't post on this topic! Start another thread somewhere and quote me. I want this thread to stay clean, friendly, and serve as a helpful, centrally-located resource for all bird lovers.
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So let's create a resource thread!
Post your responses in the following format to create a helpful list of things to do to help your bird get even more wonderful mental stimulation into their daily life.
How to Respond wrote:
- Your parrot(s) species
- Your parrot's approx. size (weight, length)
- Only post about toys you've tried yourself and you have found to be succesful. Make sure to take pictures for DIY instructions, or links to stores where a premade toy you recommend can be purchased.
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WARNING!
BEFORE STARTING YOUR PARROT ON A FORAGING LIFESTYLE MAKE SURE THAT YOU TAKE THE FOLLOWING STEPS:
- Have your veterinarian examine your bird to make sure that he's at a healthy weight and has no special concerns. For instance, if your bird is sickly then giving him easy access to food might be better for him in the short term, or if your bird is disabled then you'll have to think carefully about what kinds of toys/activities will work for your bird.
- Just like when you switch your bird from an all-seed diet to pellets, keep a daily record of your bird's weight to make sure that he is eating enough. As your birds routine becomes solidly foraging and his weight seems stable, you can ease off on the daily weighing -- but you should still weigh your bird at least once or twice a week to spot any health concerns.
- Also just like when you switch your bird from an all-seed diet to pellets, do this gradually and have a starting baseline of how much food your bird eats. Find out how much your bird eats daily by measuring his food out in portions and then seeing how much is left at the end of the day. Once you have a consistent amount of how much he eats you can start gradually transitioning that amount to foraging activities and spreading it out between multiple areas, toys, etc. For example, if your bird eats about 50g of pellets daily, start out by putting 25% of that in some simply toys and then gradually increase that amount until your bird is eating all or almost all of its food from activities and not just a pile in a dish.
- START SIMPLE!!! AvianWeb has a great article on how to INTRODUCE your bird to foraging: http://www.avianweb.com/foragingfood.html Just like you wouldn't just start demanding your parrot do a perfect trick before giving him a treat (you work in steps and stages and use rewards along the way as the trick gets more difficult and complicated) - so with foraging. You can the process easily by simply buying a couple of extra bowls that you can reposition around the cage and dividing his diet amount between them. Then after a while spring a few pieces of crumpled paper on top. Then maybe one big piece of paper that's more difficult to lift. Them maybe tape one side down so it's harder to get out of the way. Then start using some simple toys. Etc. etc. etc...
