new foraging toy

[Polarn]

I usually try make as much as possible myself, but I was down at the petstore the other day to buy some SS bowls with holders for the smaller birds (figured out i really really hated the plastic square ones that came with the cage (although i didnt buy the cage to begin with) plus they were positioned pretty much on the bottom of the cage, so square bowl with corners=hard to clean properly, and the fact that they were located at the bottom made me go buy new ones and mounted them in the middle of the cage instead, besides I've already opted to remove two of them (one side) to sue them square holes as an entrance for the little ones since polarn can't fit trough there. anyways I got the new bowls mounted them, also mounted a perch on the side of the cage just below the aquare holes so tha they can land on something and walk in rather than climb the cagebars... but I also when i was at the petstore found a foraging toy that i found quite handy, it is a little bit too easy to be called foraging really, took Polarn about 2 minutes to figure it out, however it isnt just eating out of the bowl...

so here it is:

there is a little knob on it that he grabs to spin the disc around in order to get the holes where they need to be in order for him to grab what hes after. and it is quite easily hung off its holder and you just undo the center screw and you can clean it easy. however... things like this is too expensive over here, it costed me about 45USD... wich i consider to be quite much for something like this...

Anyways Polarn sais hello:

was fiddling with the bowls etc in the small cage and he got curious and stopped by, and having the camera on me i couldnt resist taking a shot at him while asked to wave for all of you

[allirho]

My budgie's cage has those little square plastic feeders too and, yes, they are a pain to clean. It's kind of a problem since they're at the bottom- Chibi always ends up pooping in his food before he can finish eating it. Plus, the bowl is too big for one little budgie so he climbs into his bowl to eat, meaning messy feet, messy perches and pooping into his bowl whilst eating. Not good. I'm going to get some mountable bowls this weekend too (I'm getting tired of changing the water dish 10 times a day!)

If I read your post correctly, did you say that you COMPLETELY removed two of those little square food dish doors to use as entrances?
That's actually a really great idea, I might follow suit!
But what do you do when you're not home and the birds need to stay in the cage?

[brfussne]

Polarn is so darn cute hehe!

[Polarn]

allirho, I dont know if you have the same cage as i do, an italianmade one, anyways the one i got have plexiglass that slides down at the bottom to prevent food water etc splashing out, and also serves to lock the bowls in place, so basically I have a perch with some SS metalpeices i bended screwed onto it so that I can hang it where the foodbowls usually go, and when i want to close the door i just remove the perch and then slide down the plexisheet, and yes pooping in the dishes was a problem here as well. oh, if you got the same cage but not the splashguards you probably still have the (whatever its called....) to slide them into, then you can eaither saw out a plexisheet or just a wodden sheet or whatever and slide it in. I think the plexi looks clean whilst it actually helps a little bit, even tho the bowls are now mounted above. However removing them to use as an entrance, only reason ive done this is to ensure Polarn doesnt end up in their cage, so far their getting along just fine, but I dont want to have them in an enclosed area together... But if you got a playstand or something standing next to the cage just having a peice of rope linking the "sideentrance" to the playstand might be handy. but check the frame to see if you got something to slide a sheet into and you got the door sorted, and oh the SS dishes I bought are actually slightly bigger but they seem to sit on the edge rather than inside it now. and no poop in them so far.

@brfussne, Polarn thanks you for the compliment. although sometimes when i look at pictures of him he looks kind of scary, might just be me that thinks he looks slightly evil when the picture comes up on the screen, always gets urprised with it since i never find him looking anything but cute IRL

[marie83]

I bought the same foraging wheel for £22 for my green cheeked conure and he had it sussed out in a few hours too. He might know how to work it but it does slow down getting the food opposed to getting it in a bowl so I still feel it's worth it because it keeps him occupied that bit longer. Even if I feed him in the bowl and wheel he will go to the wheel for his food first. It is expensive but at least with the size of a GCC it's unlikely to get broken so should last for years.

I think theres a more complicated version now in different sizes for different types of parrot.

**edit** just had a look and this is the updated version. Not sure but it doesn't actually look harder but I could be wrong.

http://www.northernparrots.com/foraging ... rod371270/

[Polarn]

yeah it sems quite sturdy, but you see why i say it's expensive over here! nearly twice the amount!
and yeah I do think it is a great way to feed him rather than putting it in the bowl, even tho he do geat one meal a day in the bowl, and one in known foraging, got an acrylic bowl hanging in from the roof that I usually but papercups upside down in with food under, only takes him a few seconds to egt into the food, but then when food is done he will grab the cup and start shredding that. it is quite messy tho since some food falls out since it is swinging quite alot when he eats, and he wont sit on it becouse then it goes upside down kind of, even if he can hold on all his presios food is lost!:)
then i usually try to give one meal in some new way, or atleast a rare way, sometimes in branches ive drilled out the center and then a couple of small holes so that he knows where to start gnawing.. but doesnt always have the time to make things like that for him each and every day, so this wheel is going to make it easier for me to vary it a little bit more on days like that, besides it looks kind of fun when he spins it around and skips the parts where his favorite food isnt in at first.

[Polarn]

that one seems to drop the food in a trey at the bottom. mine has a disc with two oval holes in it that kind of exposes the food rather than turning the food around as it seems to be done in that one.

[marie83]

Ouch, just looked on a currency converter and 45USD would be over £6 what I paid for the wheel. To be honest I was reluctant to spend that much money on something I didn't know he would use but in this case I do think it was worth it. I think it's his second favorite toy next to his bells. I struggle to find good foraging toys for Ollie as he doesn't like chewing things up and most specialised foraging toys are really expensive and designed for bigger parrots. I think he is clever enough to figure them out but doesn't have the physical capacity to open draws, manipulate mazes etc. I really struggle to find things for him to do when I'm out at work because of this.


He has a ball that we stuff with treats and paper on his playstand but for some reason he will not touch it inside his cage.
When he is out of the cage we have about 20 bottlecaps which we hide food under some of them and he loves running round turning them over to see which ones have treats, but I wont put them in the cage due to the hygiene issues. He also has a wiffle ball which we hide food in and he rolls it about to get the food but again that is an out of cage activity.

[Bobioden]

I have the same one for Maxx and he loves it. I have probably 15 different foraging toys and he figures them all out pretty quickly.

I got mine on Amazon for $13.99

[Polarn]

hey, don't pour salt in my wounds... it hurts!
Anyways I know it was kind of an impulse purchase, as i said i usually try make stuff myself or get them elsewhere, and not at the petshop. but this time i couldn't resist i thoguht it looked fun for him but coulda saved tons by going home to "click n buy" instead... ah well, he currently turning it around atm so guess it was worth it anyways.

But considering I went to another store to pick up stuffs to make toys /swings etc from, went to a horse supply store that also keep toys for dogs... picked up some (dont know the name for it... the ropethignie you connect to the halter when your leading a horse). anyways i picked up the cheap ones of these that is basically a twinned cottonrope their about a dollar each, i dont use these for the horses tho since we have kids leading them and if you go twist them (and we all know kids like our birds fiddle with everything) then they open up and you can get your fingers stuck incase the horse pulls... anyways i picked these up also a big chewing/draggin (whatever its called when you "fight/pull" with your tod to play) rope was quite thick and about 2 meter of tied up rope also all cotton and nonharmful dyes. could probably use the other ropes i bought since their 2 meters as well to tie one up myself but this one had more colors in it, and polarn goes crazy as soon as I add another rope into his cage, prolly his favorite toys he preens the ends i fluff up and swings around in them, so try have different colors etc and swap em out. also bought some other dogtoys etc one with a rubberring with a ropering outside, quite small but i cut away the straps holding the two rings together, gave the rubberring to my sisters dog and kept the ropering for a swing for the little ones. also went to a babystore and picked up some rattles etc, all this was less than 10USD... so not everything is expensive here, just stuffs that is sold for birds for some reason...

Oh for the small birds I actually unvinded the rope to get 8 meters of bunched up strings, then i braded some did some macrame on others adding beads etc, and did about half a meter thicker one for a more solid perching spot... and to use up that buck worth of strings haha.