GREAT "CHEAP EASY FORAGING TOYS" WEBSITE!

[Maria]

Hey you guys and gals - check out this great link for cheap and easy DIY foraging toys you can make!

http://frombeakstobarks.wordpress.com/2 ... s-at-home/

[Eurycerus]

Great ideas! I need to start doing this everyday with Nika. It may cut down on her screaming.

With foraging how much of the regular meal (pellets) should I hide for her to forage for to start off? Half? All of it? I'd put her veggies out in the bowl but I'm just not sure about the foraging.

[marie83]

How do you feed at the moment?

Mine get a measured amount of food per day.
I split it into
-AM meal
-foraging toys
-PM meal
-treats

Anything thats still left in the toys by the PM meal gets put in that meal so I know how much they are eating.

[Eurycerus]

I'm not super exact and kind of eyeball it but Nika gets two meals and treats during training/fun time. She gets 12+ coarse pellets and some veggies (a tablespoon or so? kind of difficult to gauge since I'm just cutting up veggies) in the morning and then 10+ coarse pellets and same amount of veggies at night. She used to be so lax about food and not eat it all for hours if at all but now she powers it down in no time. Could be because she's flying now or because she got used to distinct meal times. She was free fed previously. Then she gets probably 20 small treats during play time with me. I really need to buy a gram scale so I can monitor her weight and figure that whole business out, but I just haven't gotten there yet.

I figure I could hide most of her breakfast pellets and make her search for it. Not sure though. Don't want to starve her.

[marie83]

Just put a couple in a gradually build up. I do it this way cuz Harlie isn't that interested in foraging compared with Ollie so the portion that goes in her toys she ends up getting to eat anyway. Ollie emties all his foraging toys so he gets a large portion in his.