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Indoor cage natural forage material ideas

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Indoor cage natural forage material ideas

Postby Chirpchick » Wed Apr 25, 2018 6:01 am

Hello, I would like to add some natural foraging materials to my conures indoor cage so they can chew and play with the leaves. What materials and trees are best to use? I have access to many different trees such as eucalypt, wattle, pine trees, oak, Apple trees, and elms, I'm wondering if there's a wood or type of leaves I should avoid for conures?
I feel like they get bored of their toys easily and I would love to give them some natural things to play with.
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Re: Indoor cage natural forage material ideas

Postby Pajarita » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:59 am

I doubt that they would play with wood but they do like branches for perching and, sometimes, chewing too only some of the trees you mentioned are not good for them [like eucalyptus, oak, for example].

Here is a list of safe and not safe wood - and you will notice that there are some that say the wood is safe but not the leaves, nuts, fruits or whatever... personally, if there is the smallest doubt, I don't use it.

But, if you want natural materials that they would like to play/chew on, you can use things like untreated sisal rope [a small length with big knots on it is a great toy for them], raffia [undyed, of course], dried corn husks, pinecones, pieces of balsa wood strung together [they sell little kits of balsa wood to make planes and stuff like that in the arts and crafts stores] dried yucca medallions [this is what the bird kabobs are made of] and you can also string things like naturally dried organic apple/apricot/papaya/mango chips, pieces of fresh coconut, etc.
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Re: Indoor cage natural forage material ideas

Postby liz » Fri Apr 27, 2018 6:18 am

I am going to add potted plants to my cockatiel room. I have an abundance of holly. Is it safe?
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Re: Indoor cage natural forage material ideas

Postby Pajarita » Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:39 am

I forgot to include the link so here it is: http://www.birdsafe.com/woods.htm

Holly is not listed there but it's not safe, it has toxins in the wood and, although the leaves and berries have a lower content of it, I would not use them either.

A plant tiels love to eat is the spider plant. I used to put pots of it hanging in the birdroom in Pa and they would chew them all the way down to the roots! But it's cheaper to put pots with organic soil and simply throw seeds in them for growing grass -which they also love to eat.
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Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Indoor cage natural forage material ideas

Postby liz » Sat Apr 28, 2018 7:40 am

There was a time when one of my two pairs lost a mate. I let the cockatiel fly free in the house since she was a third wheel. She found my mom's Christmas cactus. When I saw her she had eaten one of the leaves and had cactus on her face. That was Charlene many years ago.
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Andy Impy Louise Twila Leroy
Flight: Yes

Re: Indoor cage natural forage material ideas

Postby Pajarita » Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:07 am

Yes, I had to take my Christmas cactus out of the canary room because Dave Redbelly would go straight for it and pull the leaves out - but he did not chew on them, he was just destroying it for the fun of it [he is the naughtiest bird I have].
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Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Indoor cage natural forage material ideas

Postby liz » Sun Apr 29, 2018 6:28 am

:lol:
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Location: Hernando FL
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BF Amazon Myrtle
Cockatiels: Shadow Tammy Flutter Phoenix Jackie
Andy Impy Louise Twila Leroy
Flight: Yes


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