How to Teach Foraging Behavior

[MarcusCAG]

Hello everyone...

 

So I would like to teach Marcus (and even Beaker, our Quaker parrot) how to forage. I've read that if parrots ever get loose, then they can survive so much better--and hopefully long enough to be reunited with their owners--if they know how to forage and don't just know to expect human-prepared food all the time.

 

Today I got an old cardboard box of modest size and stripped it of tape and then folded its bottom back together so that it 'stayed put' without the tape. I put a piece of computer paper in the bottom to cover the gaps created by the cardboard flaps. Then, while Marcus and Beaker both were watching, I sprinkled some sunflower seeds and other bird seed in the bottom of the box. I filled the box with shredded newspaper and sprinkled some more seeds on top. The whole time, Marcus was going "Ooooh! Ooooh!" and Beaker seemed curious too.

 

I demonstrated for them that, by sifting through the shredded newspaper, they could surface with a lovely treat of a sunflower seed! Oh, they're so yummy! Beaker and Marcus REALLY liked that part, but when Beaker was perching on the box edge, and Marcus was staring over... they totally seemed to want me to pick out all the seeds for them! There were no indications that they wanted to try and find them, themselves.

 

So am I moving at too fast a pace for them, apparently? Are there steps I should be taking before introducing something as novel as a newspaper-and-seed-filled-box? Any other ideas for homemade foraging toys? Thanks in advance for any input!

[Jane08]

Maybe if you start a bit simpler. I have 2 very good foragers and I started out small. I got their favourite treat and placed it in a paper coffee filter and then tied string around it and hung it up. All the time I let them watch me, I showed them the treat and what I was doing. Now it is their favourite thing to hunt around the cage for treats tied up in coffee filters. The next step was getting a bell pepper and cutting small holes in it and the placing food inside it. They love to rip open the pepper and pull their favourite food out. Even simple things like a kebab stick with food on it and hung in the cage. This is all easy foraging and then from there you can make it more complicated.

 

After all the simple stuff I then started with the more advanced things like boxes with food in and a container where they have to lift the lid to get the food. Another one where they have to turn the wheel and a treat drops out.

 

The most favourite though is the coffee filter, I even tie it outside the cage so when they are in the cage they have to try and pull it through the bars to get it.

[MarcusCAG]

The most favourite though is the coffee filter, I even tie it outside the cage so when they are in the cage they have to try and pull it through the bars to get it.

 

Thank you! I found my husband's coffee filters and filled them with little treats and I didn't tie them shut, I just kind of twisted them and "hid" them around their respective cages. It took the two of them a bit to figure out what was going on with them, but now Marcus especially seems addicted to them! I'll have to find some less-fattening treats to put inside them, he just loves them! Thanks again for all of your suggestions!!