Behavior issue with food

[Vamppire]

Hi everyone - Over the past few months, Spencer's developed a habit of sitting on the edge of his food bowl, dipping his foot in and grabbing a footful, and then pulling his leg out and just dumping it all over the floor. He almost always does this when I refill his pellets (Fruit Blend) and I've caught him doing it with his bowl of fresh food too. It started off as an occasional thing but now it's routine to the point where almost all of his pellets are wasted. He does eat them - after dumping out several times, he will start to munch on them. But the bowl empties fast because he tosses them. He does it when I am in the room or when he is alone (I hear the clinking and clanking of lost $$ as the pellets spill to the ground lol)

 

He used to put his head in his bowl and swoosh it around knocking them everywhere, and I solved that by not filling the bowl high. But now he does this :confused:

 

I have a plastic foraging wheel and I tried to put the pellets there instead of the bowl, though a great deal still get wasted. I imagine he pulls a lot of them out just for the fun of it and not just to eat. (Though like I said, he still likes the pellets because I just bought a small bag of Natural zupreem and he has hardly touched those in the wheel)

 

Any other ideas on things to try, or ideas on why he started doing this, would be helpful. Could it be a nervous habit, displeasure with the food, just fun to make things go splat? lol

 

Thanks!

Edited April 25, 2011 by Vamppire

[thenabrd]

kallie does this with her food as well. she grabs a foot full then ever so slowly lets the pieces drop, while she's watching them fall! i don't react to this at all because then she'd really love doing it. she used to dunk her food in her water too. i moved her water to the other side of the cage from the food and that has helped alot, now i don't have to change the water 10 times a day, lol! i haven't figured out how to stop the food thing though. we have thought of putting plexiglass around just the bottom of her cage below the floor grate, so there isn't as much to bounce out on to the floor. there is an almost 6" distance between the floor grate of her cage and the bottom "drawer" of her cage, so some of her pellets and stuff can get a good bounce going!

[Vamppire]

Thanks! He dunks too, its funny to watch, its like bobbing for apples! I don't mind at all if that's the way he likes them, especially since it helps me see that he actually DOES eat them still and doesn't just play with them lol! Maybe I'll try something that would let me 'recycle' them. Anything that hits the bottom of the cage gets tossed - I'm not about to search through for poop-free pellets, but maybe something like the plexiglass or a bowl or something would help.. he usually doesnt poo directly below his bowl... hmmmm...

[thenabrd]

hahaha, you're right, watching the dunking process and the thought going into it was funny. she'd dunk pellets, nuts, seeds, birdie bread, you name it, she'd dunk it then watch the water drip off or the water change color, etc. when she first started she used her beak, but then found out it was fun to use her foot to dunk her food, it was easier to watch that way, lol! now she cracks us up "taking a bath" in her water once in a while, she dunks her head, then flips around and dunks her tail all the while flapping her wings like crazy! does spencer "play" with his food bowls? kallie likes the shininess of them and talks to them, and she likes to try and do back bends over them. she just hasn't figured out how to do a back bend across the top of the bowl and still get to her food at the same time, its hilarious!

[danmcq]

I think at times they enjoy the fall and sound. Sometimes our parrots do this and other times they don't. There is no reason for it I have ever figured out other than entertainment. Sometimes, one or the other will toss one piece, then watch for a dog to go for it. Once eaten, another piece will be dropped.....ever listen to a dog crunch almonds in their shell? It also makes a heck of a mess. The dogs seem to like harrisons

[Vamppire]

LOL Dan, I wish I had a living vacuum! thenabrd, that is too funny. Spencer doesn't pay any attention to his bowls other than games like "I wonder if I can hit the couch across the room with this bean"... though I have some small stainless steel cups that he LOVES to play with and bang around the top of the cage and throw on the floor. BIG NOISE = BIG FUN!

[Morana]

Yeah, the banging of the bowls is Zaks thing too. When we go nighty night and, if by any chance, his fruit/veggie bowl is still in the cage, he'll protest (for going nighty night) by banging the heck out of that bowl around his cage;-P

[munch]

Took throws her food out of the bowl as well and it's a big problem. She runs out of food very quickly and has nothing to eat the remainder of the day because we are both at work. On the weekends, we can refill it for her but during the week when i get home at 4, she is starving because all of her food fell through the grates.