Foraging

One of the things that parrots do a lot of in the wild, and not nearly enough in captivity, is forage for their food. In the wild, they spend hours every day looking for food. In captivity, most parrots have a bowl full of food -- no foraging required! That leaves a lot of unfilled hours in the day -- time that sometimes leads to bored parrots which sometimes leads to behavior problems like screaming and plucking.

We encourage creativity on parrot owners' parts to develop proper foraging for their parrots. Perhaps it's as simple as hiding a few almonds in the parrot's cage, or buying specially-designed foraging toys. We know some birds who don't even have food dishes -- all food is hidden daily in their cages for them to find. (Of course you have to work up to this level! You have to make sure your parrot has the skills to find their food! We will touch on this in future posts.)

But, foraging doesn't need to be exclusively food-related! Meet one of our frequent boarders, a gorgeous greenwing macaw:She was destroying toys at an alarming rate. Our volunteers tried to think of ways in which we could make toy destruction a bit more complicated for her, while at the same time perhaps extending the life of her toys a bit. A bird going through $50 worth of toys every day can get a bit expensive!

One of our volunteers had the great idea of punching a hole in the bottom of a cereal box and covering favorite toys with it:
This has worked out beautifully! In order to get to the toy, she now has to shred the box covering it. Therefore, she's spending more time playing, leaving her less time for feather destruction. Foraging for toys!
It's true that keeping a parrot in toys can be an expensive proposition; however, toys are so important for the emotional well-being of captive parrots. Far too frequently, we see the impact that a toy-deprived environment has on these intelligent parrots. By stretching our minds a bit, we can figure out inexpensive ways to keep them occupied!