Top Ten Favorite Parrot Foraging Toys

Foraging is one of the most important parrot behaviors. This is extremely important in the wild and one of the most time consuming aspects of a wild parrot's life. As important as foraging is in the wild, it's even more important in captivity. Too frequently, a captive parrot doesn't have enough opportunities to forage and in some cases the captive parrot doesn't have any foraging opportunities. Being fed from a bird bowl doesn't duplicate their foraging experience.

Coming up with new ideas for foraging is not easy but there are a lot of great resources on the web to help you. You can start by adding the Captive Foraging Blog to your RSS Feed and don't forget to check out all the great resources listed on the Captive Foraging Blog's profile page. And of course don't forget Kibibi's article on Top Ten Cheap Foraging Ideas to save yourself some money. Here's a couple more foraging links to check out.

You might say "But my parrot doesn't like toys and shredding!" To encourage this behavior you have to provide the opportunities and sometimes you have to give them a little more incentive. You can use food from your parrot's regular diet (fruit, veggies, pellets etc) (*** BORING ****) with these foraging toys OR you can add a little junk food (*** FUN FUN FUN ****) to further encourage the foraging behavior. Kibibi's main diet is fruits, veggies and Harrisons Pellets but I occasionally use seeds, nuts, and other "less healthy" mixes (like Kaytee Fiesta) to give her an added incentive to forage and shred. While this isn't necessary, it does add to her fun because she never knows what to expect.

The easiest way to enrich your parrots life is by buying foraging and shredable toys..... and LOTS of them! Why LOTS? Because shredding the same toys day-in and day-out gets boring. That's where you have to get creative. So here are Kibibi's Top Ten Favorite Foraging Toys and some recommendations for making them even better! Give'em a try and let me know if your parrot likes them.

1. Octopus Pinata - This foraging toy provides hours of enjoyment. Poke a hole in the side of it in several places and stick treats in the holes for added incentive for your parrot to rip it to shreds. Almonds in the shell fit nicely into the holes.
   
2. Bird Kabob - Shredding this alone seems to be fun for Kibibi but pushing treats into it like almonds in the shell, sunflower seeds and other junk food gives her that added incentive to rip this to shreds.
   
3. Woven Palm Shredder - The palm shredder is very versatile. Parrots will shred it by itself but you can get much more creative than that! You can use it to wrap their favorite toys and make them work just to get to their favorite toy.
   
4. Parrot Pinata - This is very similar to the Octopus Pinata above but this is filled with shredable stuff like the Woven Palm Shredder above. This also makes it ideal to stuff treats, seeds, and other junk food in it. Small treats and seeds can be pushed between the weaves but a small hole cut in it is required for larger treats like peanuts and almonds.
   
5. Foragewise Tiki Takeout Bird Puzzle - The wood dowels in front come out so you can refill this with your parrot's favorite treats AND toys. As if this isn't fun enough you can get more creative. I put small Birdie Bagels around the wood dowels in front which gives Kibibi additional shredding fun. She shreds the Birdie Bagels and the wood dowels to get at her treats. The Woven Palm Shredder above can also be woven between the posts and wrapped around it to provide another level of enrichment. Worried about running out of the wood dowels? Don't worry. They're standard sizes and you can buy the wood dowels at just about any hardware store (Lowes, Home Depot, etc) and cut them to size yourself.
   
6. Wicker Balls - This is one of Kibibi's favorites. How can I tell? It lasts about 2 seconds! While this may not be good for my wallet, it's fun for Kibibi. I'm able to increase it's short life time by weaving the Woven Palm Shredder from above in and out of the openings. This extra layer that she has to shred through to get the treats that I've stuffed inside is well worth it for her.
   
7. Square Towers Bird Toy - This is also very similar to the Pinatas. There are a lot of small places to tuck small treats into. This works well with smaller treats like pine nuts and sunflower seeds.
   
8. Inshredable Bird Toy - Inshredable? I wouldn't say that but it is a lot of fun for Kibibi. To improve it and make it last a lot longer, take the Woven Palm from above and add to it. It's easy to wrap it around and around to create a much more "Inshredable" toy. While it won't be Inshredable, it will certainly last longer and provide more enrichment.
   
9. Bird Bells Woven Chew Toy - Some of these come with a bell in the center and some don't. But that's not what your parrot will be looking for. If they're like Kibibi, they'll be looking for all the delicious treats that I've tucked into the sides of it. Small treats and large treats can be tucked into this toy but you have to cut small openings and stuff them in from the top. Otherwise, they'll fall out when the shredding begins!
   
10. Foraging Treat Box - This is a great idea. For those of you with crafting skills, making this little box out of your own cardboard will be easy. If you can't figure it out by looking at it, just buy one and reverse-craft it by taking it apart yourself. Kibibi's main diet is fruits, veggies and Harrisons Pellets. But just to give her variety, I like to purchase seed and treat mixes (ie. junk food) and put a pinch of them in this toy. She loves it!
    

Looking for more links and information? Check out these great links;

• Kibibi's article Top Ten Cheap Foraging Ideas
• More Foraging Links at the Captive Foraging Blog
• Using Toys to Encourage Your Bird's Foraging Activity
• Foraging Behavior Article by Cheryl Rose at Holistic Birds
• Environmental Enrichment at USDA's Agricultural Library

Does your parrot have it's own favorite foraging toys? Send Kibibi an email with your favorite toys. Maybe she'd like to try them out.

This article may be republished to any media source including webpages, news papers or any other print medium in its unaltered entirety as long as the byline below is included.

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This article was originally published on www.InfoSuperFlyway.com. The InfoSuperFlyway website is dedicated to Kibibi the talking African Grey Parrot (Congo African Grey) with sights, sounds, audio, videos, articles, top ten lists, parrot jokes, parrot humor, and Clicker training info! Original Article Source: Top Ten Favorite Parrot Foraging Toys

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