Enrichment and Foraging for A Bird Who Is Scared of Everything?

[Reggie]

I've been trying the paper-towel in the dish kind of thing to get Cooper to "forage" for his dinner, but it only works if he's in the cage. Sometimes while he's on my desk he'll eat the edges of whatever paper I might be working on (not eating just shredding). Other than that he is very timid and attached to me and afraid of pretty much everything unless he's in his cage. How do I start doing more out of the cage foraging and enrichment while making sure he's not afraid of it?

(I have tried using his favorite foods to coax him, but he's not terribly food-motivated it seems.)

 

[Milo]

Have you tried attaching the bowls to the outside of the cage? If he's really that afraid of everything it's going to take some time to get him adjusted. Take baby steps, maybe one bowl on the outside of the cage with the door open. My vet also suggests using rocks in their dish so they have to move things around to get to the food. Find rocks from outside and clean them (I used a scrub brush first then boiled mine) and put a smaller amount of food in his dish with the rocks. They should be big enough so he can't swallow them accidentally.

If he'll go after papers on your desk you can try hiding a treat under the edge of the paper and see if he goes for that.

If you're doing the foraging in addition to what's in his bowl every day he may also simply not be motivated to go after more challenging things. It's great that he'll "forage" for his dinner in his cage! It might not seem like it because it's simple for us, but even doing things like that in his cage is stimulating for him.

 

[Reggie]

Thank you for the reply! I'll try the rocks in the dish suggestion and maybe the cups on the outside of the cage when I feed him tonight!

 

[rocky'smom]

a piece of balsa wood over the dish makes him work to see what is underneath. start with small pieces first

 

[karen256]

Use small toys, they're less scary. Toy-shy birds tend to be less destructive, so you can use toys meant for size smaller bird.
And if he's scared of foraging toys - try a foraging perch. Use a wooden perch - dowel or natural branch, whichever he likes best is fine for this) and just go through and drill some little holes halfway through the perch. Then you can put sunflower seeds or other small treats in the holes so that he has to work a little to pull them out.

 

[BirdGuy21]

It takes a long time for our Senegal to accept anything new near or on his cage. What we usually do is leave out the new toy on the table, which is close to his cage but across the room, for a few days to weeks to let him acclimate to seeing it. Then we will start playing with it ourselves to show him how. If he seems ok with it we'll add it to a play stand or the top of his cage. He actually just started playing with a toy that's been on his cage for four months yesterday.

 

[Peachfaced]

I've been having to teach Rupert to start looking for foods. I took a little balsa block and stuffed millet in the holes and gave it to him. After he took care of the millet, he destroyed the balsa. I've never in my life had to coax a bird to play with balsa.

Anyhow, now I put small things on top of his cage when he's up there; these little slotted balls from CA Bird Nerds are fantastic. (Small Slotted Ball Stuffer Just the right size, stuffed with crinkle paper, and a favorite treat. He picks it right up and hunts for the goodies. It was a great distraction this morning while I cleaned his cage. Last night I put little individual millet balls in the cage. Once he found one, he looked around for more. You can start like this and also try putting beads in his food dish to get him used to moving things out of the way to eat.

 

[Alaythiadrew]

I sit right in front of my budgie's cage and rip a kleanx into bits to get him interested if not green with envy! Then I wrap a treat with kleanx and twist tie it to the bars. Hope this helps!

 

[Clueless]

My Amazon, Secret, is hesitant with new toys. Takes months.

I've got a bowl in her cage I put wood toys/blocks in. Start with one block then add one on each day until you have a few in there.

I've been dropping a nutriberry in there in the mornings.

 

[Shinobi]

Henry is straight onto a new toy. But Angel is a bit more hesitant. When we got Angel, She didn't know how to play with toys we had to show her. She has also been watching Henry. Angel seems to really hate balls, she throws them off the play gym onto the floor.