Floor/ground enrichment for cockatiel

[finchofroy]

Ok so I have a large-ish cage that I have 4 finches (1 breeding pair and their 2 daughters) and 1 male cockatiel (late addition). The finches usually stay at the top of the cage and the cockatiel is always around the middle to bottom of the cage. The bottom is covered with about 2 inches of mulch and the cockatiel absolutely loves digging and picking for dropped food. The ground space is about 3ft x 4ft and the cage is 6ft tall. I’m wondering if it would be necessary to maybe sprinkle some treat or something for him to actually find in the substrate? Or is the occasional seeds enough?

 

[orphansparrow]

Have you ever tried giving him pellets? I think a lot of people feed their cockatiel pellets and use seeds as foraging treats.

 

[finchofroy]

Have you ever tried giving him pellets? I think a lot of people feed their cockatiel pellets and use seeds as foraging treats.

Well he does get pellets and a couple nutri-berries everyday. The finches get seeds high up in their bowl. The cockatiel never goes up there so maybe he already views the dropped seeds as treats.

 

[orphansparrow]

Yeah, I bet he does!
I’m sure other folks here will have some good ideas. And I’d love to see a couple pics!

 

[caspin22]

My cockatiels (and every other bird in the house except for the Lovebird) are on 100% pellets plus sprouts/chop/etc. The Lovebird is being stubborn about converting, so he still has some seed in his cage, which he takes great delight in flinging around. The cockatiels favorite activity is flying to the floor beneath the Lovebird's cage to forage for any seeds that he's dropped. We try to give them plenty of foraging time every day.