My cockatiels love foraging trays! In the past I've used dried pasta noodles (elbow shaped) as the material through which they would forage. This worked well, as it was easy to just toss the whole thing at the end of the day and clean the tray, but I always kind of felt bad using a food idem in this way, just to throw it out.
I've since been using stones for foraging, and although this has worked fairly well, it has been much more challenging to keep clean! Right now I have these stones in the tray of a 17 x 18 inch play gym. I LOVE the size of this foraging tray, and the tiel love it too. When I take it out, I put it in the middle of the living room floor, and the cockatiels love to fly down from the top of their cages, land on the top perch, and climb down to forage. However, because the stones require much more time and energy to clean, I only really get to offer my tiels this foraging tray on the weekends. However, I think it I were to switch to a disposable foraging material, this larger foraging tray could be a part of their daily routine.
I saw kitty litter being used as foraging material in this video here:
In the description of the video, she says "The end aim is to have the dish full of a bird safe kitty litter like Oz Pet or Breeder's Choice. Both are safe if chewed or eaten," and " It is recommended by avian vets and if you use one of the brands suggested above, they are safe to chew even if your bird consumes some. It doesn't taste very nice though so it's very unlikely that your bird will purposely eat any!"
While this option would solve my foraging tray problem, I am skeptical. Although she says that it is "recommended by avian vets," I have yet to find any reliable sources to confirm this. I'll keep looking in the mean time, but I figured I would also ask the forum, since some of you may be familiar with these kitty litters.
I'm thinking that, if I were to use a different foraging material for the big foraging tray, I could then use the stones for a smaller table top foraging tray - I think that would be easier to maintain and keep clean.
If you have any other suggestions for a cheap, disposable foraging material, I would much appreciate it!
Thank you!
I've since been using stones for foraging, and although this has worked fairly well, it has been much more challenging to keep clean! Right now I have these stones in the tray of a 17 x 18 inch play gym. I LOVE the size of this foraging tray, and the tiel love it too. When I take it out, I put it in the middle of the living room floor, and the cockatiels love to fly down from the top of their cages, land on the top perch, and climb down to forage. However, because the stones require much more time and energy to clean, I only really get to offer my tiels this foraging tray on the weekends. However, I think it I were to switch to a disposable foraging material, this larger foraging tray could be a part of their daily routine.
I saw kitty litter being used as foraging material in this video here:
While this option would solve my foraging tray problem, I am skeptical. Although she says that it is "recommended by avian vets," I have yet to find any reliable sources to confirm this. I'll keep looking in the mean time, but I figured I would also ask the forum, since some of you may be familiar with these kitty litters.
I'm thinking that, if I were to use a different foraging material for the big foraging tray, I could then use the stones for a smaller table top foraging tray - I think that would be easier to maintain and keep clean.
If you have any other suggestions for a cheap, disposable foraging material, I would much appreciate it!
Thank you!