hormonal? throwing food?

[Gen120]

My conures are in the same cage, a big cage- like an Amazon sized cage. Pepper was hatched in 2006 & Jasper in 2012. They are bonded & basically hate me. If I take them out of the birdroom separate from the rest of the flock they are okay with me. If its just me & one conure in my room, whoever it is is calm & relaxed. 180* change from how they act in the birdroom. They also have a bad habit of throwing their food, I can't afford to buy expensive food to see it thrown to the bottom of the cage. Not sure what I can do about this. Need advice. I will say they seem happy & content living with me, they just don't seem to like much human contact & I am okay with that, main problem is throwing the food.

 

[Clueless]

Maybe one of those enclosed food bowls?

 

[Bokkapooh]

Less food in their dishes. Feed them only what they'll eat in a meal.

This is what I have to do

 

[msplantladi]

Many might disagree with me but when I first rescued my two macaws they were much used to throwing fits & getting their way, one of those fits would be throwing food, dumping the dish...I would remove the dish at first sight of the hissy fit starting and say NO firmly . They haven't dumped food in months. Good luck.

 

[JLcribber]

Part of the reason they are tossing food is there's stuff in there they don't like/want. Their "favorite" stuff in there has to be dug out. Hence dumping the food. You might reconsider what you're feeding them. Less food. Less of what they don't eat and more of what they do. And less food overall as Mercedez said. Then you just need a different bowl (like a crock) so they can't just fling the food.

A seed mix has a wide mixture of stuff in it. They have their favourite stuff which they will always select and eat first. The rest of the stuff is in the way.

 

[pajarita]

Throwing food is a behavior which is part of canope feeders' ecological niche. Nature made them do this so they would feed ground dwelling species and disperse seed (everything in an ecological system works in conjunction with everything else). It's programmed into their brains so there is little that should be done to curtail it (it's not good trying to make them stop hard-wired behaviors, too stressful for them). I found a way around it that reduces waste but it's by no means 100% effective, I put their food on disposable paper plates. Some stuff does end up on the floor but the larger, flat surface allows them to move things around and pick and choose without throwing half of it out.

 

[Happynme]

Happy is a food flinger and shes small enough to get in her dish and spin...yes spin...kicking the food out delightfully as she does so. Has even added hahahahahhaha in lovebird speech as she goes along.
I tried taking it away. I tried every bowl you can get. What finally worked for me....she has breakfast lunch and dinner. They are timed. And then whatever dish is in there gets taken out. Bf is veggies n pellets. Lunch is pellets and dinner is fruit ,pellets and a light sprinkle of seeds. She is hungry ist at bfast so she digs in and eats. She is soso at lunch and whatever pellets she leaves i add to the next mornings lot. Dinner is usually picked at..she barely eats the fruit but goes crazy for seeds.
So what that tells me is..seeds are her favorite and she will throw whatever is throwable out to get them. So it has to be her last meal of the day because if i gave them to her at bfast all her pellets would be on the floor. She has started EATING more than she throws now! granted she still does a dance in her dish even when its lunch time and only pellets...but its less now.
Ive also found keeping a tarp under her cage catches alot and i just roll it up....take it out side and shake it out into the yard ...the wild birds c ome sample her cast aways lol.

You could also make her work for food by setting up foraging stations in her cage . They dont have to be expensive or elaborate. Happys favorite is to dig thru coffee filters to get to some pellets or a pecan ive hidden in there. To her birdy foraging brain since shes done all that work to GET to the food...Might as well eat it since its there lol.

Ive found foraging makes her less likely to do bowl spins!

 

[Wolf]

Maybe this is just me, but you make it sound as if the food throwing mainly occurs if you are in the room with them and not so much if you leave the room. If this is true then the problem may be that you don't spend enough time in the bird room with them for them to feel that you are a part of their flock. All of the other information is still valid but you might want to spend more time in the bird room between feeding times just talking and otherwise interacting with them.

 

[Monica]

If it's dry food, you could always look into getting smooth river rocks or aquarium gravel and mixing the food and rocks together so they have to dig through the rocks to get to their food. Gives them something to do and makes them work for it!

Likewise, you can also cover the food dishes with paper towels or just paper and put a hole in the center. They'll have to rip the paper open to get to the food!

Or place the food into cupcake wrappers, twist n tie to make them work at, once again, eating their food!




Not sure how you feed, but I generally feed enough dry food to last one day, and as much fresh foods as they are willing to eat! (i.e. usually give them more than enough fresh foods!)

 

[Crazy4parrots]

Try placing their cage out of the bird room maybe they dont like that room? And thats why they are aggressive with You in that room?