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Introducing foraging

conureboys

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Mads (they/them)
So I suspect Baldwin, my beloved BCC, has never had foraging introduced to him before-- and he's pretty old. I don't have a lot of information on how the past owners treated him which is frustrating. All I know from his past is that his toes are amputated, he has a (gratefully recovering!!) feather plucking issue, and he was fed only seed. He is traumatized and afraid of hands (will bite) so I have to handle him with great care.

How do you introduce foraging to an oldish, scared bird who isn't very active?
 

Chris1234

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Oh, poor guy! I'm glad he's in better hands now. Our Meyers Baby came to us plucking and not playing with any toys. :(
Do you know what his favorite treats are? Our Baby didn't forage at all when we adopted her, but we found she will do almost anything for a safflower seed. I hide them in toys to draw her to them. I also mix them in fresh foods and sprouts, so she'll at least rummage around in them to get at the seeds. She's started eating some of them finally too. Is he moving around the cage at all? If not, you could start out putting a small food dish in a second location in the cage and drop a favorite treat in there on occasion.
 

MnGuy

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I don't necessarily have experience with old birds, but I'd suggest starting off in his food bowl. Add a few pellets or seeds as normal into his food bowl, but then wrap some up in safe paper or in cardboard tubes and place them inside his bowl. When he gets the hang of foraging there, you can add more in other parts of the cage.

I like to place a large flat glass casserole dish on the bottom of my CAG's cage, fill it with shredded paper or cut raffia and sprinkle in seeds and/or pellets, and small cardboard tubes, boxes, paper and unbleached coffee filters filled with treats.

Or, put his food in his bowl as normal, wrap a sheet of paper over the top and stick it in the bowl holder.
 

conureboys

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Oh, poor guy! I'm glad he's in better hands now. Our Meyers Baby came to us plucking and not playing with any toys. :(
Do you know what his favorite treats are? Our Baby didn't forage at all when we adopted her, but we found she will do almost anything for a safflower seed. I hide them in toys to draw her to them. I also mix them in fresh foods and sprouts, so she'll at least rummage around in them to get at the seeds. She's started eating some of them finally too. Is he moving around the cage at all? If not, you could start out putting a small food dish in a second location in the cage and drop a favorite treat in there on occasion.

Thank you, I am glad too :D

He really likes star anise and nutriberries. He moves, but not a lot. He does like to chew on certain toys, so I'll definitely try the stick-it-in-a-toy idea!
 

Nancy B

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I have an idea too, is fairly simple. If you have a hanging skewer (when my Fred came to us, he would not eat greens, Galah live on greens in the wild!) Put some greens (I use spring mix), on a hanging skewer. It ends up looking like a plant, and my Fred instantly went for it. Now they are bored with that, so I read something about mixing up food items and chewable items on a skewer. I cut some 3" sections of a paper towel roll, used a nail to poke a hole through the center of them. I then skewered the paper roll sections onto the skewer, filled them with spring mix, and folded in the ends like small boxes. I like to sit and see who opens them the fastest. All the birds (two lovebirds and my Galah) immediately grab the skewers, and the lovebirds are the quickest to get one box open! Lol I did this tonight and I won't have a chance to see the birds until after work tomorrow, so I like to put some new things like this in the cages.
 

charlieboy

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I like to wrap small pieces of millet in paper just like a lil candy for Charlie! :) Perhaps you could try that with a Nutriberry, it's cute to watch them unwrap their "candy" too! :giggle:
 

Nancy B

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I like to wrap small pieces of millet in paper just like a lil candy for Charlie! :) Perhaps you could try that with a Nutriberry, it's cute to watch them unwrap their "candy" too! :giggle:
I have been trying to get Fred to do this...he tends to throw out the paper as he doesn't realize something is in it. Maybe I will let him watch me fill it. He did figure out Chinese finger traps pretty quickly lol. But I think they love that material anyway.
 

d_msparkles

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Our bird has been ours since 13 weeks and she still struggles to "get" foraging. We did a baby carrot in a finger trap for awhile and that was always a hit. If she can't see food in something, she doesn't even try. Then we got her a Caitec beginner foraging puzzle that was see-through and it drove her crazy that she couldn't get to the food. :wideyed: I'll put wooden beads in her pellets for her to at least root around in. I also ordered a "beginner" foraging toy from @Mizzely's shop. Will report back once it arrives. :)
 

Brittany0208

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We are in very similar situations. Java isn't old but he isn't a chick, he'll be 10 in May, but he's very inactive, terrified of everything, and has no idea what to do with a foraging toy. So, what I've done to sort of introduce the idea of eating out of something that isn't a bowl is take fresh vegetables (sliced carrot, head of broccoli, or a stalk of kale) and clip it to his nearest perch without making it to challenging to get to. Most of the time, he'll just take chunks out of the vegetables and throw it on the floor but he'll eat the broccoli florets from the head. This is as close to foraging as I've gotten for now.

He has about five different foraging toys, but because he's inexperienced and inactive, he doesn't use them. I've also taken a coffee filter and put a treat inside it, wrapped it up, and then clipped it to the side of his food bowl so he has to make an effort to get to it. It hasn't worked out much because, since he has one leg, he can't hold anything with his foot to eat like a two-legged parrot could, so he ends up dropping a lot of his treats and toys. So, a lot of the times (most of the times) I have to hold something for him to open: a treat, in-shell nuts, or even just pieces of food that are too big for him to hold. This is the hand that he was dealt, and he'll always need assistance for the simplest things: scratching his head, cleaning his tail feathers, retrieving a lot of dropped toys that he can't get himself, helping him perch, etc. Essentially, he's a sitting duck (he also doesn't know how to fly), so he relies on me quite a bit but I'm always looking for creative ways to accommodate his needs so he can gain confidence and independence.

I recently introduced him to in-shell almonds, which he figured out pretty quickly with the ones that were already split, but the entirely closed ones, he couldn't open. So, he threw them down, turning them around in his mouth, but he couldn't grip it, so I let him use my hand as a table so he wouldn't keep dropping it. Well, he expected me to crack it for him because he kept picking it up and putting it in my hand like," okay, fix it." And when I didn't, he had a mild meltdown: throwing his food, biting me, throwing the almond on the floor. My mom and grandmother said I was being mean and teasing him, that I should crack it for him, but I told them that he has to learn. He has to work for his food. It's been two days and that almond still isn't cracked, but I'll keep offering it until he does it on his own.
So, if you can hide treats in easy-to-open things: like a paper cup, coffee filter, or just under a small blanket, and if it's within reach, then maybe your bird can start learning how to work for his food. :)
 

Nancy B

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We are in very similar situations. Java isn't old but he isn't a chick, he'll be 10 in May, but he's very inactive, terrified of everything, and has no idea what to do with a foraging toy. So, what I've done to sort of introduce the idea of eating out of something that isn't a bowl is take fresh vegetables (sliced carrot, head of broccoli, or a stalk of kale) and clip it to his nearest perch without making it to challenging to get to. Most of the time, he'll just take chunks out of the vegetables and throw it on the floor but he'll eat the broccoli florets from the head. This is as close to foraging as I've gotten for now.

He has about five different foraging toys, but because he's inexperienced and inactive, he doesn't use them. I've also taken a coffee filter and put a treat inside it, wrapped it up, and then clipped it to the side of his food bowl so he has to make an effort to get to it. It hasn't worked out much because, since he has one leg, he can't hold anything with his foot to eat like a two-legged parrot could, so he ends up dropping a lot of his treats and toys. So, a lot of the times (most of the times) I have to hold something for him to open: a treat, in-shell nuts, or even just pieces of food that are too big for him to hold. This is the hand that he was dealt, and he'll always need assistance for the simplest things: scratching his head, cleaning his tail feathers, retrieving a lot of dropped toys that he can't get himself, helping him perch, etc. Essentially, he's a sitting duck (he also doesn't know how to fly), so he relies on me quite a bit but I'm always looking for creative ways to accommodate his needs so he can gain confidence and independence.

I recently introduced him to in-shell almonds, which he figured out pretty quickly with the ones that were already split, but the entirely closed ones, he couldn't open. So, he threw them down, turning them around in his mouth, but he couldn't grip it, so I let him use my hand as a table so he wouldn't keep dropping it. Well, he expected me to crack it for him because he kept picking it up and putting it in my hand like," okay, fix it." And when I didn't, he had a mild meltdown: throwing his food, biting me, throwing the almond on the floor. My mom and grandmother said I was being mean and teasing him, that I should crack it for him, but I told them that he has to learn. He has to work for his food. It's been two days and that almond still isn't cracked, but I'll keep offering it until he does it on his own.
So, if you can hide treats in easy-to-open things: like a paper cup, coffee filter, or just under a small blanket, and if it's within reach, then maybe your bird can start learning how to work for his food. :)
Almonds are a pretty hard nut. Is he able to crack it on his own? I can see myself giving in and doing it for him. o_O
 

Gribouille

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We are in very similar situations. Java isn't old but he isn't a chick, he'll be 10 in May, but he's very inactive, terrified of everything, and has no idea what to do with a foraging toy. So, what I've done to sort of introduce the idea of eating out of something that isn't a bowl is take fresh vegetables (sliced carrot, head of broccoli, or a stalk of kale) and clip it to his nearest perch without making it to challenging to get to. Most of the time, he'll just take chunks out of the vegetables and throw it on the floor but he'll eat the broccoli florets from the head. This is as close to foraging as I've gotten for now.

He has about five different foraging toys, but because he's inexperienced and inactive, he doesn't use them. I've also taken a coffee filter and put a treat inside it, wrapped it up, and then clipped it to the side of his food bowl so he has to make an effort to get to it. It hasn't worked out much because, since he has one leg, he can't hold anything with his foot to eat like a two-legged parrot could, so he ends up dropping a lot of his treats and toys. So, a lot of the times (most of the times) I have to hold something for him to open: a treat, in-shell nuts, or even just pieces of food that are too big for him to hold. This is the hand that he was dealt, and he'll always need assistance for the simplest things: scratching his head, cleaning his tail feathers, retrieving a lot of dropped toys that he can't get himself, helping him perch, etc. Essentially, he's a sitting duck (he also doesn't know how to fly), so he relies on me quite a bit but I'm always looking for creative ways to accommodate his needs so he can gain confidence and independence.

I recently introduced him to in-shell almonds, which he figured out pretty quickly with the ones that were already split, but the entirely closed ones, he couldn't open. So, he threw them down, turning them around in his mouth, but he couldn't grip it, so I let him use my hand as a table so he wouldn't keep dropping it. Well, he expected me to crack it for him because he kept picking it up and putting it in my hand like," okay, fix it." And when I didn't, he had a mild meltdown: throwing his food, biting me, throwing the almond on the floor. My mom and grandmother said I was being mean and teasing him, that I should crack it for him, but I told them that he has to learn. He has to work for his food. It's been two days and that almond still isn't cracked, but I'll keep offering it until he does it on his own.
So, if you can hide treats in easy-to-open things: like a paper cup, coffee filter, or just under a small blanket, and if it's within reach, then maybe your bird can start learning how to work for his food. :)

This bird is really lucky to have you to help, but he has become an assisted kid who wants Mommy to do everything for him, and it is good that you let him work a little so he can experience to manage something on his own.
I have a parrotlet that never experienced foraging and, reading this thread yesterday I decided to give it a try. My plan is to use a paper straw, cut some holes in so he can smell/see the treats inside and fill it with millet and sunflower seeds. Then I think I'll attach it to the top of his cage so it won't move when he starts tearing it up. Maybe you could do such a thing for your bird instead of holding it for him? Sounds like you have a big bird so you'll probably need to take an egg box instead of a paper straw ;)
 

Farlie

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So I suspect Baldwin, my beloved BCC, has never had foraging introduced to him before-- and he's pretty old. I don't have a lot of information on how the past owners treated him which is frustrating. All I know from his past is that his toes are amputated, he has a (gratefully recovering!!) feather plucking issue, and he was fed only seed. He is traumatized and afraid of hands (will bite) so I have to handle him with great care.

How do you introduce foraging to an oldish, scared bird who isn't very active?

Why can't these bum-holes be prossacuted? :oops: My bad...
 

Nancy B

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This bird is really lucky to have you to help, but he has become an assisted kid who wants Mommy to do everything for him;)
They can get like that. My Fred was like that when he first started interacting with us. Whenever he looked like he would fall I actually hurried to his aid. Then I noticed a couple times he looked like he was going to fall, looked at me, then sat up when I got to him. Stinker. I stopped doing it, now every now and then he will look over his shoulder at me when he does things. I am always watching him and will say I SEE YOU FRED, but I don't run to his aid. He figures it out. :chillpill: lol
 
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