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Suggestions for Treats?

Nightstar

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I recently bought a food trap for my amazon Loro and he's loving it. I usually fill it up with paper and toiled rolls pieces, hiding 3 Brazil Nuts amongst all the mess. They are his favorite treat, specially because he gets to crack them open and everything. However, I have to give them in moderation, because Brazil Nuts can cause diarrhea if a bird eats too much.

I can't think of other dry treats to mix in with all the paper besides nuts, though... Brazil Nuts specifically are going off season anyway, so the batch we have now will probably be the last for the year. My father bought a bunch of cashews and will roast the nuts without salt for Loro, still I was wondering what other dry treats can work for the food trap besides nuts. Do you have any suggestions?
 

Olliebirb

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You can try almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, peanuts (no shells), pecans, sunflower seeds, millet , and probably more. Though give these in moderation because they have a high fat content and make sure they are unsalted/seasoned
 

Shezbug

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You can try almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, peanuts (no shells), pecans, sunflower seeds, millet , and probably more. Though give these in moderation because they have a high fat content and make sure they are unsalted/seasoned
Peanuts are best avoided even without the shells- there are much healthier nut options and it is just not worth chancing the problems that are associated with peanuts. Almonds are a wicked choice for our birds same with walnuts. You can also try freeze dried fruit and veg- Burt loves this stuff and it is so easy to break into tiny treat sized pieces.

@Nightstar do you mind sharing a pic of the "food trap" you say you use..... I have not heard of them so I am unsure of what to suggest for you to put in it. In Burt's foraging toys I often use things like dried chilli or other veg as well as his most favourite pellets and also some nuts. He also loves it when I put anything new or different for him to investigate like gum nuts, a sprig of fresh rosemary from the garden or some bird safe flowers. He does not eat this stuff but he does play with it and chew it to bits.
 

Nightstar

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@Olliebirb
You might have misread it. I did say without salt.

@Shezbug
This little box.
Right now almonds, hazelnuts and chestnuts are off season. They are christmas nuts, so they will only get available sometime next month(at least it's not too far away). I think pecans, pistachios and millet are very uncommon around here too. I've never seen them available anywhere, and my parents said they had never even heard of them until now. Generally speaking, here most nuts beside Brazil Nuts only come up around christmas, which is why I asked for suggestions that didn't involve nuts.

A friend of mine suggested using dried fruits as long as they don't have any salt, which sounds interesting.
 

Shezbug

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Dried fruit has lots of sugar and it is preserved using sulphur so you want to try to get either freeze dried (which should have nothing added at all) or fruit that is preferably sugar and sulphur free (nearly impossible for me to find). I have had so much trouble finding dried fruit that has no added sugar or sulphur so I buy freeze dried fruits or make my own dried fruit in my dehydrator for Burt.

If your bird likes chilli then you can buy or grow a heap of fresh ones and dry them yourself to use in that contraption you have........ any chance you are able to find a link for that box you have? I am very interested in it.

Other things you could put in there I guess could be bark and pods from safe trees, dry pasta noodles (not too many), dried safe grasses, dried camomile flowers (and other safe flowers or herbs dried), little bits of broken bird toys.

It does not only have to be food you put in there, try anything you can find that you think has an interesting texture- Burt loves bottle tops (not all are safe so double check they are clean and have no little insert) to ruin, short bits of sea grass or paper rope to play with and snip, small foot toys, beads, little stones, dice, ice cream sticks, etc.

I use an assortment of things in Burt's forage toys so that they are not full of food. I make mini toys out of wicker/ cane, strips of paper to make balls, stars, folded zig zag things what ever I can do to make the foraging more interesting and fun.

I put tiny bits of food like one pine nut, rice bubble or corn flake in these tiny stars :)
Paper Worms I make these with no eyes lol.
These are a little more fiddly but if you have the time your bird may appreciate your efforts ;)
 

Mizzely

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Shezbug

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Lol I honestly would not have thought of those as they are not something I can get here.
I used them with Jingo a lot! Ripley if course doesn't care lol

Nutriberries are also good for forage!
 

Nightstar

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@Shezbug
Ooh I see.
Those origami stars are such an adorable idea. It looks very time consuming, but I love it!
Unfortunately, I don't have bottle tops since nobody in the house drinks alcohol nor soda. Are soda tabs safe at all?

Here's a very similar model to the food trap. You can find these by looking up ''foraging box'' or ''feeder box''. It's just that the page I bought mine from called it a food trap and that's how I've been calling it XD. I must say, it's super sturdy. I was afraid it wouldn't stand Loro's beak, but so far he hasn't been able to make a single scratch on it. As you know by now, I've been struggling a lot to provide him proper toys, so getting this made me so happy! Loro spends hours digging and shredding all the stuff I put in there. My next step is replacing his perches with branches from our orange tree, which had no pesticide treatment.
 

Nightstar

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Oh good news, my father found almonds after going to several markets! Loro really likes them.
I'd record a video of Loro playing with his food trap, but he doesn't like to do it while being watched. He just freezes in place and pretty much glares at you XD.
 
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