excellent foraging idea

I got this idea from a parrot clicker group while looking for new ideas to entertain Loro.
I bought all sorts of little crafty things and have been testing a few ideas out.
it took 10minutes or less to make and it's kept lorenzo occupied longer then any other toy I've bought. You need to be careful of the sharp edges, cut them as rounded off as you can and supervise. the bigger parrots will surely figure this out easily and probably just unscrew the bottle cap.
and from a website I tried a paper cup toy full of goodies, toys, treats, beads, colorful paper string shreddy things, straw...etc has got his attention and is easy to chew through for his size.
here's the 2 short video demonstrations I was able to make (loro hates me filming and usually stops doing whatever he's doing so I was lucky to catch this)





im sure you guys probably knew about this already, if so ignore my excitement it's the first week I'm actually doing something and trying my own toys out.

I love the plastic bottle idea for Scotty. He loves his almonds, but he prefers to brute force problems when he can!

love the toys and love the vids...i am definately going to try the bottle


thanks
dusty

Yeah, i've done the bottle before. I do tend to worry about styrofoam. Worried they may swallow bits. I admit that fear may be completely unwarranted as there's no indication they'd swallow stryofoam over any other material.

Try putting food in cotton tube socks and tying it off. They seem to like that too.

i am a little worried about the styrofoam as well, but like you say likely nothing to worry about...one question though...can they get too many peanuts?...mine love them


dusty

dusty wrote:

can they get too many peanuts?...mine love them


dusty

Technically - yes. Given the size of the animal, a couple of peanuts a day can be a lot. Any "good-for-you" food can be "bad" if it's over consumed. Pretty much nothing's "complete" (even pellets). So it always goes back to a variety of nutritious foods.

thank you roz, it's the zons, grey and cockatoos that get peanuts, 2 or 3 a day


dusty

Cool ideas! Love the music in the second clip. Love Lorenzo's colours!

Jake liked the music, but i don't think either of those containers would last more than a second or two.LOL Sure had Lorenzo going though.

Loro's video's are traditionally with random music hehe:) I didn't have time to find a track to his bottle video- it was also a bit too short. Glad you enjoy it!

I don't think Loro is going to swallow any plastic, doesn't worry me unless you were really going to go out of your way and parrot proof absolutely everything. I don't even think he can chew through plastic but it's keeping him entertained to nibble through the holes:)

As for how many peanuts, hmmm usually he eats one a day but he wastes alot. From the forage bottle in 3 days he's only been able to eat half a peanut haha:) so it's working.

Another thing I've found that is great for this kind of thing and its safe is if you go to dollar stores or places like that and buy palm placemates and coasters. You can easily roll them into chewable tubes and tie ends together with sisel string. Some craft stores sell odd palm items like mini sunhats and things too that work. They also sell small wood and paper mache party favors, like little hat boxes and lidded trunks that are tiny that can work in the same way and are safe. I bought a bunch of the small wood boxes and drew on them with these cool markers I found that are fruit scented and made of non-toxic vegetable dyes. The smell drives the birds nuts and makes them want to get into the box even more.