Foraging & Enrichment Toys for Parrots
Keep That Bird Busy!
Just as someone into aquariums has to contend with water chemistry and dog owners need to contend with chewing, bird owners have to contend with providing a healthy, stimulating environment for their parrot. Unable to rely on enrichment from Mother Nature, your pet bird relies on you for stimulation. And, if you don’t provide what your parrot needs, he’ll let you know with behaviors like screaming, biting and pulling his feathers.
But you can easily curb annoying parrot tantrums and self-destructive behavior. Sources like Chirp n Squawk Bird Supplies specialize in selling bird toys and parrot accessories that create a stimulating environment for your parrot. The goal is to encourage thinking and exercise to get wanted objects, especially food, shredding and soft wood chipping items.
What is Foraging? We hear a lot about “foraging” these days. Most trusted bird toy manufacturers are getting very saavy as to the importance of providing bird safe foraging toys. Foraging bird toys require your bird to WORK for food, similar to how how he may do in he wild. Non-destructible feeding systems like the Rings of Forture Bird Toy, shown above provide mental and visual stimulation as your parrot aligns a bit of food through a tumble system to capture it at the bottom. Similarly, the Original Forage Feeder, which incidently is a hit with our 8 parrots, consists of three wood blocks with deep holes to insert food. Your parrot has to firstly, figure out that there is indeed food in the hole. Then, he has to chip away at the wood to obtain the desired treat. The manufacturer recommends that you fill the holes to the brim and as your parrot eats away, it realizes that it has to forage to obtain it’s food.
The cool thing is that as as parrots become more popular pets and as we research the mental and physical needs of these beautiful creatures, many trusted bird toy manufactures are creating foraging toys. Keep in mind that in the wild, parrots spend about 70% of their time foraging for food while in a domestic environment, they eat for say, 15-20 minutes. Why not get a bunch of foraging toys and load them with your parrots healthy food. Better yet, check out the Parrot Enrichment Pack at Chirp n Squawk Bird Supplies!
New to Foraging? Learn more with these DVD’s: Captive Foraging and Enriching Your Parrot’s LIfe
Tags: bird toys, foraging bird toys
Thu, Aug 6, 2009
Health & Enrichment, Toys