[amilysh]

Hey,

Got some information from the vet re; foraging for food.

It said to remove any food in bowls and to have your bird to forage for food 4-6 hours a day.

Do any of you do that?

My baby Cedar is now about 3 months old and I've tried to start some foraging activities for him.

Started off with putting paper over his bowl and guess what? he just sat there on the bowl! Once I took off the paper he was happy and rushed over to the bowl to eat the pellets

Yes, I did show him the food before covering and even left a gap on the side...

Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated

[Betty49]

I am sorry I am not sure how to answer that. I was kinda wondering the same thing. I can't seem to get Paulie interested in searching out food. He seems scared of everythig I put in there.

[Andrea5699]

I woudln't remove your birds regular food .. that must be fed free choice 24/7 in my opinion.. parrots realllly watch our reactions so when you stuff treats etc in paper towel or whatever make sure they see you doing it and act really excited about it.. they are so inquisitive it may spark their interest. You can also visit the toys section at pet smart or whereever and they often have specfic toys for foraging that your quaker may like.. good luck!

[Casey's Mom]

The Parrot Enrichment Books (there are two versions) have some fantastic foraging ideas!

[Glowbird]

I got Frost interested by putting her absolute favorite treats, popcorn, dried hot peppers, and walnuts inside a hanging vine ball.

[tikileahsmom]

Ya, I'd leave his regular food in and only make him forage for his treats. Once he gets the idea, then try covering the food bowl and go from there. It's funny as a friend and I were talking about this yesturday for my grey that isn't eating out of his bowl. I wonder if after 25 years he's getting bored of it and wants a challenge so I'm going to try some foraging ideas for him myself.

[ReneeNoelle]

The handbooks Casey's Mom gave you links to is amazing for anyone who needs foraging ideas for their bird(s). I have a plucking Quaker and an overpreening CAG and the handbooks are lifesavers for me!! It addresses the issues of covering food bowls as well as moving them around in the cage. Give it a try and see what you think!

[moonchild1970]

They also sell toys that you can put treats in and the birds have to figure out how to get them out. Verde and Petey love those! I also wrap treats in paper or tissue, and then put them in a kleenex box or dr pepper 12 pack box and they love to go in there and find them. There are so many ways of doing it and it's alot of fun to use your imagination on where to hide them!

[amilysh]

Many thanks for all the help

Yeah, I do think it's a good idea to have Cedar foraging for treats would work better and then the pellets later on.

Finally, today he ate some apples (his favourite fruit) from that rubber orange ball thing with holes in it as he was always afraid of that thing before - hooray!

He was playing like a game doing that as the orange ball was next to his sleep hut..so he would go thru the sleep hut and quickly get some apples and run back inside the sleep hut...again and again..such fun to watch!!!!

[moonchild1970]

Another great way to get them to forage is for them to see you doing it. Kind of like "Birdie see, birdie do "...