Foraging for Parrots

This great submission comes from my friend Katie, cockatiel human extraordinaire. We met almost 15 years ago and bonded over everything bird related. Katie is a naturalist, educator and great birder, so had a real insight into natural behavior of our avian friends.

Katie writes, “When I got my first cockatiel in 2003, like typical parrot owners, I offered food in a bowl. Then when I adopted a second cockatiel three years later, I noticed the two would frequently fight over the food bowl, since only one could eat from it at a time. I came up with the idea of doing a forage tray, where the food would be scattered on a plastic serving tray covered in paper bedding. Not only did this stop all fighting, but it simulates a cockatiel’s natural foraging behavior as well, serving as enrichment! I have used this system of offering food for 18 years now with all of my cockatiels and it always works magic, no matter how bossy the birds may be with each other in other aspects of their lives.

If you’d like to create a forage tray of your own, I used a plastic serving tray you’d buy in a kitchen section of a home store or online (I taped up the handles with packaging tape to avoid spills). Choose a size that fits the bottom of your cage but doesn’t cover the whole bottom. The hardest thing about forage trays is keeping poop out of it from perching above. I was lucky that a friend created a roof for my forage tray that attaches to the back of the cage. For the substrate in the cage, I use storebrand Carefresh bedding, which is easy for the birds to walk on, and does not pose an ingestion risk like corn cob bedding. Every morning, I scatter their dry food on the forage tray, and that’s it! When offering wet food such as fruits and vegetables and birdy pasta, I offer those on a plate or bowl in the forage tray. Wet items should never be left in a bird’s enclosure more than a single day due to the risk of bacteria and mold. At least once a month I clean out the tray and change the bedding, as a lot of seed shells and pulverized pellet powder collects under the bedding. Enjoy watching your birds enjoy their new enrichment!”

I’ll bet a lot of you clever readers can do lots of things with this idea to adapt it to your own birds, their species and particular preferences, as well as your cage and space. I’ll bet there’s a way to mount a foraging tray inside or outside the cage in you piece, or even on a play stand for treats.