Foraging for Parrots

This toy is one of my birds’ FAVORITE foraging toys. Here’s Ollie enjoying his:

This toy is a vine ball, sold in Target as ‘vase fillers’, in boxes of 14 for around 7 dollars. I push a shelled almond inside, and the birds go crazy pulling the ball apart, destroying, and shredding it to get to the prize inside.(you can also stuff shredded paper into the ball, along with the treat, for more challenge.)

Each ball will keep a bird occupied for at least a half an hour (until they get too good at it!) Vine balls can be hung in the cage with safe string or just handed to the bird as a foot foraging toy. I do both.

You may see similar vine balls, but scented versions, on sale in some places. This is obviously not want you want. Over the previous months I have bought the entire stock of these in both the Target stores in my area. If you live outside myarea (Philadelphia), your Target store might have loads of these left.

As always, the first time you give your bird a new type of foraging toy, show him that there is food inside, as you load the toy.

Difficulty for humans to make: easy

Difficulty for birds to use: medium to challenging (depending on bird)