Kelly, this trick I do makes me think of you everytime I do it. It's been a while, but do you remember posting a thread a while back about your U2 (I think it was your U2) going into her food dish and throwing absolutely everything out? Well Rico will do much of the same thing. He would grab the nuts out of the nutriberries and then toss them. He would pick up the small pieces of avi-cakes I would give him and then toss them too.

I was telling Dr. O about the nutriberries one time and she simply told me to quit giving them to him. Duh! So I did. Saved a lot of money too.

But, here's the trick I wish I would have paid attention to almost 3 years ago and this will only work if you feed avi-cakes or other large food. Rico would pick up the broken off pieces of avi-cake, pick out what he wanted and then toss it. I would go over about 10 minutes later, pull out the tray and put the dropped pieces of avi-cake back in his bowl. Most of the time I would forget and it would all go in the trash anyway.

So, I decided to break up the avi-cakes in large enough chunks that they wouldn't fall through the cage grate when he dropped them. Yes, they are a little heavy he could still hang on to them. He gets three big chunks. When he drops them fine. He doesn't poop where he eats. Later I will find him on his cage bottom continuing to feed off of them. Most large, companion cockatoos are ground foragers anyway so it's natural for them. If not, if they're hungry enough they'll go down and eat it anyway, like I watch Murray do.

Just a tip I thought I would share.

Not Kelly but thanks Lara for that tip, I will file it myself. Another one would be to cut a piece of 1/2" x 3" avairy wire to fit the bottom of your cgae which would be easy to take out and clean anytime. Lil more work of course but will save lots of food from dropping thru the grating of a 'Too type cage etc.

Lara, thank you for the tip! I continue to struggle with what to do about Izzy's habit of throwing all the food in her bowl to the bottom of her cage. I ended up removing the grating to her cage. This is because her cage has a deep cavity between the grating and the bottom tray -- too far for her to reach through and grab anything that has fallen through. I saw her one day reaching futilely to get some food that way and decided to just remove the grates. Not an ideal solution, I know. One other thing I did before removing the grates was to place newspaper on top of the grates just below her food bowl. That helped until Izzy decided that picking up one end of the paper and dragging it up to her perch to chew was fun -- thus causing all her food to fall through to the grates again! Grrr.....

This is not due to Izzy not having toys -- she is given a different toy every single day -- whether it is filling her hanging forage box with stuff for her to pull out, putting up a store toy for her to destroy, placing newspaper through the bars to chew up, giving her sanitized pine cones to pick apart, cardboard boxes with hidden treats inside for her to find and open, etc. -- every day, Lara, she gets something new. I know that Izzy is an energetic, smart 'too and is using her food as a means to play. She will sometimes take it piece by piece and fling it to the other side of her cage! Other times, she will simply stick her head in the bowl and swish the contents with her beak, causing it all to tumble below. So for now, she has no grates. Typical of 'toos, she is a ground forager and seems to eat the bulk of her food on the floor of her cage. I have also put a heavy dish filled with food in the corner at the bottom of her cage and this also helps. But she sure is a challenge!

Sounds like we all have a bunch of food throwers here! Seymour un- screws his whole dish, picks it up and throws it on the floor.....And says, "Ut oh".....Little turd!

My Cag does the same thing...throws the bowl then days da__it! Then he crawls down and eats the food off the floor.