I decided that this week will be 'Enrich Humphrey's Life' Week. You may have read that my husband and I are considering another bird as a companion. That's on hold for a while.

Anyway, I started thinking about how can I make her life more fun and interesting. I read that in th wild, parrots can spend 4-6 hours a day foraging! I just knew Humph needed more foraging in her life. So, here's what I did:

*I divided her food, and gave her 2/3 in her bowl in the morning. The rest I hid all over her cage and play area. I put things in toy links, leather knots, etc. I put one in an upside down bell - part of a toy. She found most the food.

*She has a foraging toy that's a wood block with holes all over it. I stuffed pieces of nutriberry inside the holes and hung it from her play stand. She loved that - She worked really hard to get the nutriberry out while securing the block with her foot to stop it spinning and swinging

*I made one of the food cups on her play stand a 'foraging cup'. (not her main food dish, that's in her cage. There are two cups on her stand) I filled it with small toys, large beads, etc., and put some seeds and bits of food in there with it, and mixed it all up. It was hilarious watching her throw the beads and toys out to get to the seeds. She looked at me like, 'what's all this crap doing in here?" She spent a lot of time working on it.

* I tied a small piece of millet to the highest place on her playstand (it has a big climbing arch - I put the millet up there so she has to climb up there to get it. She did.

* I put a seed or two in her existing foraging toys. (As a ground-foraging seed eater from Western Australia, Humph can have some seeds as part of her diet, unlike other parrots)

Humph is not much of a toy player. She has LOADS of toys, but only a few have really captured her interest. However, the foraging/enrichment activities I've done over the last couple of days seem to have really interested and occupied her. I'm very pleased.

Those are all great ideas! I might have to try some. I bet Humphrey really enjoyed himself!

Great ideas! Sounds like Humphrey really had a good time foraging! I need to be better about giving my birds opportunities to forage. I did buy some of the new foraging toys for them, so will be interested to see how they do with those. Have any of you seen the new foraging dvd that's out? I've thought about getting it - heard it had some good ideas in it. But also heard a lot of it was stuff we probably already know. So haven't decided whether to get it yet or not.

Those are great foraging ideas!

Those are all great ideas! Ollie has some toys that she gets nuts out of, like a treasure chest and this green barrel thing that she has to twist to open. Sometimes I'll wrap nuts or nutriberries up in paper so she has to tear it open to get to the goody. I also stuff things inside of wiffle balls.

Lara described one that I really like- stringing up 2 bottle caps, and putting something inside of them- like round pasta so they have to pull the caps apart to get to whats inside.

Another easy idea that I got from one of the Companion Parrot magazines was if you have any of the ss skewers - spear a a small paper cup onto it, put some food on and push it down inside the cup and then add another cup facing down.That way they have to tear through the cups to get to the food.

I really want to do stuff with cups, but I am having the darndest time finding little dixie cups that aren't coated in wax! I've bought 2 boxes now that turned out to be waxy- I'm starting to get angry!

I cheated and bought mine from birdsjustwannahavefun.com I'm sure I paid way more than if you found that at a reg. store - but I had the same problem as you - I could not for the life of me find ones that weren't coated with wax!

One foraging food i have for Laker is live plants.

I've been buying seeds like broccoli, peas, cat grass [oats or winter wheat] already planted & growing in a non-soil mixture - sold at the green grocer. He really is hard to get interested in food other than seed. But he loves the Carrot tops i have wrapped on his gym & the sprouted stuff is in a decorative pot, just by his cage door - for sampling any time. I notice he likes to have some salad & then some seed & then some water.


Photos: 1)carrot tops 2)cat grass 3)broccoli 4)peas

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Both my cag and tag would seek out the dogs food. Under the table, behind the couch...I started putting their food or treats in places around the house. Just got to remember where I put it. (kind of like hidding Easter eggs)