Teaching a Bird to Forage | Topics

If you have any comments, questions or concerns please shoot them my way!

Intro music :

[nataliewatson]

This explains the foundations of foraging so wonderfully. Thank you. My birds are great foragers, however, having this new knowledge and understanding will shift my approach and invest in fun more.

[mt]

You explain things so well! Thank you!

[LoGi]

BELLISSIMO! Il tuo canale è davvero una fonte inesauribile di informazioni.
Anche questo è utilissimo e pieno di spunti interessanti. Il foraging è spesso sottovalutato.
Great job!!! 👏👏👏

[GB_Gummy]

Super helpful! I love the step by steps and seeing the progress from a bird that is learning together with us. Thank you!

[DatBeautifulNightmare]

Thank you for great ideas on homemade foraging toys. I think mine are fed up with a coffee filter ❤

[mehere]

oh what a great idea to cut up the finger trap! Why did that never even occur to me? I've been hiding popcorn in them for my lorikeets, but they only take from the ends & then lose interest & poo all over. Cut up is going to work great! Can't believe I didn't think of that, but thanks :)

Another great advantage I find with teaching foraging is it reduces fear of new toys/objects. Anytime I introduce anything new, I put treats on/in/under/around it & mine immediately come over to check it out & get the treats. I only recently realised how successful I'd been when I was watching an "Apollo" video & he was freaking out over a new Target trolley toy. My birds are very traumatised rescues & a nightmare to try to work with because of their history, so I was pretty stunned to see Apollo more scared than my 2 are. Mine aren't great foragers, but certainly understand when they see treats like popcorn, it's safe to go to it & get it, no matter what's around it (as long as it's in or on their cage anyway, outside their cage they can still be nervous sometimes).

I'm going to try more consistent hiding of treats for a week & see if that helps improve their foraging skills, thanks :) (might be a little while before I do though, cause I'm currently focusing treats on, & still working really hard on step ups again, using the info in your first week with a new bird video, been working on it with them since you put that up, have one of them actually stepping onto my hand with both feet now & the other one doing both feet VERY occasionally. I've trained them in step up before, finally succeeded when I found your old old video on it with shimmying across from a perch on their cage door, rather than actually stepping up, but as soon as I moved my hand with a bird on, they refused to do it again, even though I did go what I thought was slow with the waiting till they were comfortable before moving them & only moving them to a good spot)

[maryammohamed]

Love your videos, always super detailed. I have a conure that is also eating TOPS pellets. Besides that mat that Newt uses what other kinds of toys do you use to hide his pellets? I'm struggling a little to find things that will contain the TOPS and also not have them break apart while I'm hiding them. Also, what is that hollow ball thing called that Toto destroyed to find millet? It seems like the perfect thing to put the TOPS pellets in. I have this toy that has chunks of coconut husk and I peel layers of it away from each other and shove the pellets in that space for him to pick out and also opening up the strands from a braided paper thing and stick the pellets in between there. Do you find there is a lot of dust created with TOPS pellets, when I introduced foraging I found that I had to use double the pellets for him to actually have a good sized meal. I guess that's somethin I just have to live with if that's the pellet I want him to eat.

[adyu]

What if my bird doesn't like millet? :( He likes walnuts, birdie bread, and safflower seeds as treats. The safflower seeds seem too small but would the walnuts or birdie bread maybe work? 🤔 Love your videos BTW, they're so helpful, clear, and educational

[anxesha]

Hi Flock-Talk, I am a big fan of yours and I wanted to say that you have great content so keep going!!

[AjDAngeles]

I have a query, I follow your foraging tips all the time and gives me great occupation but ...Why are birds always scared and suspicious of bird safe toys I spend hours making but will attack with joy all the things that aren't for them?

For example : my computer mouse, my gorgeous dinosaur mouse mat, cup holders, TV remote buttons, my phone! I even made Sophie her own phone and TV remote but she still prefers mine, is it a scent thing or just the way birds roll?
😂😅