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| LET'S MAKE THIS MORE INTERESTING |
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| You will hear me repeatedly encourage you to "put some food on that toy". I'm finding with my own parrots, incorporating food into their toys is extremely effective in achieving the goal we set for increased level of interest and sustained activity. I started with simple food toys like the photo left. Then I learned to add in shreddable material and other items to make the whole foraging experience more challenging and fun for them.
Below you have two videos to watch. In the first one I show you how to make a toy that incorporates food and shreddable material. In the second video I show you how effective this toy is in peaking the parrot's interest for more activity.
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| BASKET REMNANT FORAGING TOY |
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| Instructions for making this toy are included in the instructions for the Foraging Baskets that we have on the "Foraging Toys" page. In those instructions I show you how to recycle the basket parts to be used to make the toys you will see the parrots playing with here. I am repeating myself because I want to encourage you to "put some food on that toy".
I think the video (below) best demonstrates the advantage of adding bright colored vegetables, dark leafy greens, and fruit to toys. When you combine them with shreddable material your bound to get great results as far as parrot interest and activity.
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As you watch the video, keep in mind I have some very experienced foragers. If you have a bird that isn't accustomed to foraging, you may not want to start them out first thing on a toy like this. Go to the "Teach To Forage" page for videos that show you some suggestions on how you might work up to a toy like this.
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| ZORBA FORAGES IN MINI-PUMPKIN |
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Small pumpkins can provide foraging opportunities for your parrot. You can carve holes in the sides of the pumpkin and stuff vegetables, nuts or nutri-berries in the holes and offer the whole pumpkin to your bird for a foraging toy. Or you can cut one in half and thread it on a food skewer along with other items of interest and hang it in the cage for your parrot to enjoy. The link below offers you a pamphlet of more ideas and details on how you can use pumpkins (or other whole vegetables) to create foraging opportunities for your birds.
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| Click Here to download INSTRUCTIONS |
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| ZORBA ENJOYS POMEGRANATE |
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FREEZING POMEGRANATE SEEDS
I often add pomegranates to skewers and my parrots are over the moon excited to get at this food toy. Pomegranates have such a short season so this year I Googled how to freeze pomegranates. I found the best way is to de-seed the pomegranate and freeze the seeds only. It turned out to be a huge success. This way, I can treat my parrots to pomegranate seeds throughout the year. If you want to see how I froze them, I've put together a short pamphlet illustrating how I de-seeded a pomegranate and froze the seeds. Click on the link below to view or download the pamphlet.
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| Click Here to download INSTRUCTIONS |
We had feedback on this topic. Terry Wynn shares her ideas for freezing pomegranate seeds in ice cube trays at the "Visitor Feedback" page.
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I'm dedicated to helping parrots by sharing my parrot enrichment ideas with parrot owners like you. If you would like to show your appreciation for this website please do so by paying it forward and donating to help support Phoenix Landing.
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Phoenix Landing was created to help parrots have good homes across their entire lives, no matter how many homes that may be. Parrots are resilient and adaptable, and will thrive in new environments if they have space, good nutrition, safety and behavior interactions based positive reinforcement. Phoenix Landing is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to the quality of life for parrots. Phoenix Landing re-homes parrots and help them to find a new family. This process is coupled with a robust education program, giving adopters many tools to help everyone succeed. For more information about Phoenix Landing go to www.phoenixlanding.org .
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