PDR - Food Toys

[MaryNat]

Hi everyone!

We often get asked about how to keep an Eclectus busy and occupied, and also how to help encourage foraging behavior. Here is a post from Carolyn (our site hostess!) to The Eclectus Connection internet list about interesting your Eclectus with FOOD TOYS!

Food toys not only help to keep your Eclectus busy and challenged with fun things to do, but food toys can also help hormonal Eclectus, particularly females, by providing activities and food that gives the feeling of foraging vs. being cared for by a mate. For hormonal males, food toys can encourage the kind of activity their bodies "gear up" to do...forage and find food.

Enjoy!
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FOOD TOYS!
Thank you for bringing up the issue of food toys. Ginger probably did eat a
few bites of her carrot toy as she demolished it, and it is a learning
experience for young birds to take apart various foods. Food demolition is
an entertaining sport for birds of all ages. As you know, only the
toughest of toys that we buy our birds survive repeated beak attacks, and
some of these toys are expensive. That is not a complaint of course. As I
wrote several years ago, destruction is a good sign of a successful toy
purchase -- "A toy destroyed is a toy enjoyed". A toy that takes a long
time to destroy can become a fun, ongoing project, and food toys provide
instant gratification as well as a great way to release pent up energy. A
parrot can take out a great deal of aggression on a carrot.

What could be more gratifying for an Eclectus than dismantling with wild
abandon an apple, a bell pepper, a yellow summer squash, a fat green
zucchini, a stalk of broccoli, a whole cucumber, a tangerine, a colorful
beet, a 'hand' of ginger, a mini-pumpkin or a slice of a large pumpkin with
seeds intact? A carrot can be turned into hundreds of fun-to-fling,
bite-size pieces in a very short time. There also is an added bonus --
young birds experience new tastes and textures, and in the process, learn
to enjoy a variety of healthful foods. The biggest challenge of offering
whole fruits and veggies is figuring out how to attach them. Wedging a
carrot between cage bars is one good way to solve the problem. If you use cotton string, use only a short length to avoid a hanging accident.

Some of the favorite food toys of my Eclectus are:

*Coconut halves hung in the aviary. The birds pick the fibers off the shell
and dig out the coconut meat to eat and to shred for fun.

*Whole bags of salt-free popped popcorn. Use brown paper lunch bags with a small handful of plain popcorn. Fold down the top of the bag and microwave till it stops popping. Hang in the aviary.

*Clean cotton sock full of whole nuts in the shell -- pecans, almonds, etc.

*Whole fruits and veggies like apples, oranges, pears, bananas, sweet
potatoes, carrots, squash, broccoli spears, cucumbers, bell peppers, small
pineapples, whole beets with attached greens, small heads of lettuce and
cabbage, whole hands of ginger, pumpkin quarters with seeds,

*Melon halves like cantaloupe, honeydew, and small watermelon.

*"Surprises" stuck in the soft foods like oranges, grapefruits, bananas,
summer squash, and cantaloupes. Use shelled nuts like almonds and pine
nuts, seeds like unshelled sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, squash seeds,
cinnamon sticks, dry pasta noodles of all shapes, raisins, and whole cloves.

Many birds that turn up their beaks at small pieces of a fruit or vegetable
will just have to try it if they see you enjoying it, and they will have a
great time tearing foods apart bit by bit when offered a whole, half or
quarter apple, orange, carrot, broccoli spear, corn on the cob, and others.
While dismantling a fruit or veggie, they are sure to taste it, and
possibly will eat a bit of it and discover that they enjoy it.

Also, don't overlook the temptation of varied food shapes -- a carrot can
be offered whole, halved, sliced in rounds or sticks, julienned or
shredded, and all these shapes can be cooked or served raw. Our
imagination is the only limit on ways to persuade our Eclectus to try new
and healthful foods. (Note from Mary N...our Eclectus enjoy carrots with their tops and dandelion greens with at least part of the root still on!)

Another good trick is to mix a little of a new food with a favorite
food. Hiding food is fun for the bird -- if you are trying to introduce
cauliflower, hide a small floret inside a fig, or hide a small piece of
veggie inside a strawberry. Hiding treasures inside whole leaves of
cabbage, collard, kale and other leafy greens is a sure way to get your
Eclectus tearing into leafy greens. Let them watch as you secure the treat
or toy inside the leaf. Then give them the "food toy" for both
entertainment and good nutrition.

Carolyn