What is Creative Foraging? Creative foraging is providing the opportunity to search for and acquire food. A pet bird's cage is its environment and territory. A bird benefits from observation when you introduce "something new" into its environment and being naturally inquisitive he is inclined to explore this and will discover that it contains food. The hunt is on and he will begin learning to forage.
What is a Creative Foraging System? A fully integrated group of feeding devices which when used together makes food foraging a feeding protocol. The system is designed to replace the practice of making food readily accessible. Conventional feeding practices or feeding from open dishes only encourages laziness, whereas forage feeding requires that the bird exert a considerable effort to procure food.
What Are the Individual Foraging Components? The system is made up of two distinctively different types of devices all are easy to use, economical and work well together.
1.) Destructible chipboard boxes with chipboard honeycomb inserts. About the Foraging Box:Boxes and the honeycomb inserts are made from "USDA approved" chipboard an eco-friendly, biodegradable material.
All boxes are free of glue and / or any toxins that might be harmful to your pet bird. The box is heavy enough to maintain its configuration but must be torn apart in order to gain access to the entire contents. The bird must chew into the box to find food. After discovering the food source it must continue chewing thru the honeycomb to continue accessing additional food. The box is housed in an impact resistant clear polycarbonate holding device. The box holders are available in either a vertical or horizontal configuration. A mounting bracket attaches the holding device to any cage with bar spacing of 3/8" to 11/4" Once the mounting bracket is installed you simply unsnap the box holder, remove and replace the used box with a refill. Increase foraging opportunities by using multiple foraging devices installed in different locations. Position devices so that some are more difficult than others to access and change locations frequently. These boxes may be filled with your choice of food products such as pellets, dried fruit, shelled nuts, sliced vegetables or seeds. Starter Kits are available in two different sizes, and include a number of free refill boxes. The objective is to make the bird work for its food.
About the Treat Box: A hexagonal, hanging Treat Box madeof the same materials also incorporates the honeycomb insert. Small and large treat boxes are available in single units with a Free Package of Fruit Treat or as multi packs which you fill with your choice of foods. Many people find the treat box is an easy way to introduce their birds to concept of working for food. Do not be surprised if your bird's first reaction is to destroy the box. Parrots learn to forage by observing the behavior of their parents and / or other members of their flock; this option is obviously not available to our pet birds. Be patient, tear a bit of the chipboard away so that your parrot can identify the box as a food source.
2.) Interactive / Refillable forage feeding devices provide a variety of food acquisition challenges. The second group of products currently includes seven independent hanging or bolt on polycarbonate foraging devices each with varying levels of difficulty that require the parrot to exercise a variety of physical and intellectual skills. Polycarbonate is a crystal clear, high impact material that will not break if dropped and will withstand the demands of most parrot beaks. The common denominator in these devices is that the parrot is always able to visually access the food but must solve different mechanical challenges in order to procure the food. Many devices have food access openings these openings have polished edges to prevent injury while the bird is removing the food items. Several products include leather strips which a parrot will grab with one foot, stabilizing the device so they can obtain the food items. The hardware on these products is stainless steel. Select food items of appropriate size that will not drop thru the openings.