Teaching a Bird to Forage | Topics

[@nataliewatson7688]

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.

[@mt1541]

You explain things so well! Thank you!

[@LoGi26]

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!

[@FlockTalk]

Thank you! Every training tutorial I make is a bird learning the behaviour for the first time so you get to see the actual learning process!

[@DatBeautifulNightmare]

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

[@dellieb6337]

You are so knowledgeable.👍🏼✋🏼😃

[@mehere8038]

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)

[@FlockTalk]

That sounds like some wonderful progress!

[@mehere8038]

​@@FlockTalk Thanks & I think so :) I have no idea how to move onto the next step to actually move my hand while they're on it though. I'd LOVE if you have any feedback/ideas on that, either in comments or a video with more details on how to progress. I know you mentioned potentially doing a video on that in your first week with a new bird video when Toto had some issues with your wife moving him too soon, not sure if that's something you're still potentially going to do, but I know I for one would LOVE if you did! Toto seems to have progressed SO fast though that I'm thinking you might have moved on from that now. Your videos are seriously the only channel I've found that moves slowly enough or has enough real understanding of bird behaviour or something, so as to work with my rescues. I mean I get lots of useful info off lots of other channels too but I can't just directly use them in the way I can with yours. Yours really are amazing for me! My 2 were really badly abused, lived for a decade in separate TINY cages with no toys, no enrichment, just sunflower seeds & the occasional bit of nectar mix & being screamed at to shut up if they made noise. Little girl's cage was so small that she has ended up with constricted muscles & bones fused & a total inability to move her wings, boy was seen as "horrible" & the only physical contact he had for a decade was biting the glove that changed his food & water so now he refuses any touch & they're both just emotional messes as a result of their past, even after 2 years living with me, living in the same cage (never locked in it) & having that comfort of each other & getting good food, enough sleep (little girl apparently used to sleep with her food dish on her head to try to get some darkness, cause they had no cover & only about 4-6 hours of quiet & semi-dark a night) & lots of toys & baths & interactions with wild birds, bird videos & everything I can give them. They are clearly much happier now & are really settled & comfortable with me, but still can't trust humans to control their movements & I have a wildlife rescue background, but these are my first pet parrots, so it's been a steep learning curve! I took them in cause after neighbour (their owner) died, his family intended on just dumping them outside a local pet store before they opened in the morning & I thought I could rehabilitate them & release with the local flock, as I've done with so many wild birds with injuries, I had NO IDEA how messed up caged, abused birds become, but now I have them & have fallen in love with them, I want the best for them & obviously they're pets for life, given they hate leaving their cage. Anyway, thanks for all your wonderful videos, they really do help me a lot! I normally have to watch them multiple times to get all the information out of them, cause there's just SO much great info in every one of them, but they do really work great for me & my 2 sweeties

[@FlockTalk]

Aw thank you ❤️ When it comes to movement the most important thing is timing. My wife got bit because Toto wasn’t comfortable being on her hand in that moment, by removing him away from the perch he felt safe on too soon he felt extremely vulnerable and unsafe- and that made him think the hand coming back meant he was going to be pulled away from safety again. Once the bird is able to step up and remain on the arm calmly and comfortable for a decent duration I would intro movement on the arm itself- getting the bird to walk up and down the arm first. Repeating until they’re confident. When starting to move the actual arm I would move parallel to the perch so they can still step off to their safe spot, moving only a tiny bit at first and working up to greater distances based on their comfort. Always ensuring they can step off at any point if they need to. The final stage would be moving the arm away from the perch and again building up gradual distance. Once you’re able to do that distance away from the perch I would set up another perch or area they’re comfortable with and begin practicing being carried from one perch to the next and reward on the next perch. That can help them learn that stepping up leads to being carried to fun desirable locations and not only being lifted and taken away from a location.

[@mehere8038]

​@@FlockTalk That is awesome! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I have actually started trying to get my bird that will put both feet on my hand to move on it, I put a mealworm beetle (his mega favourite treat that he very rarely gets cause he's a fatty) on my upper arm, while holding my hand as an extension of his perch & he did walk along it to get the beetle, wasn't sure if doing that was a good idea or not though with what people say about shoulder rushing, so that's great, I'll continue doing it when he's ready :)) (he's probably not ready yet, just did it cause he loves eating beetles so much) I also only really have them on my hand while getting rewards, so probably need more time without that to be considered "comfortable" & lots more work at the stage I'm at yet before being ready to move on I guess, thanks, that's really helpful! & I've just been training with the short perches on the outside of their cage, to do sideways movement will need a longer perch, so I might start working on that soon. They have a few long ones I sometimes try to encourage them onto, will do that more in preparation for the hand sliding, that will also give me something to do to feel like I'm making progress while they stay at their comfort level with my hand & stepping onto it. In terms of moving away from safety, I really don't even care about or want to do that, I really only want step up so that I can easily put them back to their safe spot when something happens, such as getting startled & little girl ending up jumping out of her cage & landing on the floor, like a rock, cause of her useless wings, or boy getting startled & flying & landing in another room (or tree if outside) but wanting to get back to his cage, would be so much nicer if I could just do step up & carry them back to where they want to be. I do also take them outside to eat bottlebrush & grevillias, would be great to be able to lift them over to ones they can't reach & hold them there while they eat it, then back to their cage when they want to go back, plus when little girl is preening my eyebrows, it would be SO much more comfortable if I could hold her at the right level, rather than me trying to position myself at the right height for her cage perches & I'm sure she'd like it better too. It's just so frustrating now when I can't help them in those settings, that's why I want step up so much. Thank you SO much! I have saved your response, so I have it readily available to keep referring back to as I practice & progress through this. I'll let you know how I go/when I make significant progress, which will probably be a few months, it's a very slow process with them, but I'm confident that info you've just given will keep me on the right track & stop me messing up & going to fast & having them refuse all training again, as happened the first time I got them to roughly where they are now. Thank you again so much, this really does mean the world to me :)))

[@anxesha2023]

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

[@FlockTalk]

Thank you! ❤️

[@anxesha2023]

@@FlockTalk You're welcome 💕

[@adyu983]

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

[@FlockTalk]

Any treat will work 😊 I just use Mille because of its size so it’s easy to cram in to spots and remain visible. You could easily use other treats so long as you can keep the treat visible or really help them be able to see it!

[@adyu983]

@@FlockTalk thank you!! I'm gonna try this. Appreciate your video and reply

[@maryammohamed6938]

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.

[@DatBeautifulNightmare]

I use coffee filters and screw them up. I hope you don't mind me replying ❤

[@maryammohamed6938]

@@DatBeautifulNightmare Thanks! Of course I don't mind. I tried leaving some parcels in his food bowl once and when he got them open he just spilled stuff everywhere and it fell under the grate so all his work went to waste

[@FlockTalk]

The tops is definitely dusty! I believe I did a video specifically on pellet foragers so I’d check that out! Overall I utilize bael seed cup pods, barrel of fun forager, dog snuffle mats, Timothy hay on a tray, toy parts in food bowls, Buggin out puzzle feeder and some other acrylic foragers for small pellets!

[@maryammohamed6938]

@@FlockTalk thanks!!

[@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? 😂😅

[@FlockTalk]

A ton of different variables can be at play but if I were to warrant a guess I would say it’s because they see you play with those objects all the time! Most Parrots are social learners and actively enjoy group enrichment, your phone and remote are items you spend a lot of time “playing” with so they will also want to partake in that activity. Novelty will also play a big role- they have toys with the same textures and colours in their cage so it’s not as interesting as the funny glass and squishy remote buttons. If you were to “play” with a bird toy as much as you do your phone I’d be willing to bet they’d be a lot more interested and engaged with that object given enough time!

[@AjDAngeles]

Oooh!! Right, thank you - I am sure this is right because Sophie always wants to be involved in everything, so now i will test this out. Thanks again, all the best 😊

[@alkaptenltrpetalasapher]

روعه روعه روعه روعه ❤

[@susannemichelsen8879]

Where can I find the solar pouches?

[@FlockTalk]

I get sola wood pouches from mysafebirdstore, they call them “sola purse”

[@susannemichelsen8879]

Is that US or Canada?

[@FlockTalk]

It’s a US company, they ship worldwide