Its almost October….

A new presidential runner

Its been on everyone’s minds: politics. Who are you voting for this election? Did you read the latest scandal? Blah.. blah… blah. We were talking politics on the forum and things got a little heated, so I pulled a prank to lighten the mood.

Vote Caique for 2008- the only politician that won’t let you down!

I jest, of course. But thinking about it… wouldn’t the world be better off if caiques did rule? I can see it now…

Caiques rule the world: until they forget what they are doing or find something more interesting to do, halfway through the program.

Housing crisis? No problem! Everyone is let out of their cages to roam and survive. Locked up no longer!

Gas prices? Who needs gas when you’ve got wings?

Economy in a slump? The bird says as long as you can still get food, you are OK!

Maybe its better if caiques don’t rule the world, after all….

A new presidential runner

Trouble’s Cage

As promised, here's a video of Trouble's cage and setup as it is now. Please ignore the weird whinging noises, that's our dog trying to get me to let her inside haha.


What I've done with the dish you can see him at and the little coop cup up higher is covered them in newspaper and used masking tape to stick it down so he has to rip through the paper before getting to the food. It's very simple, but it takes him some time and he has to eventually pretty much remove it to get everything. In that container he has his cooked stuff, and in the higher one he has some lentils and mung beans.

Up the top is his coop cup, cuttlefish and his cholla branch which is getting a bit tatty at this point. He also has a holey round thingie (forget the name haha) which I stick stuff in sometimes - I need to replace that fairly soon too. Behind that is his Disks Galore toy, which is new (you can see where he's been chewing) and his barrel of fun. Hidden inside the barrel at that point was a nutriberry, which has since been eaten. XD

Next you can see his water bowl/bathing dish and his foraging folly. Then there's a blue dish which is filled with some pellets, some bird-safe kitty litter, some beeds and some foot toys. Next is his happy hut and skewer with some vegies on it (carrot, capsicum and pumpkin today I believe), and his spiral perch which is a rope perch I got from Crazy Clarks and shaped to look kind of like a boing. Then you can see a little cane finch nest that I put most of his foot toys in and his foraging wheel.

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New Toys Arrived

September 12, 2008 by Captive Foraging for Parrots  
Filed under Friends Of Parrot Ezine

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I mentioned in my previous post to this community that I'd ordered some new toys. They arrived on Monday, so I thought I'd let you all know what I got and how Trouble is going with them.

For those in Australia, they were all purchased from Friendly Bird Inn which has some toys and stuff that are kind of hard to find in Aussieland.

I got Trouble some vine rings which he is enjoying after a small amount of uncertainty. They're great distractors for when he becomes too interested in 'preening' my ears or freckles as well, and we can play a kind of 'tug of war' with them. Lisa (the owner of the shop) also included some wee plastic nut-and-bolt fiddler foot toys that aren't listed on the website that he's been having a grand old time with too.

The most visually impressive toy I got him was a large Foraging Folly. This toy is seriously impressive - it has great chewy bits all over it, and the plastic chain is something that he enjoys licking at. He's still a bit wary of actually hopping onto it (he's not had a toy that moves under him before) but he's had fun pulling some of the chewy bits out and throwing them around. The bonus is that once removed they can either be put back in or used as foot toys themselves. It's also great for hiding small treats in.

I also got him a Disks Galore toy. Trouble gets a bit frustrated when chewing things because a lot of the toys available here aren't wood that he can decimate easily. I actually got this toy more for the leather since he enjoys that than the wood, but the wood used is actually soft enough for him to really have a good go at - there are several disks that are looking rather well-chewed at the moment, haha. Unfortunately the toy is no longer listed, which is a pity - I was considering getting one for my budgies!

Now the foraging toys. The first one I got him was the Foraging Carousel. This is designed for a larger bird than Trouble and as such is only used under supervision, since I worry about him getting a foot or beak caught and doing himself a damage. Having said that, it's one that Trouble has a lot of fun trying to figure out while he's out on my lap. Eventually and with some help from Mum he usually manages to get what he's after, and with time and some patience I think he'll be able to figure out how to open at least some of the compartments himself. A larger bird would most certainly have an easier time with it.

His last one - and the one getting a whole lot of use at the moment - is the Foraging Wheel. It's also designed for larger birds but that isn't stopping Trouble, and it's one he can have in his cage without supervision. It's taken him a few days to figure out how it works (and how frustrating was it to see nutriberries he couldn't get at?!) but he's starting to figure it out and have a lot of fun with it.

Here's a video of Trouble with the Foraging Wheel, taken today. :D

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Honey I’m home!

September 9, 2008 by caiquecrazy  
Filed under Friends Of Parrot Ezine

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Newbie.

September 7, 2008 by Captive Foraging for Parrots  
Filed under Friends Of Parrot Ezine

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Hello everyone!

I've lurked around this community for a while now, and thought it might be a good idea to join and introduce myself.

My introduction to parrots was with Squee, the rainbow lorikeet in my icon. He originally came from a group of rainbows that lived near where I was at the time - he had PBFD, and I cared for him for two years until he died.

My second parrot was the one that gave me my introduction into foraging, Jedidah. She was a green-cheeked conure and I was her third home. She was a chronic feather mutilator (she'd chew the feathers to bits, not mutilate), was very needy and dependant and at the time I got her didn't know how to play with toys. I introduced foraging to help her deal with that. She was stolen only a few months after I got her, but at that point she had new feathers growing in that she at that point hadn't touched.

I now have Trouble, a green-cheeked conure. He's very clever and a big ratbag, and is currently enjoying a lot of his foraging opportunities. I also have Anath, a budgie who is a midget and has some bone issues along with curvature of the spine due to poor diet while she was in the nest. I'm also 'primary carer' for my brother's budgie, Tristan. They're also being slowly introduced to foraging.

Here's a (very bad quality) video showing Trouble and his first 'commercial' foraging toy. This is his second or third attempt at it - you can see how clued in he is when it comes to his food at times, haha.


I've recently ordered some new toys including a couple that have only just become available in Australia, so once they arrive hopefully I will have some more videos to show.

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