Bird Enrichment idea #39 (view all)





Hideaway
updated 01/18/09 11:10PM

Difficulty: hard

Materials:
*Untreated pine wood 
*Pine pellet cat litter

Description

Note: You might try giving your bird a cardboard box to see how he does before making one out of wood. My birds have never shown nesting behavior from this enrichment and I find the boxes indispensable. Herbie is male and 27 years old, which may or may not have something to do with how he behaves around the boxes. Again, not every enrichment is meant for every bird. Make the box the appropriate size for your bird. Don't forget that it needs to fit through the cage door! Herbie spends a lot of time messing around in his hide-a-way (digging and destroying). I consider the hide-a-ways permanent furniture in all the cages. Both Herbie and Eli like to stash toys in their boxes. Pellets make a great substrate for digging. We quickly realized we had made the door opening of the box too big, all those pellets went flying everywhere! A removable top makes for easy cleaning and removing a bird that may not want to come out when you want him to! UPDATE: Knowing how much some parrots like opening up kitchen cupboard doors, we decided to add that activity to the next box. We used a material cord on each door for pulling open, but of course Herbie just removed them, as he knew that he didn't really need them. We also decorated one of the doors with a wood cutout for extra ripping up.

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World Wildlife Fund Parrots thrive on active minds. World Parrot Trust