# My tiel does not play or forage - what can I do?



## fidsandfrats (Dec 21, 2009)

My cockatiel does not play or forage. She is basically a perch potatoe. How can I get her interested in playing and foraging.


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## Nicky (Jul 3, 2008)

hi there welcome hope u will learn as much as i do .. i also have a tiel that just sits and she doesn't even make the beautiful sounds that the other tiels do but she is my tamest tiel the only one that gets on my finger and shoulder


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## Mythara (Apr 9, 2009)

Lots of things can effect whether birds will play and how active they are. For example, cage size. The bigger cages often means more active birds. Our two female budgies were fairly active in their cage for two, but when we put them in a cage for four, they became a lot more active. The cage set up. Different set ups work for different birds. Our cockatiels have what I call a "busy" cage. They have paths around their cage on all the perches. And they have at least one toy and foraging toy within reach from every perch. The budgies have a more spaced out cage because they like to leap around it, and they love swings so there's space for them. Their toys are mostly around their resting perches. 

Have they ever been taught to play with toys? A lot of birds go straight from weaning to their new owners, are put in a cage, and expected to play with the bright colourful object they don't understand. Others go from weaning to a pet shop cage, and may not see a toy for months. Sometimes they'll pick it up by themselves, but sometimes they need to be shown what it is, and what to do with it. Birds learn a lot by watching and imitating, so watching another bird play, or watching their owner play with a new object can help them learn what they should do with it. Show it to them, and play with it yourself in front of them, making excited noises. They'll learn that this is an exciting thing and want to join in. Let them play with it with yout too. Whenever I get or make new toys for the 'tiels, they get shown it, and play with it a bit outside the cage.

Another thing is what you're looking for as indications of playing. My birds are all pretty quiet players. They love to chew, nibble and shred. Lofty likes throwing things on the floor, or across a desk. But none of them make a lot of noise when they play, and they don't hang or swing off a toy, the way more clownish species do. 

Then there's the type of toys. There are loads of "types" on the market. Most of them are classified on supply websites as "Wood and Rope Toys", "Acrylic (plastic) Toys", "Preening and Shredding Toys", "Climbing and Swinging Toys", "Natural Toys", "Foot Toys" and the all important (at least in my view) "Foraging and Puzzle Toys". Some birds will like all toys, but most will only like toys from a couple of sections. My budgies like shredding toys, swinging toys, natural toys and foraging toys. The cockatiels like preening toys, natural toys, foot toys and foraging toys. None are into wooden toys, as the wood they're made from is typically woods like pine which they find too hard to chew. They have no interest in brightly coloured acrylic toys that they can't do much with - most seem to have balls that rattle or spin around. The budgies don't play with things on the ground, although they like their foraging tray, so foot toys aren't interesting to them. The cockatiels hate having a swing move underneath them. What mine do like, are things they can chew, shred and tear to pieces. They love things made of palm leaves, coconut fibres, vine, paper, balsa wood, grasses and so on. Anything they can really get their beaks into. 

And last, but certainly not least is foraging. Foraging is an amazing activity for birds to do, especially parrots as they require so much mental stimulation. There are a few toys on the market that are suitable for cockatiels. My, and my birds, favourites are Nutcase (£6), Foraging Sphere (£12) and Baffle Treat Cage (£23). There aren't really many more foraging toys on the market that are suitable for the smaller birds, like budgies and cockatiels, that you can't make for them yourself - like pinatas. There are a lot of things you can make yourself for your birds, that cost very little money. Foraging trays are a great place to start with cockatiels as they're naturally ground feeders. This is my article on Teaching your Parrot to Forage. It details how to introduce three types of foraging toy - the foraging tray, which gets them used to digging through things for their food; wrapped treats, which gets them used to looking inside things for food; and Foraging Cups which teaches them to move things out of the way to find food underneath them. After this, most foraging toys are variations on "food inside" and "food underneath". I have over forty different foraging ideas on my blog (since last February) which are perfect for cockatiels and budgies, and I know I post the link everywhere, lol, but it's the only website that has ideas specially for smaller birds, let alone 40+ ideas for small birds. Which means none of them need to be downsized from toys designed for larger parrots like amazons and African greys. =)

You need to take the time to get to know your birds, find out what they like, then teach them how to do things to begin with. As time goes on, it is easier to know what your birds will and won't like, and to buy the toys they'll play with. As they get better and more confident about foraging, they won't need to be taught what to do each time. Our birds have been foraging since January, when they were only around six months old, so they've had a lot of time to develop foraging skills and their instincts haven't really been dormant - every parrot has instincts that tell them how to find food, but if all they do is go to a food dish and eat, they don't use those instincts. You need to teach them to use those instincts again. As they get more practice, they won't need to be shown how to do everything. They'll enjoy working it out for themselves.


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## Nicky (Jul 3, 2008)

wow thats a lot of i info..lol but very helpful thanks a lot will definately try the tray


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## Catherine (Jun 11, 2009)

Thank you for a marvellously detailed explanation of toy categories and teaching your birds how to play.


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