BACKGROUND OF PROBLEM
Many zoologists believe that animals in captivity require significant levels of environmental enrichment, or any improvement in the biological functioning resulting from modifications to their environment. Partly due to the smaller numbers of bird owners when compared to cat and dog owners, birds are underrepresented in the pet industry. Another major difference between enriching dogs/cats and birds is the fact that birds are not domestic animals. A domestic animal is defined as: a population of animals that have their behavior, life cycle, or physiology systemically altered as a result of being under human control for many generations. Birds haven’t been kept in captivity long enough to be domesticated. Due to their long life spans, many captive parrots are just 2nd and 3rd generation from their wild-caught counterparts.
A common shortcoming of attempts at environmental enrichment for parrots involves the provision of toys, music, TV or other stimuli having little functional relevance to the animal. Furthermore, survival in the wild depends on successful execution of goal directed behavior. Because parrots are not domestic animals and retain 100% of their biological inclinations, successful completion of goal-directed behavior is found rewarding to the wild parrot in captivity. In the wild, foraging constitutes a major portion of the behavioral time budget. In contrast, the captive environment generally restricts captive parrots to minimal foraging time.
A BRIEF HISTORY
Captive foraging is a fairly new concept in the pet industry. While the zoological world has been incorporating captive foraging in animal husbandry since the 1980s, the pet trade was slow to catch on. Recently thanks to veterinarians such as Dr. Scott Echols, a leading avian veterinarian, there has been a big push towards captive foraging in companion parrot husbandry. In 2006 Dr. Echols came out with a DVD titled Captive Foraging: The Next Best Thing to Being Free which is now carried by most reputable avian veterinarians and recommended by most avian behaviorists. At the last Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV) convention held in Providence, RI, captive foraging was the main topic of companion parrot care.
Most captive parrots live in a controlled caged environment. Though this caged environment provides adequate protection from dangers within the home environment, it simultaneously prevents many natural biological behaviors such as; flocking, flight and foraging. By preventing these natural biological behaviors many birds fill the void with destructive stereotypical behaviors. Common stereotypical behaviors include screaming, plucking, biting and self-mutilation. Upon developing any of these behaviors many owners loose interest in their pets and give them up to one of the many rescue groups.
Of the above mentioned natural biological behaviors, foraging is the easiest to recreate in a captive home environment. Our product, the Foraging Feeder-Toy, is a quick and effective method of providing captive foraging. Any safe food item or toy can be placed inside of the Foraging Feeder-Toy without the danger of mold or inability to extract the item. The PVC tube can be disassembled easily to be washed by hand or in a dishwasher. The product can be mounted in the cage in a multitude of ways by using the stainless-steal bolt, washers and wing nut. The PVC version is virtually indestructible for most parrot species making it reusable and inexpensive. Great care is taken in the manufacturing of the product and each one is carefully inspected to ensure there are no sharp edges that could potentially injure a bird. We only use the highest quality materials and ensure that all metal is stainless steal and safe for a companion parrot.
