Contra Freeloading

 I recently attended a seminar where one of the topics was Contra Freeloading.  I hadn't heard of that one either!  Simply put, it means when a parrot chooses to forage rather than eat from an easily accessible source. 

Rooster has been a guest for a couple of days and I noticed that he is doing some feather picking.  He seemed to prefer his Harrison cubes to any other food so I created a foraging opportunity for him. 

I took a handful of Harrison's out of his bowl and inserted them in a wiffle ball while he watched.  He was very intrigued.  Then I placed the ball in the crock next to his Harrison's.  He chose to go for the wiffle ball!  Contra Freeloading was demonstrated. 

He picked it up and tweaked a cube out of one of the holes.  Yea, go Roo!  Of course he dropped the ball and I reinstalled it in his bowl but he continued to select the option of  the ball over just getting the food from the neighboring bowl. 

This foraging gave him a job to do and he seemed to enjoy each cube thoroughly.  It also took a lot of time to eat.  Challenging our birds is a constant, and keeping them engaged in their own entertainment is vital.