What’s in the Box?

One of my flock’s favorite type of toy are foraging boxes. These are simple, inexpensive & fun.
I use clean food boxes, like pasta boxes, snack bar, cereal boxes, that kind of thing. The FDA requires the glues and dyes and papers used in food boxes to be nontoxic incase a child were to be fooled by the pretty pictures and try to eat the box.
I will thread the box along with an assortment of toy part (yes, sometimes I get way too cutesy and color coordinated the toy parts with the coloring of the box) onto poly rope, hemp rope or a stainless skewer.
I stuff the boxes with food items such as nuts, pellets, nutraberries, dehydrated treats that are wrapped in papertowels, coffee filters, muffin cup papers, corn husks, etc…and foot toys or toy parts, and shredded paper or papertowels. Sometimes I build in inner layers of foraging by including an unwaxed Dixie cup or plastic snack cup inside the box, with the treats inside the cups.
The lightweight cardboard used in most food boxes is very easy to shred, and some boxes, such as many pasta boxes have “windows” in them (just be sure to remove the cellophane) to give parrots new to foraging a peek inside.
(My Girls were kind enough to chew just enough to show a cut away view)For more experienced foragers I will sometimes buy heavier cardboard shipping boxes and use those, which require more chewing to get to the goodies.

My birds have learned that there is always something fun inside the box, and they can’t wait to tear into it and see what they can find!

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