Training Your Bird to Interact with Enrichment

Not all birds will immediately interact with new enrichment. This is because some birds were never taught how to interact with enrichment. Merlin, my blue and gold macaw, is definitely one of them who wasn’t given much for 35 years. I’ve gotten him to interact with quite a bit now, but there are still new shapes and textures he is less inclined to interact with.

I have to encourage him over somehow. Usually I use foraging to accomplish this, but Merlin also has a lot of positive associations with brown bags through the easy foraging I give him around his cage. So, instead of taking the time to fill up this toy with foraging treats, as I was in a rush, I just put a paper bag over the top. This got him shredding and then he continued that onto the toy when they bag disappeared. SCORE!

You can learn more about how to train your bird to interact with enrichment, and find the type of enrichment your parrot enjoys, by viewing our Enrichment and Foraging online class, as well as checking out our shop for handmade enrichment with foraging in mind.