Dumping food.

[luluxoxo83]

Hi yall. I have been noticing that sunny tries to tip over his/her food bowl. When he/she can not tip it he sits in it and tried to get it all out that way. What is he/she trying to do? I have 4 bowls of food in there (one bowl for each bird) but he/she always goes for the same one. The little bugar has me sweeping every 10 minutes.

[bookworm0550]

I don't know. Joey does that but he does it to get my attention. Brat ;)

[linda040899]

All birds love to forage and that's what yours is attempting to do. Solution might include a deeper food dish or some foraging toys that will satisfy his need/urge. You can try wrapping treats in pieces of paper or toys where he has to work to get what he wants.

[momo]

Elmo does exactly the same thing.. the only problem is.. she's always successful.. so I either need to put a small cat bowl in there full of water.. or give her a tube water feeder.. I just got sick of having to clean up the seed and or water..

[LovelySydney]

Oliver used to do that but then I bought him shredding toys and now he only eats out of his dishes. So for me, it was clear he needed things to tear up. He LOVES his shredding toys, its so cool to watch him!! Its really fun to watch their brains work.

[LauraO]

One of our rescue keets used to climb inside of the fresh food bowel and work and work until she could push the food out of the bowel. The bowels were usually up high so once she got the food out of the bowel she would push it over the edge and watch it fall:x. It was obviously very entertaining for her.

The worst is my meyer's Cookie. His antics infuriate me:evil:. No matter what dish or what food or how high the bowel. He will grab pieces of food, stretch as far as he can and drop them onto the ground:evil:. It's annoying cause it's just so deliberately making a mess and wasting a TON of food. I mean if you saw how far he stretched and know how smart he is, anyone would be annoyed. It gets even worse when he shovels as much of a full seed container out onto and under the grate. He does it so fast there is NO way he is foraging. I remember the rescue friend I got Cookie from warned me he was the messiest eater she had ever seen. That was definately and understatement.

The point is that birdies will sometimes do this and for different reasons:x.

[Flapjack]

Both Jack and chino used to do this, but by different methods.

Jack used to squish her body in as far as she could, and "swim" the food all over the cage. I think she just loved the sound as the seeds flung everywhere and rattled down through the grate.

Chino used his whole head like a shovel, and would sling it side to side, making sure all the pellets and seed came out.

I went to Petsmart and bought some of those covered bowls... I think they're called "Clear Cup" or "Clean cup". They're blue or green (depending on the size) with a tall clear hood. Worked like a charm!:happy:

[HaleBoppPeachyluv]

I actually use the same locking dish for food as I do for water. it's wide enough that sunny can stand in it, and I don't put so much seed in, just enough to layer the bottom. That way I can see how much of the seed sunnybird has actually eaten. And, since it clicks into place, no chance of her tipping it over.