Yes, I admit it. I've been spoiling Nani lately. I ordered a toy from a new shop I found through facebook and Nani loves it! They even sent a free toy which she has since happily dismantled. We sent in a photo for the "customer's pets" page and they put it up! See it here, that's my beautiful birdie all the way at the bottom!

As some of you already know I have a shop on Etsy.com. I absolutely love Etsy, not only as a shop owner but also as a purchasing connoisseur (see how fancy that sounds?).
Nani has been in desperate need of toys lately. On one miserable day she was getting into everything; chewing on cords, flying to my head only to poop there, screaming constantly, and generally being a little menace. I had had enough! I happened to be working on my shop and decided to take a quick look to see if anyone made affordable handmade parrot toys. Sure enough there were several shops to choose from. I placed an order with Zeek's Beak and within days I received my order. Nani loves her new toys:

They were packaged so adorably with pink tissue paper and little bows. Not only that but I got 2 (count them) TWO free gifts with my order!

I have also ordered from Wysper Creations and was equally impressed. She's a Caique owner and fellow Minnesotan as well.

One of my terrariums was featured in a collection on Etsy.com !
Nani was so proud of me. ;-)

Nani is all grown up and started her first job! She's Doodle Bird's newest product model! See for yourself: Nani The Super Model!

As many of you know I am an artist by day, and have an online store. Well I have recently dreamt up another design and I just wanted to share. I have yet to do a Caique or other parrot, but it's on my list.

www.mysterypetz.etsy.com

Well I finally finished a painting I've been brainstorming about for a long time now. I call it "Love On The Wing". I painted it for myself, but I've made prints for anyone that's interested. It measures 9" x 11". The original was done in watercolor on 300 lb paper. Take a look in my shop! If you mention you saw it on my blog I'll do free shipping (it will be refunded via paypal).

I just wanted to share a new toy company with everyone. Koo-Ba-Lee Zoo offers a handful of affordable, unique, bird safe toys. I first came across this company a few weeks ago before they had a website up. Today I received an email with the new site. They are just starting up so there is only a small quantity of toys available, but I think they definitely have the potential to grow.

I love to paint! (In fact I have owned my own mural painting business for the past 8 years.) And what better subject matter than my favorite thing in the whole world: Parrots! So recently, I made myself a few Caique ornaments and posted the photos on a message board for critique. Since I received really great feedback I decided to open an Etsy shop and have listed several species. I haven't gotten around to doing all the types of parrots (that might even be impossible) so I have also been taking requests. They are a lot of fun to do, kind of a break from doing such large scale work. Here are a few of the ones I've done so far:

How important is foraging? In the wild parrots exhibit four main behaviors: socializing, grooming, sleeping, and foraging. Most of the day, over two thirds, is spent foraging for food. In captivity, however, our pets rarely spend time foraging. Why? Because we serve them their food on a silver platter. What's the result? A fat bird! A bored bird! A perch potato! Many birds whose minds are not stimulated with toys and foraging opportunities become feather pluckers, self mutilating themselves. A little known fact is feather plucking can be "treated" with foraging toys and activities. It may or may not "cure" the bird, but either way the destructive behaviors should improve. So how can we as parrot owners provide foraging fun for our pets? Here are some suggestions:

• First, the bird may be a little rusty on his foraging skills, so it is our job to teach him. You'll probably have to show him where the treats/food is.
  
• Second, for the "lazy" bird, why would he bother working for food if he has a full bowl of goodies? I'm not saying its always a good idea to remove the food bowl entirely, at least not at first. But limit the amount of food you put in and save treats for foraging. You can also try covering the food bowl with a paper towel and rubber band (at first make a little hole so he can see whats inside, once he gets it you can stop making holes).
  
• Hide food. I cut up small portions of paper and put a few nuts or dried fruit in the center. Then I roll it up like a candy wrapper and hide these throughout Nani's cage, rarely in the same spots. To make her work a bit harder I will use paper cups (the cone kind) to wrap up the treats because its a little tougher to chew open.
  
• Buy little cardboard boxes (or wooden boxes with no metal hardware) from the craft store to fill. For added entertainment, fill it with shredded paper so he has to dig for the food.
  
• Find pine cones outside (only where you are absolutely positive there has been no pesticides used) and stuff nuts, pellets, and other goodies inside. You can hang these from a string (see video below) so the bird has to figure out how to get at it.
  
• Once he learns how to forage, don't always put a food item inside. This will keep him guessing.
  
• Get some natural branches to stick in or around his cage and skewer some grapes or other favorites in various spots so they have to climb around to get them. WARNING: Make sure you choose branches that are bird safe. Here's a list of safe/unsafe plants.
  
• Other possible foraging containers are: egg cartons, brown paper bags, cereal boxes, coffee filters, corn husks/tamale wrapping, plastic colored eggs (you can make holes in them), natural wicker baskets (no paint or stains), small plastic containers.

Here are a few videos of Nani with some handmade foraging toys I made. One is a pinecone with bits of nuts and dried fruit stuck inside, and the other is a paper cup with a treat in it. In the first video you can see she is interested but doesn't know how to get at the treat. She gets frustrated and climbs away to play for awhile. In the second video, taken a few hours later, she decides to give it another try and this time she's rewarded for her efforts!

Below are some commercially available foraging toys to try:

Barrel Of Fun

Learn 'n Turn Logs

Birdie Plunk

Quaker Jack Pizza

More foraging resources:

• Captive Foraging DVD
• Captive Foraging Foot Toys (video)
• Parrot Toys and Play Areas
• Teach Your Bird To Forage & Avoid Destructive Behaviors
• Foraging: It's For The Birds (video)
• Captive Foraging For Parrots Blog
• The Parrot Enrichment Activity Book (free download)
• Birds Just Wanna Have Fun Toys