Yup! A foraging pinecone that's been baked to kill bacteria, and stuffed with sunflower seeds and millet spray pieces. I decided to make it for Lucy, and I have one extra pinecone that was baked, that I might give to Dudley.

Pine sap and needles may be dangerous for birds but the wood is safe. I figured this would be a good idea for some of the pinecones from the tree in my front yard. Of course, I had to look at several hundred sources to make sure they're safe.

I first had to wash them really well, then I had to bake them in 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes to kill any bugs or bacteria, as well as melt any kind of sap that's on it (no need to worry if it's closed. They open up when they dry out from the oven heat), and then I stuffed some sunflower seeds and pieces of millet spray in it.

How should I introduce this to Lucy? I doubt she's seen pinecones before, and she's not one to immediately go after new things. Should I just stick it in there and wait for her to feel ok to check it out, or do I need to go through a gradual process?

Also, what do you guys think? I know cockatiels aren't one for foraging toys, and this kinda goes against their instinct as ground feeders, but I'd figure, since the food is still easily visible and accessible, she would possibly enjoy it. Plus, cockatiels like to chew things, and Lucy's definetely no exception (I've only had her for over a week and I can already list objects she has chewed). I thought she might like it.

Looks nice i want one

If I could find pine cones this time of the year I'd try this out...
I'll have to wait for the trees to produce them! Looks a good idea..

Actually she HAS seen a pine cone before but not one that has food stuffed in it. I provide a pine cone as a chew toy without going to the trouble of putting food in it. I couldn't tell you whether she ever paid any attention to it or not though. You could hang it up in an easy to reach place or put it on a table top for her to ground-forage on. Don't immediately hang it in her cage since that might be scary, but if you'd like to put it in the cage you can let it first spend some time in a place nearby where she can look at it and realize that it's not going to attack her. She might even decide to go over and explore it when she's out of the cage.

Well, hung it right next to Lucy's favorite food bowl, and it sure didn't take her long to notice the millet in it.



So I decided to just go ahead and stick it in her cage. Is that ok? She knows there's food in it now. It shouldn't bother her too much now, right?

Try Photobucket. I don't know why, but the site bugs out every time someone uses anything but Photobucket.

The best way to find out is stick it in the cage and see what happens. If she goes into total panic mode then take it back out again, but I have a feeling she won't do that.

Bluekeet, I have been using tinypic for the last few days. It has an option to make it certain sizes. wasn't working today. I should probably use photobucket, because sometimes imgur just refuses to work at all, let alone work correctly.

Well she didn't get all scared, but she's not really bothering to go near it. I put it in the same place I usually put her millet spray, but I guess I'll have to give her a few days.

It seems like she was more interested when it was out of the cage, than when I put it in the cage. She's a strange bird.

Couldn't find the pine cone in the
pic! Photo too large for my laptop..

Sorry about that Jan. I fixed it, so hopefully you can see it now.