I dont like to let my bird walk around on the floor — for several reasons, one being I don’t like her wandering off under furniture where I can’t see her because of spiders, and also because she tends to eat everything she sees and I don’t want her to eat a crumb of something not bird safe. I let her wander the floor after I’ve just swept sometimes but mostly she flies to the floor and I pick her up. Sometimes she doesn’t stop going to the floor and I have to keep chasing after her all day long and it drives me crazy. I don’t know what to do other than sweep multiple times a day to make sure the floor is ok for her and even then I can’t really control for the spiders as I live in a basement. I can’t get anything done today because I’ve spent the past 4 hours sitting down, getting up to pick her off the floor, sitting back down, getting back up, etc. I know she thinks this is a game I don’t know how to make her stop. Training her has never gone well because she doesnt actually care about treats. Please help
Every behaviour serves a function, a lot of parrots are ground foraging species meaning that they go to the forest floor to search for seeds, grasses, and other snacks. It’s an innate need!
This doesn’t mean they have to forage directly on your floor however, you can provide outlets for this behaviour in a safe way! I would use a large flat surface like a table and arrange some foraging opportunities, you could also use a designated towel on the floor and they learn to forage and tip tap around in those safe zones. You can include scattered seeds, pellets from their main meal, treats, and even some fresh foods and veggies along these surfaces so they can forage around and exhibit that behaviour in a safe place.
I also like to use puzzle feeders for this purpose, lots of dog/cat puzzle feeders have sliding parts birds can push around, there’s also snuffle mats that work great to simulate foraging through grass. To make the foraging surface more fun you can scatter Timothy hay, crinkled paper or various toy parts for them to dig around in.
By providing a healthy outlet for that ground foraging behaviour you should begin to see a decrease in ground foraging in unsafe places. While making that transition it will be a lot of up and down keeping them off the floor but with some consistency they’ll start to find more value in getting to exhibit that behaviour in the designated zones!
Another thing to keep in mind is other reasons they may be down there, are they looking for dark nesting spaces, are they chasing feet, do they get reinforced by your sudden attention, etc. there’s always a possibility that something else is causing the behaviour to persist even if another outlet is available!
