For our 34th foraging Friday I will be reviewing the push and pull bird foraging toy. Like many of my rats foraging toys this one is made for birds, but can also be used for rats. To use this toy you first want to unscrew the top, then place a handful of small treats in each of the 2 top containers. Then you want to gently shake the toy, allowing as few treats to fall through it, and finally you want to hand it up in the cage using the metal chain the toy comes with.
Now in terms of rat use the way they are supposed to use this toy is by pushing and pulling on the blue plastic pieces, which block holes inside the toy and when manipulated enough should allow treats to fall through the holes and to the bottom. Unfortunately despite how it is supposed to work this toy isn't nearly as responsive to the rats input as it is supposed to be. The blue pieces move easily enough, and my rats seem to enjoy biting and moving them around, however they don't really influence if the treats at the top can make it to the bottom. This toy falls in the same category as other foraging toys with specific requirements for treat size in that if you don't use the perfect sized food it doesn't work well. Due to the way the holes inside the toy are designed medium to large food pieces can get stuck in the holes even when the blue pieces are open, and the only way for the rats or other animals to dislodge them is by shaking the toy (either by pulling it around or pushing it). On the other hand if the treats are too small they may simply pass through the holes whenever the toy even slightly moves, removing a lot of the challenge. In order for this toy to work you can only really use treats the size of a black oil sunflower seed, and even these sometimes fall outside the range of acceptable size. This specific requirement is the main reason I have mixed feelings about this toy, because while my rats can still use it they can't really use it as intended. And this isn't just because this toy is meant for birds because by reading the review on this toy you will see that many bird owners had similar problems with it. I feel like a better implementation of this foraging toy's activity can be seen in a prior foraging toy I reviewed by dogs, which is the gambling tower dog foraging toy. That toy had a huge advantage in that the "levels" holding up the treats were very large, so treat size could vary a lot and still work perfectly. The main downsides to that toy were that the rope used to use the toy could be chewed and destroyed if left with the rats unsupervised, along with the fact that once the platforms were removed the foraging toy will no longer be useful until a human reset. This toy tries to remedy these issues by being made of acrylic and so its not chewable and the pull and push levers are places such that they block opposite sides of the toy, so when one is blocking one side and pushed it then goes to block the other side and vise versa. But it doesn't implement the mechanic of pushing/pulling the platforms overall well which is the main issue. Cleaning and refill wise this toy is okay - the only way to access any of the inside is to unscrew the top but even then that only gives you access to the top portion of the inside. Other than that the inside is inaccessible other than through the small treat holes and so if you wish to wash this toy it will need to be air dried afterwards. Typically I just wipe down the outside as you can only use solid treats in this toy anyways so the inside doesn't really get dirty. As for refill that is done by unscrewing the top and placing a handful of treats in each side container. This is easy enough, but the treats can also easily fall to the bottom if you shake the toy during the refilling process which makes it a less ideal way to refill it. Overall this foraging toy is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I initially got it years back hoping it would work like a typical bird foraging tower, with the rats having to pull each side once to get a treat to fall from the top of the toy to the bottom. And while this toy is designed to work the same way it just doesn't do its job all that well. I think the main issue is that they tried to make this toy continually work as a foraging toy with the 2 internal sides while if they had used one internal side they could have had this toy only work once between resets but at least do its job and work as intended. Still, my rats have gotten some use out of it and they do seem to enjoy playing with the push/pull levels, so its not a complete loss. I'd hesitate to recommend it over other foraging toys because the use is so spotty but since its perfectly safe and still works in some regard I will continue using it for my own rats for the time being. Link to this foraging toy: https://amzn.to/3nO7SVz Foraging Friday playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGThSDBAdLEJCz3MLbBroobmYqsWtFOMB Video showcasing this foraging toy:
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AboutHey there! Here you will find tips and tricks on rat care and training, along with information not found elsewhere on this site. If you have questions or suggestions for me, feel free to contact me through the contact page. Archives
October 2021
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