Safer cherries and Steve's beginning foraging

I enjoyed reading your comments about other scares that you've had when your parrots eat colorful food! We finished up all of the bing cherries, which had made me think Steve had bled all over his cage, and started in on lighter cherries today. They were a hit, and the juice does not look like blood. Yea!Every morning, I give Steve a pellet, and every morning he drops it on the ground, uneaten. Today, I was wrapping the pellets for Max and Stella at the kitchen table. Calypso was on the stand, begging, so I gave him one. Steve saw Calypso receive something, so he started begging. I gave him a wrapped pellet, expecting him to drop it on the ground. But he surprised me as...he ate it!I therefore decided no time like the present to start him foraging. I wrapped up about half of his pellets in adding machine tape. I then put all of his pellets, wrapped and unwrapped, in his food dish:I then left him alone as I went downstairs to lift weights, and when I came back up, Steve had unwrapped and eaten several pellets! After my shower, I found him on the bottom of his cage (the first time I have ever seen him there -- he usually only travels from favored high perch to water dish to food dish), eating a wrapped pellet that he'd dropped!

Steve is a foraging natural!

I'm planning on hiding a few pellets around his cage tomorrow to see what his reaction is. I'll still have pellets in his food dish as I want to make sure he knows how to find food around his cage before I cut off his easy supply.

What a great morning it was!