Paper foraging basket - Safe foraging net, low entrapment hazard.

Last crawled date: 4 years, 2 months ago

Foraging is an extremely important natural behavior for wild animals in captivity. Allowing them to engage in biologically relevant behaviors increases their mental well being and encourages healthy activity. Novelty is also important. Navigating a new set of shapes, colors, and textures encourage exploration and other healthy behaviors.
This is a variation on the silicone wine caddy design sold commercially by various companies. It is a toy that stores flat and pops up in seconds to create a foraging net toy. It can be cut from light paper or heavy cardstock depending on the size of the animal. It can hang off built-in hooks, or hook to itself, creating a foraging ball for ground foraging animals.
Depending on how large you cut it on a papercutter or lasercutter, it can hold pinecones to popcorn to even sunflower seeds. The paper you cut from should be thin enough so if the animal puts their head inside the basket gaps and then gets stuck, the animal will tear the paper instead of hurting themselves. I moved to paper foraging options after seeing animals stick their heads or limbs, dangerously, through unforgiving metal mesh foraging puzzle feeders.
I haven't tried this out of thin cardboard but would love to see a heavy-duty re-make on a laser cutter for, say, a medium-sized monkey. I think even more I'd love to see this done with edible starch paper for those weird critters who insist on eating paper or cardboard (slow headshake). i.e. https://www.icinginks.com/edible-paper/wafer-paper/icinginks-prime-blank-edible-cardstock-extra-thick-wafer-paper-pack-a4-size-50-sheets-0-80mm-thickness
Link to the video: https://youtu.be/Nx4wNIE0FT8