It’s never been a secret that the human connection among animals exists. If you’re a bird lover — and you most certainly are — then this is not a secret to you, but rather, a full-blown reality. Nevertheless, science always tries to validate what many of us already know by close observation with specific testing procedures. The more tests undertaken, the more validation that birds are not as far from our own behavioral patterns. For this article, it’s the simple process of dunking bread into a liquid to improve its texture for consumption.
Why Do Birds Dunk Their Food?
In a mid-December publishing of a research paper in the Royal Society science journal, J. S. Zewald, and Alice Auersperg, both from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna in Austria began to test a theory of foraging innovations with in-house Goffin’s cockatoos (which are often a bird that is observed due to their extreme intelligence). It has been noted that many animal species, including a wide range of birds, dunk their food in water before eating it. In the Goffin lab at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, the pair of scientists noticed that some of the cockatoos were taking their rusk (a twice-baked bread designed to achieve an extra-dried texture) and dunking them into water before eating the dried bread. The researchers set out to enhance some already known indicators of food innovations and brain-size correlations.
The report states that many animals are not known to alter the textures of their food. It is a rare procedure, and so noting that the captive cockatoos were using such behavior became an exciting development to study. Not only is it interesting to see some species in active use of food innovation techniques, but it is also a pathway to understand better the development of the evolution of food preparation that begins in the brain. How does the brain work when a species decides that food could be altered for better enjoyment? This and other questions are under the scope of such studies, particularly this one.
More interesting are other questions that arise. Do the birds dunk to alter the texture for better consumption, or is it also a habit to clean the food before eating it? Have they discovered that dunking a bit of food into salt water (ocean) can add flavor to the morsel? The study also would like to look at the possibility that the birds soak up the food, and use it to transport water to another location, much like a sponge.
Cockatoo Dunkers
Prior to this study, three Goffin’s cockatoos, Kiwi, Pipin, and Muki, were actively observed in the act of dunking their dry rusk before eating it. For this study, 18 Goffin’s cockatoos were used for observation with different foods. For societal necessities, some of the birds were allowed the full roam of the aviary, while some were caged during the observations (due to pure societal orneriness). Breakfasts of egg, noodles, potatoes, or cauliflower with fruit and soy yogurt, and lunches of rusk, dried banana chips, dried coconut chips, corn flakes, dried apple pieces, and seeds were used primarily (dinners were not studied).
Of the 18 cockatoos, seven were active in dunking their food. Some interesting thoughts were ruled out (like flavoring, washing, and cleaning intents due to controlled availability). This study was concluded with the belief that the birds merely wanted to soften their food before eating. What was more interesting was that this behavior requires impulse control, a deliberate effort to move and treat food before consumption. It was also determined that it was possibly indicative of a preference for dry versus wet food among all 18 birds. Even so, the birds that dunked their food only did so with the dry rusk, and the banana and coconut chips. The rest of the food was eaten as is.
We enjoy bringing you looks at current studies undertaken to understand birds (and other creatures) more fully. There are a lot of dots to connect, and science is slowly connecting some of those. The above study is the first of other studies planned to understand parrot foraging innovations behaviors better.
They need to study “food flinging” out of bowls – haha. My scarlet macaw does lots of dipping (his soups look so yummy…with “dashes” of cardboard and phone book paper.
If he has a mix where he doesn’t like a certain item, he flings it all over. Or even sometimes when he likes the item. (Never with Nutriberries!)
I recently purchased him a soft pellet that I rotate with other foods. He loves it and doesn’t dip it. So you need some soft food!
None of my parrots, CAGs, LCA, BFA, Eclectus, various small birds ever dunked their food, even their very dry food. However, when I watch my murder of crows on my deck pick up pieces of bread, they almost always go over to the heated birdbath (it’s winter here) and dunk and eat.
Love that you also watch and compare your obversions of your yard birds, i.e. murder of crows, with you pet birds.
My Timneh Afrcan Gey always dunks her morning cereal in her milk ( Lactaid ). she dunks her bagels , bread and anything that she deems too dry to eat, such as her dried fruit.
My goffin cockatoo always dunks her seed in her water bowl. And she does not dunk her regular food like peas beans chicken eggs etc only the seed will be in her water bowl dunked. She also takes baths in her bowl on rainy days no other days. She is a character and doesn’t like her cage cleaned before I change her water bowls and paper on the bottom of her cage. She gets very mad and she throws her seed out of her seed bowl if you don’t tell her to eat her regular dinner first and if you walk away she will throw the seed out
Very interesting. It sounds like it may have something to do with individual preference, much like ours. Ex: my husband enjoys battered & baked chicken breasts. I consider them dry & prefer a sauce of some sort over the chicken with no breading to add what I consider a dry texture. I am owned by a Congo African Gray. I have never seen him dunk any of his food, including his Lafeber Pellets. It is rare that I even find any food in his water bowl & I have observed him accidentally dropping food that falls off his beak into the bowl, but he immediately ignores it. I bought him as a 10-wk old & he is now 15 years old.
I have an African Grey Parrot and he dunks his food all the time, sometimes he soaks the food for a while before eating it. I put small pieces of fruit in his water bowl to keep moist until he’s ready to eat them e.g. grapes or pieces of carrot. The other day I gave him half a peach with the pip still inside – he loves to eat the fruit off the pit, mostly discarding by spitting it all over the place – I came back later to find the whole peach in his water bowl!
Thank you for this terrific article. We have male and female red-bellied parrots, 16 and 15 years old respectively, and the male is a long-time dunker. They’re on a Lafeber nugget diet with fresh additions and a daily treat of one animal cracker each. It’s that dry cracker that the male dunks into his water bowl before eating, or tries to — sometimes it dissolves in the water before he can get to it. The female has no impulse control (great term, by the way!) and devours immediately whatever she’s given.
Let me know if you want a video of our male doing his dunking — it’s a daily thing, so it’s easy to capture.
I have an Arican Grey that always dunks his dry pellets given the opportunity to do so.
Thank you!
Often wondered why my G2 spent so much time at his water dish with his avi-cakes and not veggies that were not dried. Some days more dunking is done than others.
Enjoyed Info very much will help me better better understand my birds activity. I also have a CAG and a GCC. They all enjoy Lafeber cakes and balls.
my Caique will take several beak full put them in the water after about 5 trips then eat from the water bowl, some of the items are seed ,pellet, fresh fruit and vegetables, it really interesting to watch daily.
My timneh sometimes dunks her pistashio nuts in her water. I always thought it was to soften the shell so she could open it a little bit better. Birds are amazing. thank you for this info!