Kakariki: A Digging Tray and Accessories for This Ground-Scratching Parakeet
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
Unlike most parakeets, the kakariki spends a large part of its day on the cage floor, scratching and digging like a little hen rather than climbing the bars. This digging instinct is not a quirk: it is a natural behaviour inherited from its life in New Zealand forests, where it searches leaf litter for seeds, insects and roots. A review by van Zeeland and colleagues, published in 2009 in Applied Animal Behaviour Science, notes that depriving parrots of natural food-searching behaviours favours the emergence of feather plucking and self-harm (see the study): for the kakariki, offering a genuine digging area is therefore as much a welfare matter as an amusement. Our gear benchmarks are in the bird accessories section.
Contents · 4 sections
A dedicated digging tray
Set up a wide, shallow tray at the bottom of the cage or in an out-of-cage play area, filled with a safe substrate: untreated wood shavings, additive-free reptile coconut coir, or shredded paper. Hide seeds, vegetable pieces or small toys to discover: the kakariki will spend long minutes there, beak and feet at work. To vary the search formats, our guide to foraging toys for birds offers other options to rotate with the floor tray.
A suitable cage floor
The cage floor substrate matters twice as much for this digging species: it must be absorbent, easy to change and completely free of mould, since the kakariki's beak is in constant contact with it. Avoid scented litter or cedar shavings, which irritate the respiratory tract. The choice between sand, paper and grate is covered in our guide to cage liner: sand, paper or grate, adjusted here toward a more generous volume than for a standard budgie.
Horizontal space above all
The kakariki flies less than other parakeets and favours walking: the cage should therefore offer a wide, obstacle-free floor area rather than significant height. Provide low perches and a few sloped branches rather than a vertical stack of toys. The full species profile, with its exact needs, is available on the kakariki profile, on the bird hub of Planète Pets.
Frequently asked questions
What substrate should I use for the digging tray?
Untreated wood shavings, shredded paper without coloured ink, or reptile-grade coconut coir, changed as soon as it gets soiled.
Does the kakariki need a large flying space?
Proportionally less than a budgie, but it needs a wide floor area: favour a long, low cage over a narrow tower.
Can a kakariki dig outside the cage?
Yes, under supervision, in a secure floor play area free of toxic plants or small objects it could swallow.
See it in the Planète Pets shop: Flexible pastel cotton rope perch, 35 cm, for budgies and cockatiels (€32.90) · the whole shop
This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Birds universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.
