Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 12/31/2007

Question
QUESTION: hi
i asked before why my budgie was eating on the newspaper, even the messy parts.
now im starting t notice that shes chewing on her wood perches too.
she always have food available and a cuttle bone and a grit block.
why is she doing this?


ANSWER: Hi again, Rockerfeller,

Birds have a natural instinct to chew.  This has nothing to do with eating and/or their food choices.  Your bird obviously needs wooden toys or other wooden items in order to satisfy her need for chewing.  A cuttlebone supplies supplemental calcium, not necessarily for chewing.  I hope you mean a mineral block, as budgies don't need grit, isn't really something this bird needs evidently.  Try some wooden toys or tree branches from outside she can chew on.

Your bird may also have a vitamin/mineral deficiency, since she also chews/eats her droppings.  Birds that eat their droppings have vitamin/mineral deficiencies.  Is your bird on an all-seed diet?  If so, she needs pelleted food, as well as a variety of other healthy, nutritious foods.  Chewing can also be a sign of stress or something else that might be amiss.  Is your bird's cage large enough?  Is there anything else that may be causing her stress?

Chrys

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi
the grit block was actually lavaston beak conditioner.
she seems to enjoy it, but should i take it away?
and i offered her some wooden block and beads in a leather strings, but she ignores it.
she was recently seperated from another budgie that she lived in the same cage with, because i wanted to handtame them. i've been doing it for abut 2 weeks now, and its been working, atleast more than when they were together.should i put them back together again?
it seems like they dont do anything except stay by each other between bars.

Answer
Hi again, Rockerfeller,

Happy New Year!

Birds prefer other birds to humans and the best pet bird is a single bird in the home.  I'd say from what you've stated that the birds miss being with each other.  This is most likely why she is behaving the way she is behaving.  It is often difficult to tame/train birds when there is more than 1 bird in the home.  This is because birds prefer each other to humans.  With these 2 birds, you may have to keep them completely separate from each other, where they can't see each other, if you want them to be hand tame.  The decision is yours based on what you want from these 2 birds.  

I'd leave the beak conditioner as long as it doesn't have grit in it.  Grit can impact a bird's crop, which can require surgery to correct.  Wooden blocks on leather with beads isn't something I've seen budgies chew on/play with.  Try small twigs/branches from trees...put some inside the cage and see if the bird chews.  I think her behavior is because the 2 birds have been separated after having been together.  Birds develop bonds with each other just like humans do, and the bonds can be very strong, resulting in much stress, etc., when the birds are separated, one dies, etc.  You need to decide what you want from these 2 birds and then stick with that plan.  Either allow them to be together and you work with them together to tame them or keep them completely separate and tame them.

Chrys