| Title: | Captive Breeding for Conservation--and FUN! |
| Notice: | INTROS 6.X / FOR SALE 13.X / Buying a Bird 900.* |
| Moderator: | VIDEO::PULSIFER |
| Created: | Mon Oct 10 1988 |
| Last Modified: | Tue Jun 03 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 942 |
| Total number of notes: | 6016 |
My gray-cheeked parakeet loves to eat wood. We've had a problem
with her eating some of the woodwork.
Is wood harmful? If she likes it so much, would it be harmful to
put some wood in the cage for her to gnaw on? If it's all right,
what kind of wood should I use - a branch from a tree, a piece of
cut pine, or what?
Thanks for any advice.
Dan
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 169.1 | manzanita | SBLANC::MOEHLENPAH | Fri Apr 28 1989 19:45 | 5 | |
I like manzanita wood. My macaw loves to chew on it, and it's safe,
and VERY hard.
Ed
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| 169.2 | try aplle branches | MUNCSS::BURKE | Sat Apr 29 1989 10:56 | 2 | |
I've heard that Apple branches have the most nutrient (in the
bark). Our birds love it.
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| 169.3 | What is manzanita wood? | CURIE::TOBIN | Mon May 01 1989 09:00 | 5 | |
Re: .1
What is manzanita wood and where do you find it?
Dan
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| 169.4 | Balsa | AKOV12::SELESKY | Mon May 01 1989 10:10 | 10 | |
My budgies love to chew on balsa wood. I buy the colored sticks
at pet stores (or Erikson Grain in Acton) like the Fish Nook in
Acton or Debbie's Pet Land at the Pheasant Lane Mall (any pet store
should have them) -- they're dyed with food coloring so are perfectly
safe. Sometimes they're sold for gerbil or hamster wood chews.
Anyway, my budgies have been chewing on them for years. I stick
them threw the bars or clip them so they can chew them. You might
try tieing them up near the woodwork where your grey-cheeked chews
now and he'll switch over. Or tie it from the bars of the cage.
Buy lots so you always have when ready when he chews through each one.
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| 169.5 | Wood is Good | DUNCE::KIRSCHBAUM | And so it Goes... | Mon May 01 1989 11:11 | 25 |
You can find Manzanita either thru mail order in the back of Bird
Talk, order directly from Animal Environments, or go to Boston Pet,
and they have it in varied sizes....
I made a swing from a piece I purchased at Boston Pet, so my Macaw
has a toy and something to exercise his beak at the same time.
Also, Boston pet has many great hanging toys made from all sorts
of various flavors of wood at the store. You have to be careful
of branches you collect from outdoors, I believe you either have
to bake or boil them, or both, before they are really save for a
bird that is not at all familiar with our local germs....
Also, Chelmsford Pet Care has a lot of Rock Maple toys and play
gyms for birds.
I don't know about Gray Cheeks, but pine is much too soft for a
Macaw, he can chew thru maple in less then an hour.
As to whether chewing wood is good for them, it is my understanding
that not only is it good, it is `required' if you don't want to
trim the beak...
-dick
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| 169.6 | wood is part of diet | ANT::MPCMAIL | Tue May 02 1989 15:29 | 12 | |
I was told by two different Bird Shops, that wood is part of a birds
diet on the outside. I was also told that I would want to put a
wood perch in each of the bird cages. Incase of the cocktoo where
he's not caged in I made a wood perch for him.
Wood offers many benfits for the birds, if they chew it it helps
keep the beaks trim, without a cost to the shop. It offers the bird
a differetn width in grip which helps prevent arthritis in a birds
talcons. and gives them a chance to chew without the chewing the
house around you.
Lise
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