Grit in your Birds' Diet

This is something I've read and thought about for a while.
Your birds' diet is really important and, to be completely safe, I'd love some input from you lovely parrot owners.

Do parrots require Grit in their diets?
A few sources say yes, though these sources tend to be shops/companies (entries that want you to spend). I currently have a bag of bird grit that has pictures of parrots and birds; canary, budgie, cockateil, lory, Macaw--on the front claiming that it is highly important to provide a source of grit. An "Essential aid to digestion. Helps grind down seed hulls."
For finches, pidegeons etc, birds that don't hull seeds them selves, I know it's essential.
But parrots, even smaller ones like budgies and cockateils, Hull seeds with their highly adapted beaks.

A monthly magazine I read, Parrots Magazine, recently stated that a source of Grit is not required by parrots and can, in fact, cause illness due to impaction in their digestive system.
"Once in the crop, the food goes though various digestive processes, as it is metabolised, and then broken down by gastric juices in the proventriculus. Then the inside lining of the muscular ventriculus (gizzard) secretes a keratin-like fluid which hardens around the food and aids in grinding any hard food.
Grit/gravel is unnecessary in the diets of par-family birds' diets because this keratin surface is hard enough to grind foods. Some parrots can become seriously ill from grit/gravel impaction in their digestive system because they have been given free access to it in their diets." (Parrots Magazine, issue 246, July 2018)

Is a (carefully monitored) source of grit safe for parrots, especially cockateils/budgies?
I've only provided access to some once a week maximum, in a small bowl, and they've never eaten all of it.
The grit I use contains crushed oyster shell, which is a source of calcium, so it would be a shame to have to cut it out of their diet.
They quite enjoy picking though it when I provide a bowl, but after reading the article I've been a bit concerned.
I can get just oyster shell on its own, so I may switch to that if grit is truly a terrible thing to give them.

Thank you in advance for any input you have.

No, grit is absolutely not needed and should not be included in the diet of any size of parrots.


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Can you feed grit? Yes.

Is it necessary? No. Especially on a healthy diet.

There's "two types" of grit. Soluble and insoluble.

Cuttlebone and mineral blocks can both be considered 'types of grit'.

Even finches and canaries hull their seeds!

MonicaMc said:

Can you feed grit? Yes.

Is it necessary? No. Especially on a healthy diet.

There's "two types" of grit. Soluble and insoluble.

Cuttlebone and mineral blocks can both be considered 'types of grit'.

Even finches and canaries hull their seeds!

Click to expand...

So it's safe to feed some minerals.
Thank you!
I try to keep my birds' diets varied, healthy and balanced but other sources of calcium are always very welcome.

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Wow, I haven't heard of grit in years since I got Baby in early 2000s. Good stuff in this thread. Interesting. I was offering grit to Baby only the first few times I got him, read some literature on it and asked others and threw it out. He doesn't need it and he gets a varied diet.

Good take on the calcium sources. I've been (attempting) feeding very finely chopped or grated broccoli and veggies in his chop, so he gets that in addition and besides his cuddlebone. I've been thinking that a cuddlebone alone wouldn't be enough.

smbrds said:

Wow, I haven't heard of grit in years since I got Baby in early 2000s. Good stuff in this thread. Interesting. I was offering grit to Baby only the first few times I got him, read some literature on it and asked others and threw it out. He doesn't need it and he gets a varied diet.

Good take on the calcium sources. I've been (attempting) feeding very finely chopped or grated broccoli and veggies in his chop, so he gets that in addition and besides his cuddlebone. I've been thinking that a cuddlebone alone wouldn't be enough.

Click to expand...

Very much the same comcern with me too.
I provide the most varied, balenced diet I can for my fids and while my budgies are open to trying most foods, Sherbert, my cockatiel, is a little less open and doesn't eat all his vegetables. But he does pick though minerals and occasionally eats cuttlebone and the calcium perches I provide he likely doesn't get a lot (in part due to his love of seeds).
I was told and read about the need for Grit by numerous sources, including my Mother who had a cockateil (which was kept in a tiny, round cage) when she was a child.
When I read the article in Parrots Magazine I quickly decided I would ask people here.

I guess my back of Grit would be much appreciated by the wild birds outside.