Help with cuttle bone

[ConureComrad]

Any ideas how to get my conure to use a cuttle bone? I have a female Sun that just layed a month ago and is getting ready to nest again. I have her on zupreem wich has calicum but afraid it wont be enough and ill get soft shells. I have already heard of crushing it into powder and putting it in her food but looking for more ideas because I would like her to use it for beak conditioning as well thanks.

 

[MikeyTN]

Provide some crushed oyster shells for calcium! Get concrete perch to trim beak and nails. If all else fails, they have drops you can put into their drinking water.

 

[ConureComrad]

Thanks for the advise I have a pumice perch but she does not use it for her beak and the oyster shells is out of the question she is a picky eater. I have tried to find the drops in my local area but no luck.

 

[IcyWolf]

Does she like to chew on toys with wooden blocks? They tend to keep their beaks in good shape, try ones that look have different colors and shapes and see if she takes any interest in them, just be sure they are only dyed with food coloring. Some birds just don't seem to like to chew on hard things, if that's the case a good diet and possibly getting her beak filed occasionally is the way to go. If you're feeding her a good hard pellet like zupreem, that may even be enough to keep her beak worn down. And as far as the perches and toys go, just because she won't use one, doesn't mean she won't use another, our alex has a wooden block hanging toy in her cage that looks like it's never been touched and another that she shredded to splinters in a matter of days, I couldn't tell you why she loved the one and won't touch the others, birds are just weirdos like that sometimes. That's why it's nice to make your own toys or try and buy them on clearance, that way until you know what your bird does and doesn't like, you don't break the bank trying to find out.

 

[ConureComrad]

Yeah she in not much of a chewer but her beak is in good shape. My concern right now is she has enough calicum going into the nest box for round two. I do feed my birds zupreem and it does have calicum just not sure its enough.

 

[IcyWolf]

If her beak is in good shape without chewing the cuttlebone, just grind some of it into her food, it can be added to pellets but it's easier to add it to moist food, and you can always give her a cuttlebone in addition to adding it to her food, you could also try a mineral block or a beak conditioning block and see if she likes either of those as far as her beak is concerned.

 

[ConureComrad]

Ok well thanks for your help I was hoping there was something to do that would encourage her to use it.

 

[IcyWolf]

There very well may be, I don't know of anything though, I've had birds like my alex that literally annihilates them in 2 days and other birds that won't touch them. It's a new post, I'm sure somebody will have some good ideas for you to try

 

[Mare Miller]

I know I've mentioned my oatmeal plan before but after seeing the vet and her giving me the ok...I'm feeling better about grinding up the zupreem pellets, (which he would not touch), and am now also adding ground Harrison pellets to his oatmeal. She recommended finely grating the cuttle bone because he won't touch it whole. I finely grate, (using my micro-planer), about 1/8 of a teaspoon on top and he's not only eating it but liking it! Now if I could just get him to eat his veggies, all would be good!

 

[mcw009]

Zupreem pellets have a LOT of calcium in them, actually. More than a bird needs. I don't remember the numbers but I spoke with a vet working for Zupreem who told me specifically how much Ca+ is in the pellets. So if that's your bird's main diet, I wouldn't worry much about supplementing it, even if she's laying.

 

[ConureComrad]

Well I might just have to buy this multivitamin and multimineral powder that I found it does have calicum in it. I was trying to stay away from using powder because it dont stick to dry foods very well. Cuttle bone seem to be the way to go if your birds will use it because it can be used for beak conditioning and a source of calicum.

 

[ConureComrad]

Ok well I do feed zupreem and that being said I feel alot better. I will contact zupreem directly just to be safe I would hate for her to have soft shell. Thank you all for your help its nice to have it when you need it.

 

[lene1949]

My birds love chicken bones, which will also provide calcium...

 

[MikeyTN]

Do you feed veggie mesh??? bust the cuttle bone up and mix them to the mesh.

 

[Amber]

Have you tried coloured mineral perches? I have a pink/red one, and Alex LOVES it. Bright attractive colours tends to encourage him to try new things. Good mineral perches will have calcium and trace vit and mins. I like the perch because Alex can take as much or as little as he wants.

Though, I do recommend a colour other then red. It colours his poop red! You could imagine the freak out I had when I saw red poop! Greens and blues are the better colours as they wont give your birds poop a mass colour change that will have you worried!

 

[lene1949]

Have you tried coloured mineral perches? I have a pink/red one, and Alex LOVES it. Bright attractive colours tends to encourage him to try new things. Good mineral perches will have calcium and trace vit and mins. I like the perch because Alex can take as much or as little as he wants.

Though, I do recommend a colour other then red. It colours his poop red! You could imagine the freak out I had when I saw red poop! Greens and blues are the better colours as they wont give your birds poop a mass colour change that will have you worried!

LOLOL... it'll certainly relieve some worries...

 

[Amber]

Have you tried coloured mineral perches? I have a pink/red one, and Alex LOVES it. Bright attractive colours tends to encourage him to try new things. Good mineral perches will have calcium and trace vit and mins. I like the perch because Alex can take as much or as little as he wants.

Though, I do recommend a colour other then red. It colours his poop red! You could imagine the freak out I had when I saw red poop! Greens and blues are the better colours as they wont give your birds poop a mass colour change that will have you worried!

LOLOL... it'll certainly relieve some worries...

My vet got a very worried 3am phonecall! :54:He was great though, asked me if there was anything red in his diet, or if he'd chewed any red toys. I realised instantly what had caused it.

Incidentally, apparently blood in poop will come up brown, not red, unless it's very low in the digestive tract in which case it will be red streaks, not solid red poop. So really it could only have been diet (or parasite I guess) related. Did scare the jeebus out of me! Next time I'm getting a blue or green one as they don't stain it bright colours!

 

[roxynoodle]

The Zupreem pellets make Rowdy poop different colors, lol!

Yes, some birds go nuts on cuttle bones and others won't touch them. My BCC would go poop all over it to let me know she wanted it out of there. She never laid eggs though so I didn't worry about it.

I use powdered vitamin on Pete's veggies that the vet recommended for him. No, you can't really use it on dry food, must be wet food.

Shredding the cuttle bone into food sounds like a good idea though. If your bird likes oatmeal, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, etc. I suppose you could even do what I'm doing with Pete's medication: toast some bread and mix it into peanut butter and put it on the bread. I don't think peanut butter toast is the healthiest thing for a bird to be eating, but it is working with him. If you just gave a little piece a day, I'm sure it would be fine.

 

[cockatielfan17]

it might help if u take out the uttle bone for a day and then return it in another area of the cage she might be interested enough to go check it out