Nectar for ring neck?

[Tombli60]

Hi, so I recently purchased an Indian ringneck and I saw somewhere that in the wild they sometimes eat nectar from flowers. I’ve got a bottlebrush tree at home and was wondering if it is actually safe to feed my bird or is the sugar in it completely unhealthy. I know the plant is safe and my lorikeet loved eating from it but what about ringnecks? It obviously won’t be something I feed every day but just every once in a while as a treat. Thx

 

[Betrisher]

Bottlebrush flowers won't hurt your ringneck - he'll *love* them! I give them to my own birds whenever the trees are flowering. Once they're fruiting, the hardened nuts make great treats as well. Birds love to crack them open and get the tiny seeds out.

The branches are great as well, because the bark takes a bit of effort to strip off and it gives the birds a good old workout. Once they've 'cleaned' all the bark off for you, the remaining naked timber makes great perches. Just cut a groove in the sawn-off ends or screw in a cuphook/eyelet. Or, you can put the fresh-cut branch in as a perch and just leave it there for your bird(s) to strip it clean. HTH.

Trish