So, I live in Iceland and have a yellow-headed amazon. I also have a rock-collecting hobby. At any given time I usually have lots of rocks on my floor from various hikes in various stages of cleaning / polishing / etc.
My parrot has recently discovered my rocks and greatly enjojys them - and I worry, maybe too much! He climbs down off of his cage sometimes, walks over to them, and starts nibbling off little loose debris on the floor or breaking off little loose chunks from the surface. It doesn't bother me from the side of the rocks - he's cleaning up, and I'd need to get rid of the loose stuff anyway (so long as he doesn't get too near the more crystalline / delicate specimens like my zeolites and calcite, its okay, that is!). But I have concerns about him eating all that grit.
I know for a long time it was simply said, "don't give amazons grit!". Flat out, "no". Then there was a change and some people started saying that it's okay or even encouraged to give them grit, that they can digest food without it but that it helps them get more nutrients. But the "no" crowd warns of death from impacted crops and other scary stories and says that it's not worth the risk to the bird.
Should I be stopping him or just letting him forage? I've been sort of taking a middle ground thusfar, letting him eat a little but it starts to worry me and I stop him if he doesn't stop after a piece or two.
What sort of bounds should I set?
(just to add, nothing I have should be poisonous... mostly he eats little bits of basalt off of my jasper and the like)
My parrot has recently discovered my rocks and greatly enjojys them - and I worry, maybe too much! He climbs down off of his cage sometimes, walks over to them, and starts nibbling off little loose debris on the floor or breaking off little loose chunks from the surface. It doesn't bother me from the side of the rocks - he's cleaning up, and I'd need to get rid of the loose stuff anyway (so long as he doesn't get too near the more crystalline / delicate specimens like my zeolites and calcite, its okay, that is!). But I have concerns about him eating all that grit.
I know for a long time it was simply said, "don't give amazons grit!". Flat out, "no". Then there was a change and some people started saying that it's okay or even encouraged to give them grit, that they can digest food without it but that it helps them get more nutrients. But the "no" crowd warns of death from impacted crops and other scary stories and says that it's not worth the risk to the bird.
Should I be stopping him or just letting him forage? I've been sort of taking a middle ground thusfar, letting him eat a little but it starts to worry me and I stop him if he doesn't stop after a piece or two.
What sort of bounds should I set?
(just to add, nothing I have should be poisonous... mostly he eats little bits of basalt off of my jasper and the like)
Last edited:
Both are well into their 40's, so it's not the end of the world for zons to play with rocks. I wouldn't personally give anything with loose material on it (why risk crop impaction from the 'grit' or an infection from germs in the dirt/debris?), but a well cleaned rock isn't an issue. If your bird is *that* interested in grit, how about giving him a cuttlebone or mineral block for birds? Those are safe and most zons love them
But the substrate for all of them is basalt (it's the predominant rock here), and basalt is porous and brittle, the sort of thing an amazon can break bits off of. And of course bits naturally break off on the floor, little "crumbs".
