Cuttlebone

[jamerson0199]

My Sun Conure completely destroys the cuttlebone. He goes through one a day. Any suggestions?

 

[weco]

Cuttle bone is a natural source of calcium, made from cuttlefish bones. If the bird is calcium deficient, he would probably be predisposed to go after it.

You might want to break one into about 4 pieces & give one piece a week to the bird.....if the bird is making up for a deficiency, there will be a point where the calcium will not be of such interest...however, if it's being treated as a toy, then simply taking the cuttle bone away should solve the problem.

 

[Peeker]

I have a girl that does the same thing. She just enjoys crunching it up. I shave a little bit of it over her food instead.

 

[Customcasket]

I have a girl that does the same thing. She just enjoys crunching it up. I shave a little bit of it over her food instead.

My best friend used to do that for her Caique who would destroy the cuttlebone like a toy. He would seriously just crush it to death just for the sake of crushing it. I cannot get my bigger guys to touch a cuttlebone. They seemed petrified of it when I put it in their cages. I now shave a little off it into their food just to make sure that they get their calcium. The budgies LOVE their cuttlebones and mineral blocks. It makes me laugh when my white faced budgie ends up with an orange face from her mineral block.

 

[BillsBirds]

The bird just may enjoy chewing it up. Provide other material for it to chew & shred. Like wood, cork, loofa, cardboard, or rawhide.

 

[Kiwibird]

Wow! A lot of questions lately about the cuttlebones. You really need to observe your bird to see what exactly he is doing with the cuttlebone. Is he actually ingesting a good amount of it (which would indicated a deficiency that needs to be addressed) or is he just ripping it up? Kiwi doesn't ingest very much of cuttlebones when he gets them, but boy does he love destroying them. I personally don't take them away just because he likes ripping them up, he rips up all kinds of toys, that's what birds do. He doesn't get them very often though, because they do cause a huge, powdery mess! He has a different kind of mineral-clay block (the stuff they eat in nature) for a "nutritional supplement" which he surprisingly doesn't destroy like cuttlebones, he'll actually nibble off those, and they last several months.