New owner of Indian ringneck

Let us know a little about yourself! Tell us about your birds and why you are here.

Moderator: Mods

Post Reply
Nettiep32
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2016 3:13 pm

New owner of Indian ringneck

Post by Nettiep32 »

Hello, my name is ANNETTE. I have just become the owner of an Indian ringneck and although I have owned cockatiels in the past, I fell in love with the Indian ringneck and have introduced him/her to our home. We think he/she is around 4 months old, not hand reared so very frightened when you approach the cage. I am giving him space and after 4 days, has finally found his voice. I have joined this forum to help me to help Errol to settle in by getting as much information as possible, although I have already performed lots of research about IRN.
There is one issue that I have come across regarding putting grit in the cage! One site says not to use it, whilst another says to make it available. I want do right by Errol and wonder what other members think!
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: New owner of Indian ringneck

Post by MissK »

Hi. I personally skip the grit. It's my understanding that, in the past, birds were given grit to aid their digestion. It seems to turn out that this was because some birds were found to have grit in their guts, so people thought they must need it. In time the theory developed that birds who eat whole seeds, without removing the outer shell, use grit in their magical insides to grind those seeds apart. I would be completely unsurprised to find the entire grit industry was built around the needs of chickens and mistakenly applied to all the caged pet birds we keep.

My mother will go to her grave believing her beloved Canaries need the grit she so tenderly prefers to provide for them. Anyone who has every cleaned up after a Canary knows that they remove their seeds from the hull before eating. So do Budgies, in case you were interested...... If you are feeding seeds to your Ringneck, go ahead and conduct a simple test: If you can blow off chaff from the seed dish at the end of the day, your bird is hulling his seeds and probably doesn't ever need grit.

There is a more serious side to the grit issue, and it is this: Sometimes birds eat things that aren't food. If your bird eats a pile of grit it could have some serious, possibly fatal, consequences. I would recommend you chat with your vet and ask if they have ever dealt with a pet bird whose guts were impacted with grit. It's worth mentioning that vets are people too, and you may have one who (like my mom) swears by grit, or you might have one who's lost a bird or two to a gut full of foreign objects. So talk to your vet, and run the conversation through your own reality filter.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on getting your bird.
-MissK
Post Reply