finchmix22 wrote:If I'm supplying them with cuttlebone and crushed hardboiled eggs, does that cover the grit issue? Should I be adding the charcoal/sand or something else?
I will try and sum up the grit issue from my point of view. I hope it is helpful.
1. Cuttle bone and hardboiled eggs are not grit. They are a natural calcium supplement, and calcium, as most people will know is essential, in some form, for all birds.
2. Grit is a medium that birds use to grind up their food because the have no teeth. Once swallowed it enters the crop and acts like a grinding stone to prepare the seed for digestion. It also mixes the predigested food with benedficial bacteria already existing within the crop.
3. Grit does not always contain any calcium. Spinefex pigeons and a host of other species within Australia and the rest of the world swallow small stones and sand and pebbles and a host of other grinding material to break down their food. Ostriches, emus, cassowaries and most pigeon and dove species swallow small pebbles. They obtain calcium from other sources or exist, as some of the dessert species do, on very low levels of calcium. I use crushed oyster shells and normal sand for this purpose
Most of these dessert species are also efficient is storing and releasing calcium slowly into their system.
4. As you will know, calcium is necessary for egg production and bone development, particularly during the breeding season and, as birds cannot access it as they would in the wild from plants- minerals and wherever else, we need to provide it to them as a supplement. I dont provide water soluble calcium supplements, exept in cases of egg binding or an emergency (usually orally) because the concentrations taken in by the birds cannot be controlled. So my view that it is a hit and miss method. I provide crushed cuttle bone, egg shells (microwaved for 2 minutes) and crushed oyster shells (which also acts as a grit) for calcium supplementation.
5. Charcoal is a naturally occuring product accessed by finches in the wild for both medicinal and nesting purposes. My finches take it regularly and, apart from the carbon "mineral tonic" and impurities removal properites it has fort them, both the waxbills and Australian species use it as a significant component of their nest buildings. The painteds , for example layer it during the construction of the nest and continually replace it during the raising of chicks as a nest deoderiser. All of my waxbills use it in various quantities as do the red faced parrot finches. Ther is a view amongst some finch breeders that over supplementaion and over medication does more harm than good. Therefore I and most of the breeders I know try and keep it natural with products such as charcoal-crushed cuttlebone, oyster shells and naturally produced grit products and minimise supplementation. However we all use some supplementation, hoping our feathered friends actually consume it (and sometimes they dont!!!)
6. Finch breeding and husbandry is not an exact science and there are many differnt opinions on how to successfully look after birds. This is how I do it and have had very few problems. However other methods have the same or better success as well.
7. The supplements I use on a regular basis are iodine (mixed with charcoal) as finch diets are usually deficient in it-a water based nutrient supplement (such as nutriboost) during the breeding season 2 days per week-apple sider vinegar (as a water sanitiser and to lift the acid levels within the crop which is important for Australian finches). I also use this and a probiotic replacer such as ProBac after the worming and coccidiosis regime which I religiously do every 3 months. Of course I provide egg food-insectivor powder, biocal mineral granules and PVM powder ad lib. These I believe provide a reservoir of supplementation just in case. Apart from the egg food they are probably not essential and the birds seem to consume very little of them.. One observation is that I have never been into a finch aviary located near where I live that did not have grit and charcoal available to the birds. I also have never had a case of my birds over indulging on either grit or charcoal.
Do they eat the SAND or the oystershells ? Is it the sand that is refered to as grit, or the oystershell pieces ?
