Eating Timothy Hay?

[MiaCarter]

I've got a little box filled with timothy hay. My Cockatiels enjoy playing in there, rooting around and chewing on the strands of hay.

This morning I noticed that Abby is actually biting off little bits and eating them.
What do you make of that??

I know that timothy hay is lovely for guinea pigs and rabbits, but not sure of how good it is for cockatiels. She seems to be eating tiny bits, rather than entire strands. So I don't think there's a big blockage risk. No more than, say, herb salad or the health greens (alfalfa and parsley).

I mean, she's had access to the timothy hay for a couple weeks now and I suspect she's probably been eating it all along and she's still kicking. So it's obviously not acutely terrible, but if it's not good for her, then we may want to limit it or switch to something like Alfalfa, which I know is bird-friendly.

Thoughts?

[steve]

MiaCarter, roughage maybe?

Steve

[MiaCarter]

steve - Perhaps!

What's curious is that she seems to ignore the herb salad and health greens. And she won't eat the kale or fresh parsley (though she will play with it! She's busy playing with it right now, in fact!)

Something about that hay that just appeals to her!

Her poops are totally normal, so it doesn't seem to cause any upset. But perhaps something negative in the long term?

[KarenB]

Are you sure she is eating it? Most hookbills just enjoy chewing on things and don't necessarily eat it. They make foraging toys with that type of stuff in it specifically for this purpose.

[Rox]

It's perfectly safe for them I would give it to the budgies and they would munch their way through it. Not sure how much they actually ate but it sure made a huge mess, lol!

[ROOKIEBREEDER]

I used to have a pair of cockatiels and they loved to chew so i gave them a couple pieces of soft wood or something they can rip apart that is safe.But I would not risk any sort of blockage issue on something i could prevent.

[lovezebs]

MiaCarter

If I recall, hay is quite healthy for birds. All of my guys enjoy it, and will eat some of the soft pulverized stuff from the bottom of the bag without any harm whatsoever. It does tend to get very, very messy though .

~Elana~

[MiaCarter]

lovezebs - That's exactly what Abby seems to be eating.
She chews and plays with the bigger pieces, but the smaller bits go into her beak and they don't come out, so I'm quite certain she is eating them.

Yes, they definitely make a huge mess!
I've got a large shoebox on its side, with the box cover as the "floor" and I put the hay in there.

I was actually quite clever, as I put the hay box on top of a zebra finch cage, so while some ends up on the floor, most ends up inside the cage below (which is just fine with the zebras! They love playing with it too!) So everyone wins.

ROOKIEBREEDER - Yeah, Abby is quite an enthusiastic chewer!
My other cockatiel Hunter wasn't a big chewer originally, but Abby's affinity has rubbed off on her! LOL

I've had to get very creative with chew toys!

We've got cardboard flowers, tons of hemp rope-and-wood chew toys, some store-bought wicker and corn husk toys, feather dusters and Hunter has taken to eating one of my wicker baskets! LOL
Other ideas are always welcome!