Charcoal ~ shelf life?

[L in Ontario]

Grit (strictly speaking) is for budgies (as I understand it) and Oyster Shell grit is for finches and Canaries.

Grit is not the same as Oyster Shell grit (I think).

[cindy]

Since finches hull their seed they do not need gravel...some people call it grit. I just use oystershell or the Higgins blue mineral mix.

[L in Ontario]

Right you are Cindy, gravel is the word I was looking for. "Gravel" is for budgies. Grit is for finches.

[CandoAviary]

There has been a long controversy about grit.... though grit covers a lot of materials. It is thought that if birds shell their seeds then the muscles of the gizzard are strong enough to crush the seed. Birds like chickens that eat the seed whole will need sand to grind the hull of the seed up. However the sand also passes from the gizzard... If it didn't you sure wouldn't be eating fried chicken gizzards...Yum, yum
However all birds in the wild do consume some sand. They just don't sit around like a bored cage bird and gorge themselves on it

The grit I am referring to is the ABBA mix, the ingredients are listed below. The shells can be crushed and digested without problems. The sea sand has been consumed by seed eating birds in the wild since the beginning of time. The problem with caged birds is they can only eat what is offered to them by their keepers. Sometimes birds are lacking in minerals and if provided with sand may gorge themselves in the attempt of rectifying the mineral shortage. Anything that they consume in large quanities can cause impaction. The reason I recommend this mix to my customers is because it is a pretty complete mineral product. It also contains vitamin D3 so that the bird can actually utilize the calcium it is intaking.
I have been using this product for 20 years...yes, it was one of the first on the market that has been copied by many. I have super healthy birds, no balding, very rarely eggbinding problems, no beak or bone fractures, good muscle developement, etc.

ABBA MINERAL ESSENTIAL MINERAL GRIT FOR ALL SPECIES OF SEED-EATING BIRDS

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS:

CALCIUM (MAX) – 34% (MIN) – 31%; DISCALCIUM PHOSPHATE (PHOSPHOROUS) (MIN) – 46%; SALT (MAX) – 3.04% (MIN) – 2.04%

Ingredients: Sterilized Oyster Shell, Mollusk Shell, Sterilized Egg Shell, Sea Sand, Charcoal, Refined Bone Meal, Calcium Propionate, Salt, Potassium Iodide, Iron Oxide, Ferrous Carbonate, Copper Sulfate, Copper Oxide, Nickel Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Magnesium Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Periodate, Cobalt Carbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Vitamin D3 Artificial and natural coloring and flavor.

I also use eggshells and Morning Bird's trace minerals Trace minerals also contain CARBON.
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS:
TRACE MINERALS POWDER is an all-natural colloidal silicate, montmorillonite powdered clay, containing 63 non-swelling, non-polluting, non-toxic, trace minerals. Minerals present are as oxide elements. TRACE MINERALS POWDER is a natural product and as such the actual analysis may vary some, however each serving contains:
Aluminum, Arsenic, Barium, Beryllium, Bismuth, Boron, Bromine, Cadmium, Calcium, Carbon, Cerium, Cesium, Chlorine, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, Dysprosium, Erbium, Europium, Fluorine, Gadolinium, Gallium, Gold, Hafnium, Holmium, Iodine, Iron, Lanthanum, Lead, Lithium, Lutetium, Magnesium, Manganese, Molybdenum, Neodymium, Nickel, Niobium, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Praseodymium, Rubidium, Samarium, Scandium, Selenium, Silicon, Silver, Sodium, Strontium, Sulfur, Tantalum, Terbium, Thallium, Thorium, Thulium, Tin, Titanium, Tungsten , Uranium, Vanadium, Ytterbium, Yttrium Zinc, Zirconium.

[CandoAviary]

Budgies and all other parakeets,parrots, like finches shell their seed before eating. It is the quail and other fowl that consume the seed whole without shelling first.

[cindy]

if you want to get powdered oystershell and larger packages of the Abba and Higgins Blue Mineral Grit, I get mine in a 5 lb bag from Bird Supply of NH

https://www.birdsupplynh.com/catalog/in ... 4d8457b0ff

I specifically asked my avian vet about gravel for finches...they do not need it...by gravel I mean the stuff that looks like tiny pieces of pebbles.

Hartz makes it...I usually see it at WalMart and the grocery store.

[Ursula]

My birds have a dish of bird charcoal free choice all the time (http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/product_charcoal.php). I got it when I got my gouldians, and they like it. Sometimes they don't eat any for weeks or even months, and then they eat more. I think they know when they need it.

By the way: When I was a kid (in Europe) we got charcoal tablets when we had an upset stomach or digestion. They were horrible and I hated them, but I guess they helped. My mother bought them in the pharmacy and not just some store...

[cindy]

They also use it in hospitals, when someone overdoses the often use charcoal to help remove the toxins (from pills) they overdosed on.

[L in Ontario]

My birds have a dish of bird charcoal free choice all the time (http://www.ladygouldianfinch.com/product_charcoal.php). I got it when I got my gouldians, and they like it. Sometimes they don't eat any for weeks or even months, and then they eat more. I think they know when they need it.

Exactly - me too.

[Martie]

I, too, am on the charcoal bandwagon! All my flights have a constant supply of charcoal, oyster shell, ABBA mineral grit and cuttle bones hung on the cage. After experimenting a lot, I found that although charcoal and oyster shell are in the ABBA minerals, my birds often want charcoal or oyster shell alone.

I don't know why they want/need these, but only that they do - so as always, I am there to serve them! LOL

[DanteD716]

there is no expiration on the bag. They use charcoal filters in fish tanks, the water passes though it...maybe the pet grade is different from the other grade?!?!?!?

Well if it is I have many packets of fish charcoal unopened, I should try it if it is safe? Is it the same charcoal? I'll send you a packet during the egg exchange Cindy

[cindy]

I would use the once just for birds Dante...not sure about the fish tank kind. I got mine from Tiffany (nixity) it is a very fine powder.

[DanteD716]

I must order some then! Mine love cuttlebone but ignore abba mineral grit mostly, hopefully they like this stuff

[cindy]

mix a little in with grated cuttlebone, grated mineral block and powdered oystershell (5 lbs from Bird supply of NH), You can try putting the ABBa mineral grit in the coffee grinder, you waste less that way.

[nixity]

I'm super confused and I think perhaps others might be confused as well.. So I would just like to clarify: I do not sell Herb Salad with Charcoal mixed in.

I sell Herb Salad, and I sell Finely Crushed Charcoal as a supplement separately.
I buy my Herb Salad direct from Twin Beaks and I get it pre-packaged, which means, Cathy packages it, seals it, and stamps it and sends it to me. The Egg Shell I buy wholesale by bulk and package myself because it isn't as messy as the Herb Salad so it's not as much of a pain to repackage in my own bags.

Did I just send you a sample of the Charcoal or perhaps did you buy a 3oz size of the Charcoal along with the Herb Salad??

In regards to the question of why it's offered to the birds - yes, there is the benefit of removing toxins if that's the question, but it also sweetens the gut and aids in digestion in SMALL quantities. I never recommend it to be any more than 5% of any soluble grit mixture (eggshell, oyster shell, mineral grit, etc.) and I never offer it free choice on it's own because I have found that some (actually, many) will gorge on it if offered in this manner.