Cuttle bone

[Marnie]

Do Senegals need a cuttle bone?
or is it across the board that all birds need a cuttle bone?

Joan & Marnie

[Marnie]

What? no body knows?
or everybody knows except me?
what gives?

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Sometimes it takes a while for people to get around to reading!

I have a cuttlebone in my GCCs cage. I'm still kind of a newbie and I don't know about Senegals specifically, but my understanding was that for most parrots they can be a good beak conditioner and provide some mineral supplementation. And if you put it in a plastic holder like I did, boinging it so it rattles against the cage is somewhat entertaining....

[Marnie]

thank you, i have an extra one from the keets. i'll put it in tonight since it can't hurt.
wonder what she'll think of it? she is always a littl leary of new stuff

[skthurley]

I don't have one in my Sennie's cage purely cause I keep forgetting to toss one in.

As mentioned, at the very least, cuttle bones are fun chew toys to help keep beaks conditioned

[Kim S]

Sennies are african parrots and they are known to be prone to calcium shortage. So any aditional calcium source sounds good to me.

On the other hand (and I am sorry Entranced for not having any proof of this), a lot of cockatielbreeders I know take the cuttlebones away during breeding time, or dont give them at al. Since they are the skeleton of sea animals there's a lot of salt in them, making the birds drink a lot more than they normaly would. When breeding this can cause the birds to feed the chicks only water, thus getting too little nutricients into the young ones.

Personally I have them in every cage and aviary I own, except during breeding. I have had one pair that fed their young only water. Two of the three died before I knew what was going on and could intervene.

[TheNzJessie]

not sure about sennies but i dont see the harm in one...my lorikeet has one and my budgie they both benefit from one

[Marnie]

well i stuck it in there and she has completely ignored it so far. we'll see how long it takes before she takes a nibble.

[Kim S]

Sometimes they ignore it for weeks untill they get it into their heads and demolish it in five minutes

[martins99]

Yes, I would say yes.

It provides their body with calcium and helps them with beak-work.

Here is why cuttlebone for parakeets is important: https://ecopetlife.com/cuttlebone-for-parakeets/