My cockatiel is eating all of the bark off of his perches, they are from trees outside (not sure what type of trees as it came with the cage) and he is getting little pieces of wood on his face, will he be ok?
He is getting them in his mouth and chewing on them and then dropping them, I got my cage off gumtree that’s why the perches are tree bark but I will show a pic!Eating the pieces or just removing the bark? Both my birds strip the bark off the bark covered perches I give them. Your perches with bark on them came with the cage? Usually they only supply dowel perches with new cages, what kind of perches do you have? A pic might be helpful.
Agreed. The type of wood might be a problem.Personally I would not be comfortable using perches someone random sourced as they may not be made from safe wood. I would also be concerned about the perches possibly being previously used by another bird who may potentially be unwell- just not a chance I would take with my birds.
As far as the bark being picked at played with and dropped, everything should be just fine as long as you know he is dropping the bits. Not many birds have pica but some do so it is always worth keeping a check on how your bird plays with anything they can put in their beak. Most birds do the pick and play before dropping the bits.
So basically- my biggest concern with Winnie chewing these perches is that you have no idea exactly what tree the branches came from nor if they were used by a sick a bird before you got them, that is much more of a concern to me than Winnie simply picking the bark off the perches.
Will do! Thanks for the advice, I hope he hasn’t been eating itKeep an eye on her poop for awhile - in fact, do a little digging around in her poop for a week or two to see if you see any wood. My female GW is one who had pica. ugh.
Thank you!Agreed. The type of wood might be a problem.
As far as the chewing goes that is normal behavior. Birds naturally chew on things especially bark off of perches.