Does your bird really need grit?
Brought to you by Lafeber Co.

Grit. It's been used by bird owners for years and can be found in almost any pet store that carries bird supplies. But is it really necessary?

Let's look at the physical structure of a bird. Birds are made for flight - lean, lightweight and muscular. To fuel the metabolism that allows it to fly, a bird needs to eat quite a bit, sometimes up to 10% of its body weight each day! In the wild, the bird eats lots of different kinds of food. Some of these foods are easy-to-digest, some aren't.

In many seed mixes, neither calcium nor phosphorous is readily abundant which creates the need for supplementation. In fortified seed mixes, it is important that the ratio of calcium/phosphorous be maintained, but because of a bird's tendency to "pick and choose" the items in a seed mix, achieving the correct ratio could be very tricky if not impossible.

The bird's digestive tract is unique among animals in that it has a gizzard. The gizzard has the ability to crush and grind various foods into a form that is rapidly digested. This allows the bird to process relatively large volumes of food each day.

Grit aids in this grinding process. The small pieces of sand and rock act as "teeth" to help the gizzard "chew" the food. Grit is vital to birds in the wild because they will eat things that are difficult to digest.

However, in captivity, a bird's diet is fairly controlled. We feed our pets seeds which are easily hulled or pellets which can be ground up easily by the bird's beak and digestive system. This controlled diet eliminates the real and purpose of grit.

Is grit then bad? Not necessarily. Nature seems to tell birds to keep a little grit in their gizzard. There is a danger, though. Birds on a deficient diet, in trying to find nutrients lacking in their food, will often overeat grit. Excessive grit can irritate or even obstruct the digestive system of the bird causing numerous problems.

In summary, a small amount of grit offered to your bird once every few weeks should not cause any problems. On the other hand, leaving a dish of grit in the cage at all times may be inviting problems. The best solution is to provide your bird with a nutritionally balanced diet that is easy-to-digest.

This bit of information was brought to you by: Lafeber Co.

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Last Revised: Tue Jul 29 18:49:08 2008 ( Damian )
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