RIO Cedar Cone With Pine Nuts For Birds

RIO Cedar Cone With Pine Nuts For Birds is a whole cedar cone from Rio with pine nuts still in it, given to budgies, cockatiels and other small to medium pet birds as something to pull apart.

Key Features

• A whole cone, not a processed snack: The bird has to work the nuts out of the scales, which is the entire point of it.
• Pine nuts in the cone: Rio uses the word pignolia for them - they are the seed of the cone and they are rich and oily.
• Foraging rather than feeding: This is enrichment first and food second, and a bored caged bird needs the former more.
• Rio's claim about the drying: The brand says its drying process reduces the resin and tar content of the cone, which is the thing worth knowing about feeding a conifer cone at all.
• For small and medium birds: A budgie will take days over one; a cockatiel rather less.

Pine Nuts Are Fat, So This Is A Sometimes Thing

• Pine nuts are among the fattiest things a small bird will eat. One cone is not a problem; a cone a week for a caged budgie is.
• Treats stay under about a tenth of what a bird eats in a day. It is an easy rule and almost nobody keeps to it, which is why overweight cage birds are so common.
• Give it when you want the bird occupied - before you go out, or during a long quiet afternoon - rather than as part of the daily routine.

Using It Safely

• Watch the first one. Most birds simply pick at it, but a determined bird can get a beak wedged in a scale, and that is the one thing worth being present for.
• Take the cone out once it is stripped. A bare cone collects droppings and does nothing for the bird.
• Keep it dry. A damp cone in a warm cage will grow mould, and a cone that smells musty goes in the bin.

Good To Know

• Rio does not publish a weight for the cone, and cones vary. Ask us for a photograph with something beside it for scale if the size matters.
• Introduce anything new in a small amount and watch the droppings for a day. A sudden change of food upsets a small bird quickly.