RIO Mineral Stick For Birds

RIO Mineral Stick For Birds is a mineral block on a stick from Rio that fixes to the cage bars, giving pet birds calcium and minerals to chip at.

Key Features

• Calcium and minerals in a hard block: The same job as a cuttlebone, in a form that lasts longer and makes less mess.
• A holder in the pack: Rio states the fitting works with cage types generally, so it goes in without improvising.
• Firm enough to be work: Which is the point: a bird that has to chip at something is a bird with something to do.
• Several components in the block: Rio's description, and the reason a bird keeps coming back to it rather than finishing it in a day.

Why A Cage Bird Needs A Mineral Source

• Seed is short of calcium, and calcium shortage in a bird is slow and serious - weak bones, thin eggshells, and in laying hens an egg that will not pass.
• A block or a cuttlebone is the cheapest useful thing you can add to a seed diet. Most keepers offer one permanently and let the bird decide.
• Calcium needs vitamin D to be used, and a bird indoors behind glass makes none of its own. If yours never goes outside, ask us about lighting or a supplement as well.

A Block Or A Cuttlebone

• A block lasts longer, holds its shape and is tidier in the cage. A cuttlebone is softer, which smaller birds find easier to get into.
• Plenty of keepers offer both and let the bird use whichever it prefers. There is no need to choose.
• Mount it away from under a perch so droppings do not land on it, and replace it when it is soiled rather than cleaning it.

Good To Know

• Rio says the firm texture helps with beak condition, which is reasonable - though a beak that is genuinely overgrown needs a vet rather than a harder block.
• If a bird shows no interest at all, move it. Position is usually the problem rather than the block.
• If a bird is actually unwell - quiet, fluffed up, sitting on the cage floor or not eating - that is a vet the same day. Birds hide illness until they cannot, and by the time it shows there is not much time.