RIO Vitamin C Sticks For Budgies & Exotic Birds - 2 x 40 g

RIO Vitamin C Sticks For Budgies & Exotic Birds - 2 x 40 g is a pack of two vitamin C treat sticks from Rio for budgies and exotic birds, 2 x 40 g in the pack.

Key Features

• Two sticks in the pack: 2 x 40 g in total, so there is one to give now and one to keep for later.
• Orange, elderberry, cranberry and hibiscus: Rio's own ingredient list for this one, chosen for fruit that is naturally high in vitamin C.
• On a hard beech rod: Which is the part the bird works at once the coating is gone - see Good To Know.
• Oven-baked: Rio states it is oven-baked with a gentle process.
• For budgies and exotic birds: Made for these birds rather than for the bird shelf in general.
• A removable holder in the pack: Which lets you fix the stick at a height that suits your bird and your cage.

How Much Of One, And How Often

• A stick is a treat. The usual guide is that treats stay under about a tenth of what a bird eats in a day, and a stick is very easy to overshoot.
• Give one stick at a time, not the pack. Clip it in, let the bird work at it for a day or two, then take it out and leave a gap before the next one.
• Clip it high enough that the bird has to climb and reach. A stick lying on the cage floor gets finished in one sitting and gets fouled.
• Read it as a sweet. Honey and dried fruit are sugar, and a bird that fills up on sticks eats less of its actual food.
• Put a number on it: a budgie weighs around 35 g, so a single 40 g stick is more than its own body weight in cereal and sugar. That is the scale of thing you are clipping into the cage.

The Rod, And When To Take It Out

• Rio describes the rod as helping wear the beak down. Chewing is good for a bird and it is good enrichment, but a beak that is actually overgrown is a sign for a vet to look at rather than something a treat stick fixes.
• In budgies specifically, a beak that is genuinely overgrown often points to liver trouble or to scaly face mite, so that is a vet visit rather than a chew toy.
• Take the bare rod out once the coating has gone. There is nothing left on it worth having and it just collects droppings.
• If your bird ignores the stick entirely, take it out rather than leaving it. An untouched treat in a cage is just somewhere for droppings to land.

Good To Know

• Birds make their own vitamin C, unlike people, so read this as a fruit stick with a name rather than as a supplement. If you want to correct a real deficiency, that is a conversation with a vet.
• Birds are curious about anything citrus-scented, which makes this one of the easier sticks to interest a reluctant bird in.
• Humidity softens these. A stick that has gone bendy, smells musty or shows any mould goes in the bin rather than in the cage - keep the pack sealed and out of the kitchen.
• Introduce a new treat in a small piece and watch the droppings for a day. Any sudden change of food can upset a bird.