RIO Honey & Nuts Sticks For Parakeets - 2 x 75 g

RIO Honey & Nuts Sticks For Parakeets - 2 x 75 g is a pack of two honey and nuts treat sticks from Rio for parakeets, 2 x 75 g in the pack.

Key Features

• Two sticks in the pack: 2 x 75 g in total, so there is one to give now and one to keep for later.
• Nuts with honey: Nuts bring fat and honey brings sugar, which makes this the richest stick in the parakeet range.
• 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 parakeets: Made for these birds rather than for the bird shelf in general.

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.

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.
• 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

• The richest of these, so the one for an active bird in small amounts and the wrong one for a cockatiel that is already heavy.
• A 75 g stick is a lot of treat for one cockatiel. Breaking it in half and keeping the rest sealed is the sensible way to use it.
• 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.