I can't even remember if I gave my budgies grit or not... The last one passed away about 11 years ago and I think that giving grit was part and parcel of budgie care "way back then."

When I was researching lovies before bringing home Beetle, the general consensus was that grit was not necessary to aid in digestion and if anything, it was harmful as overconsumption could lead to impaction. I never gave him grit (or ground oyster, for that matter). I was always hesitant to do so.

I'd imagine that in the wild, budgies to consume a fair amount of sand as they're foraging or drinking water, don't you think? Are their any studies that document them consuming sand in the wild?

That's why I only offer the grit once a month and when I do I only let them eat if for about a couple of minutes.

I'm sure they eat gravel/grit in the wild. From what I've seen with this little experiment, the need for grit is innately programmed in their brains. Why else would they go crazy to eat it if they had never ever seen it before in their life?

Mine always get grit, and they never eat too much of it (they might do that with sand though). But I used to have a budgie once which did not eat enough grit and the avian-specialized vet was quite concerned about it because on the X-ray photograph one could clearly see that there was hardly any grit in the muscle stomach. She told me that is is really important for the digestion.
I have also seen X-ray photographs of wild birds (at one of my bird-specialized vets who treats wild birds as well) which always have quite some grit in their muscle stomach.
And also I already adopted budgies which had never before gotten any grit in their lives and those were extremely keen on eating grit when they first came here (even though they could not have known what grit was).

Have you read the article that's linked in this post?

LINK: <Article> Grit

Superbudgie & Karen ... good info, thanks!

I'm definitely back in the "give them a small amount" of grit about once a month arena. I definitely think it does more good than harm.

I plan to try giving my boys some grit soon - hopefully I can get out and buy some this weekend.

Thanks everyone & thanks Karen for sending me back to that article.
I think I too will get some & see what the lads do - but I think I'll only offer a modest amount, just in case.

This should be interesting. Please report back on how they reacted when they first see the grit. I offered the grit to Pogo and Ziggy in a little treat dish and just held it in front of them ... both just started eating it almost instantly, even though they have never seen it before.

The other day when I gave them a little bit, they were almost fighting over the grit. They ate it for a couple of minutes and that was all I allowed. I do this about once a month so they get what they need and don't over eat the grit.

Today I picked up some Budgie Gravel (Hagen) and the box says it has oyster shells in it too. Very small and looks clean - I did see some bottles of grit that looked like fairly large (and kinda dusty) pebbles that were marked for budgies but I wasn't about to get anything that looked like that.

So this evening I first sprinkled a small amount in my open hand. I made sure all birds were in the same room so that they could observe. I offered my hand to Jerry (he's always my taste-tester ) - he leaned in and observed it. He tried 2 bites but was not very enthused. After the two bites he was uninterested. I offered it to Winston next and he wasn't even interested, he looked at it briefly and then flew away. I then offered it to Lulu and she ate 1 bite and then was not interested.

I also put it on a little plate to see if presentation made a difference. No one at any off the plate. I've never claimed that my birds were "normal" I'll offer it to them again in a few weeks though and see if they take interest then.

I bought some Hartz Gravel 'n Grit: Gravel, Calcium Carbonate, & Sorbolite Clay. It had a Budgie photo on the cover so my husband was more comfortable with it over the other type they had.

The other one was a 'No Name' product - this grocery store has plenty of No Name stuff [don't know if you guys have that] I was kind of leaning towards it - it had finches on it. It was Oyster Shell & Charcoal.

I was working today so I can't be sure they tried it. They didn't give it any attention when I offered it - not looking like Millet so it wasn't too interesting I guess.


I just got home & the lads have been very excited. This must be what Sarah [et al] goes thru every day. Rio was trembling & has been on my head or shoulder ever since - I think he missed me. Same goes for Laker who is also a tad jealous of any attention Rio gets.

I offered the grit again tonight, but no takers.