The soil dilemma

bidiknme

Regular Member
Hello everyone!

i hope all you and ur lovely parrots are safe and happy. Today i have a question for you guys about pot soils.
So i have been trying to find new ways of enrichment for Bidik. I also asked here how to get dead giant tree braches in the house withouth getting bugs everywhere, but it was a dead end so i ended up buying two alive oil trees for bidik :)
One of them is huge and it is just outside the kitchen so while im cooking, he can watch me safely on top of his tree. He also loves to bite and rip tiny branches off the tree.
Last week i realized he was chewing volcanic stones on the pot, i got him away from them immediately. I asked the manufacturer what the stones had and he said they are bird safe but i am always very skeptical about people in my country declaring things bird safe, so i decided that i wont let Bidik near those stones again. So i covered the pot with sheets. But it was an eye sore so i decided to take all the stones out instead. So now the pot only had the plant and the soil. When Bidik saw the soil he went crazy and started playing with it. Then i though “omg, the fertilizer!” So i took him away from the pot, again. I did some research and as far as i understood it is not safe for parrots to play around plat soil cuz is has aspergillosis and anthrax etc, which are fatal to birds. So im planning to cover the soil with marbles and chewing stones for birds (i already put some as u can see in the photo). Since he loves to play around in the pot at least he will chew some calcium stones this, so win win :).
But i have a question in my mind. If he loves soil this much, it means its his instinct and he maybe needs it? So should i find a parrot safe soil for Bidik and put it in a pot, and maybe add some legume and lentil seeds so they will sprout and he will play and eat safely?
Let me know what you guys think and your experiences.
Love <3to

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That's a beautiful thing to do to enrich his life with.
I grow trays of plants for my birds I add grass and seeds plus salad stuff. They love it and make lots of mess dragging out the roots and looking for things in the soil. I change the trays regularly can't say mine have actually eaten any of the soil they are more interested in the plants growing in it eating and throwing them around.
I wouldn't use marbles in case any get chipped and shiny stuff is a magnet to birds wanting to play with it.
 
That's a beautiful thing to do to enrich his life with.
I grow trays of plants for my birds I add grass and seeds plus salad stuff. They love it and make lots of mess dragging out the roots and looking for things in the soil. I change the trays regularly can't say mine have actually eaten any of the soil they are more interested in the plants growing in it eating and throwing them around.
I wouldn't use marbles in case any get chipped and shiny stuff is a magnet to birds wanting to play with it.
What do you use as soil? Is it something like an organic compost? Or sterilised garden soil? Dora would love to rummage through a tray or pot with growing plants.
 
What do you use as soil? Is it something like an organic compost? Or sterilised garden soil? Dora would love to rummage through a tray or pot with growing plants.

i dont actually know whats in the soil to be honest. It was put in by people i bought the tree from. I think there is at least 2types in the pot, i realised that while i was cleaning out the volcanic stones. One is drier and has a terracota shade. The other is very smooshy and disgusting and reminds me of a cow dropping 😆. I assumed the latter one was fertilizer.
 
That's a beautiful thing to do to enrich his life with.
I grow trays of plants for my birds I add grass and seeds plus salad stuff. They love it and make lots of mess dragging out the roots and looking for things in the soil. I change the trays regularly can't say mine have actually eaten any of the soil they are more interested in the plants growing in it eating and throwing them around.
I wouldn't use marbles in case any get chipped and shiny stuff is a magnet to birds wanting to play with it.

What kinc of soil do use use for that?
 
I use bagged soil, it's called top soil from the garden centre which doesn't have fertiliser or a drainage component in it.
You can treat it first by using scalding not water to kill any spores so it hasn't got aspergilliosis spores in it.

By the way did he get rid of the zipper parts?
 
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