I know it should be avoided  and you'd never give a salted snack but what about biscuits and other packaged food?

 

I found some 'healthy eating calcium oat biscuits'....low fat etc but they have about 90mg of salt per bikkie (4% human daily)....so I'm guessing the little chunk the birds get is about 5mg.  It doesnt sound like much but I don't have anything to measure it against....

Same with toast    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6...160;  and the butter....

If they are sayiing its bad for humans, what about a little green thicko (Vic x) with 0.3% of my body mass?

I'm guessing that parrot 'salt stones' are a particular type of salts for particular parrots with special diets?

 

 

You're cruising Mr!!

No, CSI Helen is stumped too lol

I did some 'quality' surfing of the net (rather than Asking Jeeves) and it seems:

1. All birds need salt in the same way we do.
I'm going to guess that the rough quantity they need is in relative proportion to us. So if the human recommendation is about 1.6g (UK) then the implied recommendation for birdy is 0.008g (8mg) salt.

2. Some wild species need "salt licks" in order to digest the type of food they eat. They don't eat that sort of food in the UK so presumably they don't need the 'salt lick'....however no doubt they are getting more than just the digestive effect of the salt lick....that means its slightly more complex for some breeds (amazons, macaws..)

3. Salt doesn't just mean table salt...I presume the Grey supplements are a Calcium salt of some sort. That side of things is too complimicated so I'll stick to table salt:

If birdy is looking for 8mg of salt a day maximum (all figures approximate):
I've adjusted the values below for a single 'chunk' or nut, the sort of thing you would give your bird as a snack or treat:


Any salted food (a crisp, a nut) ..................20mg or more (3x daily urgh) (I think we knew this!)
A little chunk of dry toast......................20mg (if they ate the whole piece)
Spoon of unsalted sunflower seeds...........1mg or less (I think this shows the background level of salt in bird seed is very low)
Apple...............................................near zero (fruit and veg are all like this)
Apple Juice (bought not squeezed)............just under 1mg (one to watch on the packaging)
Chunk of pizza...................................40mg (all ready made commercial food is VERY bad)

The main thing is we all know most of the above treat goes on the floor so it's not that bad, it's only the actual salt covered food that's bad.

I think I'm happy with my routines here but I'll aim for unsalted butter, low sodium bread etc and avoid the urge to let them have pizza crust etc

Unhelpfully they would bite off my arm for a salted crisp....

[lthough the above makes sense I'd be very happy for anyone actually qualified to correct it if necessary!!]

I would assume that with regards to 'salt' you mean sodium. Calcium salts should be irrelevant in this discussion - and it is well recognised that captive Greys and many other birds need calcium supplements.

Do you know about potassium salts Ian? We use Lo-salt at home (Pete has high blood pressure), which is approximately 2/3rds potassium and 1/3rd sodium salt.

I've seen it but I don't like lots of the modern artificial sweetners/replacements etc you get the impression sometimes that they might bring their own problems.

I'm one of those people who doesn't like taking asprins!

Is it calcium salts the birds are getting from the licks? Theres a lick block in "New Shiny Pet Shop" (for £10..) but I know it would just be chewed to dust on the first encounter.

I think salt licks are sodium. Other blocks are to supplement iodine (usually pale pinkish in colour.)