Lisa Shea Forums Parakeets Non-Budgie Pets and Animals My lovebird likes to eat dirt...?

Why does my lovebird like to eat dirt from flower pots? Every time he comes out of his cage he heads directly to the flower pots and chews dirt...o_0 What's going on?
Even if I shoo him away he keeps on flying back and pecks at the dirt. Thanks!

i had a keet years ago like that ...but years n years ago we didnt know what we do now ...

your bird is lacking in some sort of mineral...and is seeking it thru the dirt...

do you have a mineral block in your cage a NON FLAVORED mineral block???

if not get one and make sure you also have a cuttle bone too....place them right near a perch

Well, I am no bird expert but I can share a dirt eating story with you.

One year we had an extremely wet spring and my horses were eating dirt. It is very bad for horses to eat dirt and I was trying to figure out what was going on. I was at the local feed store and told the old horse expert at the store about the dirt and he knew exactly what it was.

The rain had leached all of the dicalcium phosphates out of the grass and sent it into the soil and the horses were looking for it so they were eating dirt.

Since he made mineral and vitamin supplements all the time for cattle people he gave me a pound of the dicalcium phosphate and told me to free feed it to the horses until the grass got its source of dicalcium phospate back.

They ate the whole pound right away and stopped eating dirt.

My guess is that your bird is missing something and is looking for it in the dirt. I do not know what a bird would be looking for but I hope others can and know what to tell you.

I guess until I figured it out, I would get all the plants out of your birds area so he/she doesn't get sick from the dirt or eat particles that can cause tummy problems.

Good luck, I am very curious about this too.

I've also come to a hypothesis (being formal here LOL). I hypothesize that your lovebird has been removed from one of his diets for some time. Did you forget to give him his veggies? That could be it! Its his nature instincts, when eating grass in the desert, and the grass runs out he might start eating the dirt. OR maybe it looks like hes eating dirt but hes actually foraging for seeds?? Anyway tessboss and illusive's replies make alot sense. Another hypothesize is that he might find playing in the dirt fun and its his new playmate now!

okay thanks you guys! I'll add more veggies in his cage (probably not looking for minerals since he already has a cuttlebone)!

Need a mineral block too, may be the problem. May need a trace mineral found in the natural mineral blocks. They are cheap I would get one.

Sounds to me like he is lacking minerals in his diet also. Like tess said, he won't find those minerals in only a cuttlebone. Those are calcium. Try getting an uncolored/unflavored mineral block. I say uncolored/unflavored because artificial coloring is bad for birds.

I wouldn't only worry about the dirt in the flower pots...have you checked to make sure that whatever houseplants you have are safe for lovebirds? Some plants are toxic.

When you see him in the pots, don't just shoo him away, redirect his attention to something else, like his toys to play with.
You might even place something over the dirt in the pots if possible so he can't get to the dirt.

ditto to the above a mineral block is just that minerals and some calcium however there are some that will also tell you that the cuttle bone doesnt really utilize much of the calcium in the bird as it eats it ..i think thats why some birds wont touch it in reality...and will opt for a mineral block instead once they figure out what that white thing is...again tho they wont eat it every day but they do sense when they need that little extra something.

a powdered calcium is actually better than cuttle bones...from that they get more calcium and in some pet stores you can find crushed oyster shell powder as many pets need calcium if you dont find it in the bird area ask for it as sometimes its in the reptile area.