Last Updated on by Mitch Rezman
The actual Quora question read:
Is it okay for lovebirds to chew and swallow bits of clear paper?
The only ink it has is the one that lines the paper.
Some answers from the experts on Quora
Chewing, use caution. I would personally recommend using copy paper instead but as long as your bird isn’t showing any signs of sickness, you should be fine…………
I definitely don’t recommend line paper at all but I do recommend copy paper. My lovebirds love it. But does not swallow it just tears it off and throws it on the ground. It keeps my bird occupied…..
The best IMHO
Uh, NO! If they are chewing and swallowing paper, REMOVE access to the paper. Would it be good to eat wood, do you think? That is what paper is made of……
Read the whole lovebird
chewing paper thread on Quora
Allow me to provide an accurate answer.
Since 1986 it’s been illegal (at the federal level) to use lead in ink making all printed paper safe for infants thus our birds.
It was the Using Chopped Newspaper for Animal Bedding study with farm animals and newsprint.
That said certain newspaper ink should be ingested by no one.
If it smears at all do not use it around birds.
Crinkled gift paper, tissue stuffed in egg create there are many ways to offer paper – none bad.
You can buy foraging boxes stuffed with paper for birds.
If a lovebird shreds paper by making long lines (see video above) then tucks it under her wings it’s a female.
Male lovebirds make confetti from paper.
Wood is fine and should be encouraged.
The chewing of wood by a bird is called “foraging”,
When birds appear to be chewing wood they are working from 120,000,000 years of instinctual expectations seeking protein, think bugs, worms, and so forth.
Items move into the crop from the esophagus for 4 – 6 hours then into the first stomach a glandular portion known as the proventriculus.
This is a survival technique.
As humans when we eat a lot, we feel “full.”
Birds store food in their crop so if they sense danger, they can regurgitate the stored food and will poop as well for a faster-flighted getaway
Hydrochloric acid, mucus, and a digestive enzyme, pepsin, are secreted by specialized cells in the proventriculus.
The second part of the stomach, the gizzard, grinds the food into smaller pieces for final digestion in the small intestine.
I hope that clears things up.
MitchR
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