Coming from a cold wintery area in the US all our cuttlebone was shop purchased with the birds I had growing up since no self respecting cuttlefish would have been anywhere near us outside a zoo maybe.

 

Now I am in Australia and we have cuttlefish bones washing up on shore in ample quantities. When I'm walking dogs I could easily pick up a lifetime supply for one little budgie and then some. Would some of those be safe to give or do they require any special treatment to be made safe before giving to birds? (ie let them sunbleach for a time or pop them in an oven at a certain temp to nuke any bacteria or such that might be in the sand?

Hi. I use cuttlefish that I collect on the beach for all my birds. I don't wash them but I do sunbleach them.

Yes, I have used mine, you can just wash the sand off and rinse the salt water off. But I have used them numerous times and know others that have used them for over 20 years.

Awesome! We'll be spoiled for choice then.

You are lucky I can't imagine having that much cuttlebone for free.

Hi

 

I also collect mine from the beach and once I get them home I rinse them off and place in a bucket of hot salted water for a day or two.

Once they have soaked I will just rince off again and let dry in the sun.

My birds just can't get enough of them.

I collect cuttlebone from the beach but once I brought home more than I needed and it all went green and stinky.

My neighbour collects cuttlefish for me when they go on holidays, I have a plastic bucket full at the moment. They are washed then rinsed in cold water and left to sun dry. Then I put them into the bucket for use.I have never had a problem with mine. Even better when it's free, about $1.00/$3.00 a piece to buy.

 

BUT check to see if you can legally take them from the beach as I have been told you can't in some places, same goes for shell grit from the beach.

Robyn do you know whom you'd check with? I have checked on the shire council page for the beaches where I'd usually see them and haven't been able to find anything related to the matter and google reveals nothing specific about beach collecting either. I expect it's not a query they have come up too often - just us mad bird people! lol I don't think I've ever seen a ranger either, so it'd be hard to ask them directly. They are huge though, so they must come from some very healthy cuttlefish originally... way bigger than the ones I see in the petshops and such by at least double if not triple! I'll let everyone know how I go.

cuttlefish has been collected from beaches everyware. try the back beaches, the surf areas. happy collecting.