Are you feeding your bird correctly?
Welcome back to our series on exotic animal nutrition! Around this time in January many of us are losing patience and struggling to persevere with our New Year's resolution, so we decided to cover a species that requires a lot of patience and perseverance when caring for them to give them the best life. We are of course talking about birds! Anyone who has or has previously had birds will know they can be challenging but also rewarding pets to look after. Book an appointment for your bird today if you have any concerns.
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We are going to split our birds into Parrots/Psittacines, Finches/Passeriformes and chickens and waterfowl. A lot of research into bird feed is normally carried out on chickens and as such we have far more information regarding them. We hope to cover and point out some beneficial diets for our other bird species to help you make the best choice for them.
Starting with Psittacines; which are our parrot species, in the wild, parrots eat a massive variety of plants, seeds, fruit and veg and this is impossible for us to replicate in the captive environment. Wild parrots will spend hours flying great distances to find their food, because of this high level of activity in the wild it has been determined companion birds expend energy 10-15 times less quickly than their wild cousins. The key things we should aim to replicate for our companion birds from their wild counterparts are the variety of food eaten and the time spent foraging. This is important not just for their physical health but also their mental health.
Many parrots are fed and recommended seed-based diets and while these can provide variety unfortunately, our parrots will tend to pick out the unhealthy options and this can lead to deficiencies. Because of this selective behaviour we recommend using a formulated baked diet, this contains everything the seed diet does but is blended and baked to avoid selective behaviour. Current recommendations for healthy eating habits are to offer two meals for a couple of hours a day. For good eaters, offering a well-balanced diet left to be eaten throughout the day is also acceptable. Providing plenty of enrichment options with varying difficulty can help to promote the foraging behaviour and stimulate your parrot.
The Psittacine Welfare Institute has many great resources and species-specific diets to help you make the best decision for your bird. https://psittacine.org/
Next up we have our Passeriformes. This order includes finches, canaries and songbirds among many others. Many passeriformes, particularly finches, can consume up to 30% of their body weight in food. Unlike parrots, finches and other passerines primarily eat seeds but can also eat things such as nectar, insects and in rare situations can even eat meat. Although in the wild they eat a lot of seeds we still recommend offering a formulated diet as this will prevent selective feeding.
If you already have a bird that is on a seed-based diet and are looking to convert them to a formulated diet this can be challenging. Converting your bird to a formulated diet requires a lot of patience and persistence. Harrison's bird food has advice on how to convert your parrot to their diet, there was a study carried out in 2022 that evaluated 3 different methods of diet conversion. In the study birds were split into 3 groups, one group was offered 3 different pellets and when they had a positive reaction they were rewarded. The preferred pellet was then gradually transitioned into their food dishes. Group 2 the food was alternated with the familiar food at different intervals, increasing the bird's exposure to the pellets. Finally, group 3 was given a small amount of familiar food with multiple dishes of new pellets, the new food was put in multiple areas and the old food was placed in the least favourite spot of the environment. After 2 weeks the old food was removed and only the pelleted food was left. This study found 96% of the birds converted to the new food and for the birds that didn't convert it was because of the owners not fully committing to the conversion process. This study is fantastic evidence that birds will convert to the new food using multiple methods as long as we stay consistent and work with the birds to offer the new food.
Backyard chickens are becoming increasingly popular as pets in the UK and at Apex we agree that they make fantastic pets. A lot of backyard chickens are generally rescues so can come with lots of health problems or in poor body condition, this makes it all the more important to feed them a good quality diet. Dietary and nutritional content varies for chickens based on age and their intended job, hens bred for laying eggs will require different levels of calcium and protein compared to the ones bred for meat. For today we will focus on adult layer hens as this is the most common type of chicken we see at Apex. If you have any other types of chickens and have questions regarding their diet please get in touch with one of our exotic vets for tailored advice.
Chickens require a variety of important nutritional components to their food. Protein is important in giving your chicken the energy to build her muscles body condition so she can be a healthy weight when laying her eggs. Generally 16% protein is the ideal amount in your chickens diet. If your chicken doesn't get enough protein they can stop laying and start to peck at their feathers to make up for the lack of protein in their diet. Fibre is important in helping the feed pass through the digestive tract, generally it is of little nutritional value but helping to keep the guts moving and shift food through the system is important. For our layer hens, calcium is also very important as this plays a huge role in producing and laying good quality, healthy eggs. In chickens of laying age a calcium of around 3.6-4.2% is required when preparing to lay eggs. Most commercial foods will detail how much protein, calcium and other minerals the feed contains, if you are unsure if the food is suitable then get in touch with one of the exotic vets at Apex.
There is so much more to our feathered friends diets and this is out with the scope of this informative article so keep an eye on the Apex vets socials, website and newsletter for more information. As always, you can get in touch with our exotic vets or visit https://www.apexvets.com/services/exotic-pets/ for more information.