How many proteins do you think there are?
1? 20? Over 600?
There are over 600 proteins but all are derived from 20 Amino acids. Some are
synthesised within the body and some are derived from diet. At this stage in
time no one in the world knows which amino acids should be provided in the diet
of seed eating birds. The current solution is to ensure you provide a diet which
contains ALL amino acids. This is most easily by supplying a complete supplement
soft food which contains all nutritional requirements or to supply a wide range
of foods.
We all think we know quite a bit about vitamins. But do we know which vitamins
and how much to give seed eating birds?
Scientists are discovering that some seed eating birds which are adapted to
living in arid zones have the ability to store vitamins A, D and E for periods
as long as 6 months.Toxicity levels are quickly reached when fed on a diet rich
in multivitamins and quickly lead to death through hypovitaminosis. Many of
the finches we keep are adapted to arid habitats and probably fall into the
above category. It is important then NEVER to supply multivitamins in the water.
This gives the bird no choice and forces them to potentially overdose.
The solution is to provide choice. Supplying natural sources of vitamins is the safest, through the supply of green plants such as clover, chickweed, etc. Alternatively a soft food supplement containing all the vitamins may be provided as birds will usually only eat as much as their body requires.
How many carotenes do you think there are?
1? 20? Over 600?
Once again a lot more than what you probably thought, 600+ ! And you probably
thought they were used to put the colour in feathers and perhaps to improve
night vision! Carotenes have a multitude of functions within the body, but perhaps
the most important to the aviculturalist is that carotenoids play an important
part in bringing the birds into breeding condition. And yes ...... almost as
a by-product, they do also play a part in colour in some birds.
Solution – ensure you provide a diet as rich in caroteins as you can.
Green foods like red clover are good and using a soft food which contains spirulina
and other carotenoid sources is one of the easiest ways.
Do your birds suffer from egg binding?
If the answer is yes, you are probably overdosing on calcium.
The absolute worst thing you can do is to add calcium to the drinking water
(or any other supplement if it comes to that). Birds will self regulate their
diet if you give them the chance and putting additives in their water removes
that choice.Over dosing on calcium with lead to lesions of the liver and eventually
death. The absorption of calcium is more complex than we realise. It is important
that it is supplied at a ratio of 2 parts calcium to 1 part phosphorus (a few
other trace minerals too). If there is an imbalance in this ratio your birds
with not be able to absorb the calcium. To absorb the calcium, birds also need
vitamin D3. This can be provided by exposure to 1⁄2 hour of sunlight per
day or through the provision of an appropriate vitamin supplement or a complete
soft food..
[Please read the paragraph on hypervitaminosis A bit of D3 supplement is good,
an overdose is bad.]
Solution – PROVIDE CHOICE. Put plain grit in one dish (for use as teeth
to grind the food in the gizzard) and supply a dish of NATURAL calcium/phosphorus
source in another. This can be crushed, baked egg shell, crushed oyster shell,
or sea shells and cuttle fish bone. This will automatically ensure the correct
ratio of calcium to phosphorus and also the trace minerals which I have not
detailed. Vitamin D3 can be supplied naturally by access to unfiltered sunlight,
i.e. not through glass or clear plastic, by providing a soft food supplement
which contains vitamin D3 and also probably by the use of special lights which
claim to simulate sunlight. But remember – NO ADDITIVES IN THE WATER.
Egg Shell should also be given (2.5mins in the Microwave set to normal or baked
in a hot oven to eliminate the risk of salmonella).
We all know we should provide proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and mineral,
but what about lipids, flavenoids, trace metals, etc, etc.
In the wild our birds eat a far wider range of food than we give them. A zebra
finch, which most aviculturist treat as needing a simple diet are recorded as
eating over 50 different items during the seasonal changes of the year. An eastern
rosella was recorded eating 80 different items in a day! Most finches in the
wild eat insects, pollen, flower heads, herbs, algae, green shoots as well as
a wide variety of seeds. The truth is we do not have a clue which is the correct
diet for our birds. At this stage in time there has been no nutritional research
done on finches so we are working on guess work and derivatives of the poultry
industry.
Solution – Provide a wide variety and provide choice. The birds will regulate
their own diet and eat what their body needs given the opportunity.
We have somewhere sub of 2000 finches in the research facility. These range through Black Hooded Red Siskings and Peters Thrimpots, Blue and Red faced Parrot Finches and of course loads of Gouldians.
The SOFT FOOD [supplement] mix we use is as follows:
2kg white millet frozen green milk seed
1 kg red millet frozen green milk seed
1⁄2 kg Siberian millet frozen green milk seed
250g white lipid/herb seeds, eg white lettuce (added dry)
250g black lipid/herb seeds eg black lettuce, myer (added dry)
1kg MIKE FIDLER COMPLETE SOFT FOOD
500g blended, frozen mixed vegetables
5g probiotic
We pre-mix the above in a batch and fill the freezer.
The soft food is fed frozen every morning. There is no need to defrost it. It
is safe to leave for 24hrs in hot and humid climates.
The dry SEED MIX we use is as follows:
Red panicum millet
White millet
Siberian millet
Canary
Sirosa Phlarosis
Silk Sorghum
Signal Grass
Rye Grass
The fresh GREENS we feed includes:
Freshly grown red clover that we grow on a hydroponic system and feed it to all birds. Red clover is rich in isoflavones, minerals, some amino acids and carotenoids and is reputed to have a range of medicinal properties. We also feed chickweed in season.
We treat for all of the above in one cocktail dose
5ml Moxidectin [contains toltrezurine]
3ml Baycox
1L water
All mixed together and used to replace the drinking water for 1 complete day.We
repeat the dose quarterly.
Please Note - no warranty of any kind is either given or implied by the above
treatment. It is purely a statement of what we use.
For those birds which require it (not Gouldians) we supply the following:
Buss fly maggots
Termites