One of the things I try to be consistent about with my birds is making sure they are eating the right foods and receiving plenty of variation in their diets. Animal nutrition is not necessarily an intuitive part of pet ownership. Many bird owners may not understand what they're feathery little friend naturally eats in the wild, how it should be adjusted for captive birds, or how the energy from that food gets used in either case.
.jpg)
Take wild and feral doves for example. Doves spend a good portion of their day flying from one foraging spot to another. You often see them crowded around city parks, posturing, cooing and pecking at the ground in search of food. What you probably aren't thinking about as your contemplating luring them closer with the discarded crust from your sandwich, are the intimates of their daily digestive battle. How much do they need to find to eat every day? How much of that energy do they use getting from one food source to another? How are they producing that much bird crap?
The truth of the matter is that there is isn't really all that much of a difference between out pet birds and their wild counterparts, except for maybe what we feed them, and how we do it. While it is important to understand what your dove would be eating in the wild, it is also necessary to factor in how captive life can necessitate a change in diet.
For instance, my doves still eat a good proportion of grains. However, they are both largely sedentary birds. Feeding them a high fat diet of seeds and grains may lead to undesirable behavior, and obesity that could cause more health issues down the line, at least according to my avian vet. Honestly, I agree.
I initially began to work on diet plans for my pigeons after the blind one began laying eggs. I was understandably worried for her health. Egg laying is very hard on a female birds body, let alone a bird that is already immune compromised. The last thing I wanted was for it to become a problem. One of the big recommendations my vet made among others (Which I'll cover more extensively in another post) was a change to a leaner diet. I carefully recorded his recommendations and that evening set to work designing a new meal plan for my Hens.
This wasn't something entirely new for me. I had already gone through this revision process several times with my Green cheek conure who started out on a balanced pellet with fruits and veggies on the side. It wasn't long before encouragement from other parrot lovers convinced me to try to improve her diet in any way I could. It became a lot of tweaking, revising, and comparing foods, and in it's more current form seems to be doing what I need it to. I have tried to better suit her needs as well as provide her a healthy variety of dried and fresh foods that I can prepare ahead of time.
So, how did I go about that process? Talking to my vet was a start. Not all veterinarians specialize in nutrition, and even among vets there are conflicting opinions on some things. But despite this, there are typically staples that all avian vets can agree upon, such as a general lexicon of what and how much your bird should be eating. This is a good place to start.
Feral rock does typically eat between 15-20% of their body weight each day. They also eat mainly a high energy, high fat diet of seeds and grains, with a smattering of fruits, vegetable matter and the occasional insect, (and in the city things like french fries and bread but I digress). A high fat diet such as this is important for a bird that spends the majority of its day on the move, essentially filling up on calories to burn calories. This high fat diet is important because these birds have such high metabolisms. They also have other things to contend with such as territory and resource defense, posturing for mates, raising young, and evading predators.
While captive birds still have that fast metabolism they don't always have much else going on. Sure racing birds, or stabled birds allowed to free fly will have similar needs to wild birds as far as food consumption goes. Hell, even birds in personal aviaries are sometimes allowed to raise young, which would require higher caloric intake. But the majority of lone or coupled pet birds, or small flocks kept in small aviaries and not allowed to breed, really don't have a need for such a high calorie diet.
Take my girls for example. They're indoor doves. They spend a lot of their time in their cages, and come out to play or hang out frequently. One is mostly blind and the other can't be arsed to do much flying. Even when I take her outside on a lead she's more content to snuggle up in the crook of my arm and enjoy the view than get any real exercise. I encourage my birds to stretch an exercise, just like I encourage them to bathe frequently. But the reality of the situation is that they just don't need those extra calories.
So instead of decreasing the volume of food they are consuming, I increased the amount of leafy greens and veggies comprising that volume. Their current diet is much better suited to their comfortable, warm, mostly sedentary lifestyle. They still eat 20% of their body weight, but the ratio has been shifted to be more conducive to their health, and keep them on the leaner end of the spectrum. There weigh has shifted and become stable accordingly, and my vet seems happy so I might as well be too. After all, I don't want them laying eggs, and they don't have a legitimate need to expend the energy necessary to warrant a high fat diet anyway.
What basically started as a way to curve egg-laying in one of my hens ended up being a pretty big, and exciting project for me. I plan to write an update here pretty soon detailing my bi-monthly bird food routine. That will also include the what of what goes into my mixes for both the pigeons and the parrot.
.jpg)
Take wild and feral doves for example. Doves spend a good portion of their day flying from one foraging spot to another. You often see them crowded around city parks, posturing, cooing and pecking at the ground in search of food. What you probably aren't thinking about as your contemplating luring them closer with the discarded crust from your sandwich, are the intimates of their daily digestive battle. How much do they need to find to eat every day? How much of that energy do they use getting from one food source to another? How are they producing that much bird crap?
The truth of the matter is that there is isn't really all that much of a difference between out pet birds and their wild counterparts, except for maybe what we feed them, and how we do it. While it is important to understand what your dove would be eating in the wild, it is also necessary to factor in how captive life can necessitate a change in diet.
For instance, my doves still eat a good proportion of grains. However, they are both largely sedentary birds. Feeding them a high fat diet of seeds and grains may lead to undesirable behavior, and obesity that could cause more health issues down the line, at least according to my avian vet. Honestly, I agree.
I initially began to work on diet plans for my pigeons after the blind one began laying eggs. I was understandably worried for her health. Egg laying is very hard on a female birds body, let alone a bird that is already immune compromised. The last thing I wanted was for it to become a problem. One of the big recommendations my vet made among others (Which I'll cover more extensively in another post) was a change to a leaner diet. I carefully recorded his recommendations and that evening set to work designing a new meal plan for my Hens.
This wasn't something entirely new for me. I had already gone through this revision process several times with my Green cheek conure who started out on a balanced pellet with fruits and veggies on the side. It wasn't long before encouragement from other parrot lovers convinced me to try to improve her diet in any way I could. It became a lot of tweaking, revising, and comparing foods, and in it's more current form seems to be doing what I need it to. I have tried to better suit her needs as well as provide her a healthy variety of dried and fresh foods that I can prepare ahead of time.So, how did I go about that process? Talking to my vet was a start. Not all veterinarians specialize in nutrition, and even among vets there are conflicting opinions on some things. But despite this, there are typically staples that all avian vets can agree upon, such as a general lexicon of what and how much your bird should be eating. This is a good place to start.
Feral rock does typically eat between 15-20% of their body weight each day. They also eat mainly a high energy, high fat diet of seeds and grains, with a smattering of fruits, vegetable matter and the occasional insect, (and in the city things like french fries and bread but I digress). A high fat diet such as this is important for a bird that spends the majority of its day on the move, essentially filling up on calories to burn calories. This high fat diet is important because these birds have such high metabolisms. They also have other things to contend with such as territory and resource defense, posturing for mates, raising young, and evading predators.While captive birds still have that fast metabolism they don't always have much else going on. Sure racing birds, or stabled birds allowed to free fly will have similar needs to wild birds as far as food consumption goes. Hell, even birds in personal aviaries are sometimes allowed to raise young, which would require higher caloric intake. But the majority of lone or coupled pet birds, or small flocks kept in small aviaries and not allowed to breed, really don't have a need for such a high calorie diet.
Take my girls for example. They're indoor doves. They spend a lot of their time in their cages, and come out to play or hang out frequently. One is mostly blind and the other can't be arsed to do much flying. Even when I take her outside on a lead she's more content to snuggle up in the crook of my arm and enjoy the view than get any real exercise. I encourage my birds to stretch an exercise, just like I encourage them to bathe frequently. But the reality of the situation is that they just don't need those extra calories.So instead of decreasing the volume of food they are consuming, I increased the amount of leafy greens and veggies comprising that volume. Their current diet is much better suited to their comfortable, warm, mostly sedentary lifestyle. They still eat 20% of their body weight, but the ratio has been shifted to be more conducive to their health, and keep them on the leaner end of the spectrum. There weigh has shifted and become stable accordingly, and my vet seems happy so I might as well be too. After all, I don't want them laying eggs, and they don't have a legitimate need to expend the energy necessary to warrant a high fat diet anyway.
What basically started as a way to curve egg-laying in one of my hens ended up being a pretty big, and exciting project for me. I plan to write an update here pretty soon detailing my bi-monthly bird food routine. That will also include the what of what goes into my mixes for both the pigeons and the parrot.
