Budgerigar Nutrition

[Daz 0]

"Budgerigar Nutrition"Theoretically, developing a nutritionally complete diet for the Budgerigar should be a relatively easy process of determining the nutritional value of foodstuff and then comparing the amounts of nutrients in the food with the bird’s requirements for those nutrients. In practice, however, this is not as easy as it would seem.

 

Nutrient content of feeds vary greatly as a result of:

 

Differences in soils where they are grown.

 

Whether they have been fertilised or not.

 

Storage conditions.

 

Age when harvested and time since harvesting.

 

Season in which they were harvested.

 

At the same time, energy requirements of our birds vary based on:

 

Activity.

 

Body mass.

 

Environmental temperature.

 

Other nutrient requirements also fluctuate based on whether they meet:

 

Maintenance needs.

 

Growth needs.

 

Reproductive needs.

 

Rearing needs.

 

Special needs brought about by moult or disease process.

 

Finally, to complicate matters even further, optimum dietary levels of a number of nutrients have not yet been determined for Budgerigars.

 

Pioneers of Nutrition

 

In spite of these limiting factors, we now have more information from which to build a nutritionally complete diet than at any other time since the domestication of the Budgerigars. Pioneers in the field of nutrition such as Roudybush, Ziegler Bros., Lafeber and Purina have contributed immensely to the establishment of adequate and safe nutrient levels in the process of developing pelleted diets for psittacines. Commercial enterprises such as Vydex Ltd. and in addition, individually funded research projects conducted by veterinarians and college researchers have begun to define the optimal parameters of a nutritionally complete diet.

 

While not all of this work has been specific to Budgerigars, a great deal has been. What has not been specific to Budgerigars has been directed toward parrots in general. For the first time we have a body of knowledge concerning nutritional requirements of a closely related family of birds (psittacines) and we are less reliant on figures extrapolated from poultry research in developing a Budgerigar diet.

 

And yet, even as we speak of these enormous strides, there remains a poor availability of good diets in the Budgerigar hobby. Exotic birds, to include the Budgerigar, are the only group of domesticated animal or commercial livestock that are not fed commercially prepared diets based on known dietary needs on a routine basis. Pelleted and crumbled diets, which have been developed for the Budgerigar in an attempt to improve "delivery" of a predetermined balance of nutrients lack acceptance by the majority in the hobby. Obviously some of this reluctance to accept commercially prepared Budgerigar diets has been a result of an acknowledged lack of specific research on Budgerigar nutrition and reliance on poultry requirements by many of the commercial manufacturers. But even this has not been the real deterrent as a large number of knowledgeable breeders have routinely included commercially prepared turkey, game bird, and chicken crumbs in their custom soft food mixes with excellent results. No, the real reasons for a lack of acceptance go beyond this, and the responsibility lies not only with the aviculturist, but with the manufacturers.

 

Competition

 

In North America, over the past several years, there has been an intense competition between suppliers of both seed mixes and commercially prepared pelleted rations. Their advertisements, designed to entice the aviculturist to use their product, claim their diets are the only "complete" and/or "nutritionally balanced" one available. Unfortunately, most of these claims have been questionable and have lacked supporting research to substantiate them. On top of this, most of these formulations, especially of the prepared rations, have been cloaked in secrecy and lacked any published data which would assist the breeder in evaluating them in regard to how well they met known established daily requirements. In the absence of this data, aviculturists have been rightfully wary, thus their reliance on the already tested and accepted poultry industry formulations.

 

A secondary reason has been cost. Some have argued that the cost of feeding pellets/crumbles for a moderate sized aviary of 100-150 birds is prohibitive. In spite of the industries rebuttal that because the pellets/crumbles are packed with nutrients and energy the quantity eaten to satisfy a birds daily nutritional requirements is much less than the total of seed and additives consumed to satisfy the same needs. The fact remains, that in comparison to poultry formulations they are expensive.

 

Another valid argument, as to why acceptance has been slow, is that acceptance by the birds themselves has in the past been less than spectacular. Few will argue, that Budgerigars can be finicky eaters, especially older ones who over a life time have developed intense likes and dislikes for specific seeds that have been offered to them. As well, it can be said that the initial delivery system, that is, the pelleted shape and base ingredients used by the industry, were not always palatable or recognisable as a food form by the birds. Many early formulations that used Soya bean meal as a base ingredient to hold down costs, created wet, copious dropping which fouled the nest box and to some, made it appear that the bird had diarrhoea. While this is changing, field trials still indicate that while young birds more readily adapt, there is a percentage of birds in the flock, which remain resistant to the change and full conversion takes time.

 

A Good Mix

 

As stated, breeders have also shared in the responsibility for the lack of acceptance of commercially prepared feeds. Frankly, some of it has been an ignorance of the available products as well as an unrealistic insistence on the belief that Budgerigars only need "a good mix" of seed for their diet. One wonders, if commercially prepared diets were available during World War II when seed was scarce, whether this argument would still exist 50 years later. Still, others continue to argue that crumbled diets are "unnatural" and are not perfected. As proof that they are right, they ask, "How many breeders, who's birds are on the top bench, do you know that use commercial diets?" Interestingly, it is many of these same breeders who routinely use chick starter, game bird or turkey crumbs as part of their specially blended soft food mixes for breeding birds and growing chicks.

 

In the interim, most pet owners continue to be guided in their feeding procedures by the personnel of the pet shop from whom they purchased their bird. For them, a traditional seed mix of canary/millet/groats. Mineral blocks, grit and cuttlebone form the basis of their bird’s diet. Among the beginning hobbyists, most are guided in their choice of diet by the individuals from whom they buy their initial breeding stock. Even here, where some attempt to provide a wider range of nutrients through custom seed mixes, perhaps supplemented with vitamins, mineral blocks, grit, and cuttlebone, the diets are only marginally better.

 

Diets consisting of a variety of seeds, either mixed or fed individually, supplemented with vitamins and minerals, grit, the addition of vegetables and a custom blended mash for breeding pairs are the most widely used staples of the serious breeders. Yet, as balanced as these diets may appear on the surface, there remain a number of problems. The choice of supplements, for instance, most often have not been guided by a thorough scientific understanding of our birds daily requirements. Numerous breeders use vitamin and mineral premixes formulated for widely varied unrelated animal sources, such as human babies, horses, cattle and other domesticated farm animals. Nor do all of the birds eat a balanced portion of the feeds presented to them. No matter how well nutritionally balanced and impressive the variety of foods offered, they are of little value to our birds if they do not eat it. When asked how much, and what types of food a randomly selected bird eats from the assortment of foods offered to the flock, the breeder is unable to answer. And finally, those who do use commercial poultry rations as part of their diets do so with little knowledge of the ingredients, in both name and quantity. For instance, few recognise that chick starter contains a higher percentage of Calcium per kg than is healthy for growing Budgerigar chicks.

 

Research

 

We believe that commercially prepared, nutritionally complete diets will be the norm for future generations of Budgerigar breeders. Major manufacturers are presently conducting extensive nutritional research as related to Budgerigar diets. Results of trial tests on entire flocks of Budgerigars fed nothing but commercially prepared crumb diets are beginning to be published providing the aviculturist with the data previously unavailable. As these diets become more widely used and the competition between manufacturers for market shares increases, the product will become economically feasible for the larger breeding operations.

 

The question is, "What do we do between now and then?" For one, we ought to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge that is presently available. Nutrition is the foundation upon which the health and development of the Budgerigar rests. The concepts of proper nutrition are not difficult to understand and if we are open to learning, all of the known nutrient requirements in their proper quantities can be incorporated into our present day feeding routine.

 

Secondly, we need to re-examine our reliance on seed as the staple diet of the Budgerigar. Seeds present the greatest obstacle to feeding a balanced diet and no matter how much we would like to believe otherwise, no mix of seeds would ever present our birds with the nutrients they require.

 

Thirdly, in the absence of pellets or crumbs, we need to develop a system of insuring that our birds are benefiting from their food source. They cannot simply be presented with a variety of food groups and then left on their own to select a proper nutrient mix. Each bite of food they take must be balanced in a complete nutritional format. The most effective means of doing this is through the development of a palatable, easily ingested and digested mash similar to the soft foods which breeders prepare for their breeding birds. Mashes such as these have been used in every major zoo throughout the world and form the basis for their psittacine's diets.

 

And finally, we need to remain aware of and open to new information. Research in the area of Budgerigar nutrition is ongoing and new developments are taking place at a rapid pace, especially in the area of commercially produced diets. Not to incorporate these changes into our feeding program is foolish. Why for instance, do we continue to use prepared poultry, turkey and game bird crumbs in our soft food when there are now specifically formulated Budgerigar crumbs which more appropriately meet our needs?

 

Toward these ends, the following Chapter is designed to educate you as to the nutrients, which form the basis of a well balanced diet. It will also inform you of the research regarding specific daily nutrient requirements, and give you the information needed to make informed decisions in building a basic Budgerigar mash diet.

 

Extracts from "THE MASTER BREEDER"

 

 

[LILBABYBUDGIES 0]

thanks daz thats a really great article

[JimmyBanks 0]

interesting article Daz. thanks...

[Pearce 0]

Another good article.