The most important
principle or activity in keeping any animal in captivity is to reduce
stress experienced by the captive. The sources of this stress can
be categorized for the convenience of discussion as: Environmental,
Dietary, Social, Genetic and Disease. Stress from any soure is totally
and completely cumulative on the well being of the captive and as
such is only categorized for the convenience of discussion and resulting
management options. The use of aviary techniques to reduce stress
can actually prevent a disease organism that is latent in the flock,
from developing by promoting or allowing natural resistance to prevail.
This is a very powerful result beyond the reach of our antibiotic
culture.
Most veterinary discussions about animal care focus
on disease as the source of stress. This clinical discussion, while
especially useful in individual pet care, is far too narrow to be
completely useful to the animal keeper managing a large group of animals.
The focus of this article will be on allaying problems whose source
can be found in all areas of stress generation: Part two will cover
some areas of Dietary Stress. Environmental Stress has been covered
in a previous article. Social Stress, Genetic Stress and Disease Stresswill be covered in later articles. The discussion of animal care and
management from the perspective of cause not symptom has been very
useful to me over the years, as it is far easier to manipulate potential
sources of stress than second-guess symptoms caused by some cumulative
group of stresses. This approach involves making management changes
then listening to your flock for any change in chatter.
Implicit
in the focus of this method is that veterinary care of individual birds,
however effective, is not the procedure of choice in maintaining a
large flock of breeding birds. Stated another way, any bird that succumbs
to a major disease (chronic or catastrophic) is lost to the breeding
program even if it survives, so prevention is the only effective path
for the group.
Dietary Stress Defined:
Your captives are never
any more than what you feed them. The genes for which we select are
strictly the potential for improvement. Feeding your birds correctly
will allow those genes to regulate growth etc. through the production
of hormones and other biologically active substances.
All but
a handful of the texts available on exhibition budgerigars were written
before the modern budgerigar was developed. This modern bird is twice
the size of the wild type and has much more feather. It is logical
to assume that these developed changes have put a strain on traditional
diets and methods. The alarming fact that the wild type budgie lives
an average of six to eight years and the exhibition type budgie lives
for an average life span of two years supports this assumption.
In
the case of captive budgies fed the usual mix of white proso millet
and canary grass seed, the missing amino acids are primarily lysine,
methionine and tryptophan, the missing minerals are primarily calcium
and iodine, the missing vitamins are primarily A & D. If
you do not know where these specific dietary components come from,
then your budgies are probably deficient in those items. Deficient
means that your “expensive” budgies are suffering from a degree of
malnutrition. Don’t fall into the trap that more is better in this
instance as deficiency means lack of balance in the diet not inadequate
quantities. The main reason for the budgies prolific breeding output
in captivity is that the hen gives of herself to feed the newborn
chicks by producing nutritious crop milk. The production of this crop
milk surrenders the missing amino acids etc. out of her system and
without corresponding nutritional support means that the breeders
most precious resource, your hens, are being squandered. That breeding
hen may never replace her vital energy without additional dietary
support provided by you.
Budgies are specialist vegetarian flock
feeders. Statements in older texts of budgerigar keeping about budgies
eating insects and other animal products are misleading. The wild
feeding pattern is not totally as rigid, as it seems to be in captivity.
Wild budgies have been seen feeding on feral (non-native) plants such
as Portulaca oleracea (Purslane) in Australia so change is possible.
Improving
the diet of a flock of Budgies is a challenge. Budgies are not very
experimental feeders in captivity. Adult birds carefully ignore new
items in the diet. One’s only chance for major improvement is trying
it on the youngsters that you plan to keep and keep up the introduction
of potentially improved feed items indefinitely.
Recycling seed is
a necessary evil when the birds are rejecting expensive “new” seeds.
Recycling concentrates the dried fecal matter in the food and is a
potential vector for Avian TB, French Moult, and Beak and Feather
Diseases plus others. To minimize this issue we use a Bird-Zerk recycling
feeder on every cage to prevent fecal contamination. Winnowing is
done in a custom made seed cleaner used only for budgie food. Seed
fed in open dishes is never recycled.
Anyone just beginning to
breed Exhibition Budgies has to deal with a whole flock that is amazingly
stressed by the experience of changing feed and aviary procedures.
My suggested strategy to correct this potentially debilitating issue
would be to retain a very high percentage if not all of my hens for
several years’ production. With these young birds I would then work
very diligently to introduce important food items such as Quinoa,
Amaranth, manufactured bird pellets, and nutritious vegetable matter,
items that may provide the missing components in the birds’ diet.
The huge downside of this activity is that introducing new stock in
later years must be done very carefully, as they will not necessarily
recognize what is in your feeders as food. Now we know why when asked
what do you feed your flock the answer is almost always same, budgie
seed mix and water. Pioneering dietary changes in the fancy definitely
has its cost.
Quinoa (pronounced keenwa) and Amaranth are interesting,
little known, New World grains that are unfortunate victims of historical
racial & social discrimination. These seeds are the food of some
native South American populations since long before Spanish conquest.
Amaranth was considered to be the gift of the Sun god and was used
to feed Inca soldiers to give them additional strength. Cortez simply
burned all the agricultural fields of the Incas to destroy the effectiveness
of the Inca army. The Spaniards further made it a social trespass
to eat or deal in Amaranth. Amaranth is native to the US but we call
it Pigweed in the legacy of the Spanish conquerors. Quinoa has a similar
history in Peru. Both these grains have what it takes to supplement
the missing amino acids that support luxuriant feather growth in the
diet of our flocks and there are probably other little known candidates.
In
the past some friends and I have labored diligently to convert budgie
youngsters to corn/soy parrot type pellets only to be completely disappointed
by the results of our years of labor. Budgies fed more or less exclusively
on various manufactured pellets have had very wet droppings. This
is bad sign for the long-term health of the budgie and the wetness
makes cleaning up after the flock a comparative nightmare. I do not
have a quick explanation for this problem nor do any of the other
pellet experts in the avian diet business. Consequently, until we
have a solution for this problem, manufactured pellets should only
be used at a level of 10% to 20% of the total diet. This dilution
restriction is in conflict with the “design” of most avian pellet
diets but may be a reasonable stopgap protocol to increase the sources
of deficient dietary items for exhibition animals. We are currently
in the process of evaluating a new rather expensive pellet that has
millet and sunflower as the main ingredient. Palatability is surprisingly
good but the size is a little too large for general budgie acceptance.
It will be a couple of years before we know if the usual problems
have been solved.
Don’t expect any help from the pet industry
here in the US on these issues. Every bird food manufacturer sells
a budgie pellet but that is in order to meet competition. None of
them have been tested with budgies. The grand assumption of the industry
is that budgie diets can be adjusted versions of a chicken diet seems
to be really off target. Wild budgies are specialist feeders on thesmall seeds of tough desert plants with names like Mitchell Grass,
Tar Vine, Small Flinders Grass, Feathertop Grass and Porcupine Grass.
Given this specialist appetite our mission is to find a seed
or group of seeds that will support the magnificent growth of a bird
that has at least twice the weight and feather of the wild bird. And
does not have any the negative or toxic effects of the commonly available
corn/soy diet.
Minerals and grit are also in the prescription
for successful bird raising. Ideally we should make available great
chunks of mineral rich clay like that found in the cliffs of the Manu
in Peru. However, a flock budgies being very communal and exceedingly
busy creatures would consume & destroy the available pigeon “pick
blocks” at a rate that UPS deliveries would have trouble keeping up
with. Most fanciers including myself provide a mineralized (minerals
added) oyster shell mixed with a small amount of grit as a freely
available choice. Pigeon “pick blocks” are sometimes used monthly
to provide additional entertainment and nutritional value. We avoid
the use of charcoal as it really does more potential harm that good
in healthy budgies fed healthful foods.
Dietary Stress has two
sides, first one reduces flock & individual stress by feeding
a balanced combination of what is required but one also needs to carefully
avoid inadvertently feeding what is dangerous. Just as important as
nutrition is avoiding dietary toxins that will erode the immune system
and undo all valid attempts to correct inadequate/unbalanced diets.
The most common types of contamination/toxins are by pesticides, bacteria
and mycotoxins.
Mycotoxins are
the most common invisible dietary stress/killer in the domain of animal
care. These deadly poisons are the by-products of certain moulds growing
at some point (any time) in the life history of the food. Too high
a moisture content in storage can be all that is required to transform
nutritious seed into a food that extracts more nutrients from the
body than the food can replace by forcing it to deal with the low
level poisons. Storing a sack of seeds in direct contact with a cement
floor for as short a time as a few nights can cause resident moisture
to migrate to the cold side of the seed bag. The resulting high moisture
zone on the cold side can create ideal conditions for mould growth.
By-products from this occurrence are low level, invisible residues
that are not intended to poison our birds but are an artifact of the
chemical warfare that moulds use to fight bacteria and possibly other
moulds in the struggle for survival. All that is required for this
invisible disaster to occur is 14+% moisture content in the seed,
70+% relative humidity at 70+ °F.
Almost all mycotoxins, even
though occurring in invisible films, have an immunosuppressive effect.
Depending on the actual mould present, the exact target within the
immune system may differ. Mycotoxins have effects that may be damaging
to the lung, the skin or the gut. Such damage at the cellular level
affects the physical defense mechanisms of the respiratory tract,
for example. Decreasing the ability of the airways to clear particulate
matter harboring bacteria and viruses, or preventing clearance of
contaminants from the deeper lung i.e. respiratory problems are demonstrated
by a bobbing tail while breathing. The combined result of these activities
is to increase the susceptibility of the exposed bird to infectious
disease, and to reduce its defense against other contaminants. That,
of course, is after the bird has lost all hope of generating enough
energy to breed.
This source of dietary stress is possibly the
most frightening and mystical that any breeder has to deal with. The
problem is totally invisible, can cause everything from infertility
to death. There are no pertinent regulations in the pet food trade
to prevent improper storage of food, and food testing is expensive
& inconvenient. Unscrupulous seed merchants may actually blend
contaminated seed batches with good to avoid financial loss. Many
pet food distributors are not aware of these issues, as their involvement
in the business does not require any educational qualifications. So
for example, storage of food on pallets shows up in the pet trade
as a handling convenience only, not as a dire necessity to preserve
the quality of the food. This is one rare scenario were laziness is
bliss.
What we do to attempt to manage and minimize the potential negative
effects of this situation is to buy seeds as close to the fields as
possible, from dealers who know the business, to reduce prior handling
and storage to a minimum. This does, however, require purchasing and
storing food in larger quantities than the average budgie breeder.
Please know where your seeds come from, store them correctly in porous
bags on pallets and avoid temperature extremes in the storeroom. Also
buying brand name feeds where the company actually checks the moisture
content at point of their purchase may give some benefits. Feel free
to question your seed supplier and demand moisture tested product.
Bacteria are
a perhaps more commonly observed cause of contaminated food. We know
that bacteria are found everywhere, no matter how well you clean,
but certain conditions predispose very high concentrations of bacteria.
Foods with high amounts of water or seeds soaked in water should be
fed very carefully to birds. Often soaked foods contain tremendous
numbers of bacteria that can overwhelm your bird's immune system.
Water and high water content foods are the number one source of bacterial
Dietary Stress in your birds.
Bacteria living in sixty-degree
water may reproduce at a rate of doubling every two days or so. The
same bacteria living in ninety-six-degree water may reproduce at a
rate of doubling every twenty minutes. We live in AZ famous for very
high ambient temperatures and we also use unchlorinated well water
so we are particularly sensitive to this issue. Nasty water is not
always an obvious visual problem. Water problems often require the
use your nose as bad or anaerobic bacteria stink. Also if you are
prone to slime forming on the inside of your drinkers before cleaning,
have someone culture those slimes so you know what is growing.
Water chlorination
is temporary so will not stop the growth of protozoa such a Trichomonias
and Giardia that are the source of canker and other serious infections.
Water supplies garnered from lakes and streams often contain Trichomonias
and Giardia that standard water purification plants with inadequate
physical filtration systems cannot completely remove. Humans may get
slightly sick with flu like symptoms but birds drinking this water
will die.
What water management techniques can you apply when
one is practicing high-density bird keeping? Many bacterial issues
are reduced but do not disappear with the use of a chlorinated water
supply. I further protect my birds by adding nontoxic acids and disinfectants
to the water daily to inhibit possible bacterial and algae bloom.
This pH reduction stimulates better digestion in the birds by optimizing
crop flora and/or chemistry and by inhibiting the propagation of pathogenic
organisms. Yes, feeding vinegar in the drinking water does help but
citric acid tastes better. Some also use dilute disinfectants such
as Chlorhexidine Glutinate or Iodine Complex Cleaners, which mostly
contain acids, as daily additives to suppress bacterial growth and
cross contamination in the aviary. Most are very effective but the
long-term health effects of chemicals like Chlorhexidine are sketchy
at best. If the weather is damp, be sure that the pH of your drinking
water is slightly acid in order to fight the propagation of E. coli,
Coccidiosis, Giardia, and thrush in your bird community. The acid
drinking water is also necessary to stabilize Doxycycline Hydrochloride
a powerful antibiotic that we administer to combat Psittacosis when
needed.
Closed watering systems are also a good idea especially
if they are flushed on a regular biweekly basis. The use of opaque
tubing in the plumbing to minimize algae & slime bacteria growth
is also a necessity. The use of an elevated tank as the pressure source
is in many ways superior to the use of a mains pressure regulator
as these important additives can be mixed into the drinking water
much more easily.
One conclusion that may be obvious from
this discussion is that: a standard soft food that works well in 60-degree
England or New England may be very toxic to our birds in a couple
of hours when fed in 95-degree F Florida or 110-degree F Arizona environments.
Be very cautious of using water born supplements that contain sugar
and other bacterial food, especially in warm weather.
Pesticidesare a valid concern and feeding organic vegetables is an extreme but
acceptable solution. We feed human grade vegetables that are soaked
in a bucket of water to remove any surface contamination. To avoid
contamination, know the sources of your fresh food. I once killed
a whole cage of rare birds by feeding a branch off an apple tree from
my back yard. I presume the issue was lead in the days of leaded gasoline.
Err on the side of caution.
Green Food is a must with all birds
but like any aspect of feeding animals the supply can be over done.
Chlorophyll is an important item in any diet. We live in a very rural
area so branches cut off my Mesquite trees are accepted and relished
without incident. The Mesquite beans in season provide nourishment
for all the desert creatures including our budgies. We would consider
that too risky to do that if we lived in town. We purchase fresh vegetables
by the case from a specialist wholesale supplier every week. My dealer
tells me were each box comes from. The vegetables are fed to all our
animals as treats and the budgies get their share. Wet Romaine lettuce
leaves are a trip and are fed daily. They are used for bathing and
eating in that order. We also feed carrots, broccoli, corn on the
cob, and squash. We stay away from Iceberg lettuce, spinach, kale,
soybeans, linseed, the saponins in alfalfa and sorghum, I have designed
a program to fit my situation and I watch the food like a hawk. I
wash them more if they are grown in Mexico because the regulations
are more relaxed down there. Green food is the only wet food that
our budgies get.
If your feeding and watering program is working,
your flock should be noisy and the fecal matter should be small, black
and neat with down feathers sticking to the mounds. If the noise level
drops and/or the droppings become green, larger, and/or watery, action
will be required on your part to reverse a rising stress level in
the flock. A normal, healthy budgie will produce in the neighborhood
of 20 droppings per day if that rhythm is reduced by as little as
20% starvation may be occurring. To ignore cues like this in
a flock is to invite an outbreak of latent disease always-present
in-groups of living creatures. Proceed carefully when modifying your
budgies diet. Force never works when working with natural phenomena.
Budgies are natural morning feeders so try restricting feed to the
new items until about 10:00am. Then put the regular feed in the flights
so that no starvation occurs.