Malnutrition In Birds
Malnutrition is the leading cause of illness and death in pet birds today. Poor and unbalanced diets can lead to illnesses affecting the respiratory tract, the digestive tract, the urogenital tract, and the skin and feathers. Giving your pet bird a proper diet is the best way to ensure that your pet bird will lead a healthy and long life. The most common misunderstanding in avian nutrition today is that seeds offer a balanced diet. Seeds are a very poor diet. Seeds are High in Fat, Low in Protein, Low in Calcium and Lack Vitamin A.
Birds eat enough quantity to maintain their protein requirement. Since seeds are so low in protein, they must eat an overabundance, therefore causing the bird to consume too much fat. Over consumption of fat causes a bird to become obese which places undue stress on their joints. Additionally fat cells can infiltrate into organs and cause those organs to fail. Insufficient calcium can cause osteoporosis of the bones resulting in fractures. Calcium is also necessary for the muscles to contract. If calcium is lacking in a diet and therefore is low in the blood, many muscles can fail to contract normally which can lead to severe illness or death and heart muscle failure. Vitamin A is the nutrient which is responsible for keeping the epithelial cells healthy. This is the cell which lines the gastrointestinal tract, the respiratory tract, the urogenital tract and the skin. If these cells do not remain intact and healthy, infections can then be introduced into many areas of the body and result in severe illness or even death.
What is a nutritious diet?
A nutritious diet in wild birds consists of a wide variety of foods including insects, leaves, legumes, fruits and vegetables. One that mimics the wild bird diet in captivity consists of a mixture of 30% seed and 70% vegetables, meats, dairy products, nuts and fruits along with a vitamin supplement. To ensure your pet bird gets a proper ration, these ingredients should be mixed to the consistency of mash. It is a well known fact that if a bird is offered a variety of foods they will consume the seed first. Seed equates to candy and potato chips in children. All of us know that when a child is presented with candy and vegetables, the child will pick the candy first. Therefore it is easy to understand that unless a varied diet is mixed thoroughly, a bird will consume its favorite food before anything else. Realistically a bird will eat very little other than the seed when offered a variety of foods.
A pelleted diet or extruded diet is one in which the food manufacturer has formulated a complete diet and extruded it into a pelleted form. These pellets can vary in size, shape, and color. Some diets are all natural diets with no preservatives of which Harrison’s Bird Diet is considered Top Brand. Other diets such as Kaytee, Zupreem, Pretty Bird, Rhoudy Bush, and Lafeber are considered to be very high quality formulated pellets which have been researched for over 25 years and have a longer shelf life.