I recently
attended the International Symposium on Pet Bird Nutrition that was held at the Centre for Animal Nutrition at the Hanover Veterinary School in Germany.The most startling statistic presented to the
symposium came from respected American avian vet G J Harrison. He pointed out that, according to official statistics, 99% of one year old American human children are suffering from some form of malnutrition.
As he said "If we can't feed our children properly what chance do we have of feeding our birds properly". In his opinion 90% of the avian cases that he sees in his clinic have poor nutrition as the
basis of their illness. If we fed our birds better they would live longer, happier lives. And they will breed better as well!
Another American, Laurie Hess of the Animal Medical Centre in New York,
presented some research data that helps to quantify the extent of the bird nutrition problem.
There isn't enough space to present all of Laurie's data but she studied 135 pet birds that were eating, either
all seed diets, seed and fruit diets or seed, fruit and pellet diets. Very few were eating a diet with 75% or more pellets and, since there are few bird vitamin and mineral supplements on the market in
America, those birds not eating diets with that minimum amount of pellet were all deficient in one part of their nutritional requirements or another. In the whole study less than 2% of the birds were being
fed adequately. Laurie Hess used recommended daily nutrient requirements as determined by Ritchie, Harrison and Harrison in 1994 as her definition of an adequate diet.
The following figures give some indication of the major areas where these birds were suffering.
- 67% had insufficient vitamin A in their diets.
- 97% of the birds studied had insufficient vitamin D3 in their diets.
- 98% of birds were getting less than the recommended calcium levels in their diets.
- 51% had less than the recommended phosphorus levels in their diets.
- But worse still 83% had a calcium:phosphorus ratio that was way out of balance. The only birds with an appropriate calcium:phosphorus ratio were being fed at least 75% pellets in their diets.
This highlights that, without some form of calcium supplementation, seed and seed and fruit and seed and table scrap type diets cannot provide the correct balance between these two important minerals.
One key feature of the whole symposium was that there was never any question amongst the delegates as to whether birds' diets should be supplemented. There was however sometimes quite heated
debate about the method of supplementation. The North American expanded pellet manufacturers were well represented at the symposium. They argued that their method of feeding birds was the only
way forward. The scientists from the Hanover Centre for Animal Nutrition voiced the opinion that seed based diets could be properly supplemented and so pellets were not
the only way to guarantee good nutrition.
Having discussed this disagreement with a number of North American vets it became quite clear that, whilst Europe has a number of manufacturers producing vitamin
and mineral supplements specifically for cage and aviary birds, this is not the case in North America. For British and European bird keepers this is good news as it means that you have a viable choice
between pelleted diets and using seed plus supplement diets.
So what are the options for you and your bird?
Pet (non-breeding) bird feeding is very simple. The basic diet, whether
seed, fruit or nectar, should be supplemented with a suitable vitamin/mineral supplement. The selection of supplement depends on what other foods the bird is eating. Birds eating fruits and vegetables should
have
