Top 20 Facts Every Bird Breeder Should Know About Calcium

Top 20 Facts Every Bird Breeder Should Know About Calcium

1. Your birds need calcium to be healthy.

2. Chicks as they are growing need to form strong skeletal structure for which calcium is of paramount importance.

3. If the chicks do not get adequate calcium, their growth will be hampered and the growth rate will be very slow. 

4. The bones they develop will be soft resulting in unhealthy birds.

5. When your birds are laying eggs, they need a good amount of calcium for the eggshell formation, which is called calcification.

6. We noted that calcium is essential in the calcification process or in the formation of the eggshells. Calcium also plays a very important role in the contraction of the uterus when the bird while laying eggs. Calcium deficiency could therefore result in “Egg Binding”.

7. Calcium deficiency can also result in soft eggs and eggs with thin eggshells which are prone to breakage during incubation.

8. Calcium deficiency in chicks can result in Rickets or Metabolic Bone Disease. It could also result in bone deformities including curved bones. Once bone curvature sets in, it cannot be rectified as the bone will not be able to straighten itself unless otherwise a surgery is performed the success rate of such surgeries is very low.

9. Calcium requirement in birds is not limited just to the above two scenarios but all through their life birds need a steady supply of calcium.

10. Calcium is also important for the proper muscle function in your birds.

11. In the natural habitat that is in the wild birds will get their calcium supply from the natural foods that they eat. They know to select calcium rich food instinctively. When they are in captivity, they are at the mercy of the breeder or the pet owner for their choice of food. They cannot go after food that is rich in calcium; the same applies for the other nutrient and vitamin requirements of your birds. It then becomes your responsibility to give your birds a balanced diet, which will include foods that are rich in calcium.

12. What happens if your bird does not get adequate supply of calcium or if it is on a calcium deficient diet? Your bird will start absorbing calcium from its bones. When the calcium content in the bones starts reducing, the bones will turn brittle making your birds more prone to fractures.

13. Just because you have dropped mineral blocks and cuttlefish bones in your birds’ cage, do not presume that your birds are getting adequate supply of calcium. Even if you see them nibbling the mineral block or the cuttlefish bone we do not know how much of it is ingested or actually swallowed.

14. Experts do not look at calcium deficiency in isolation but consider it as Calcium – Phosphorous – Vitamin D3 imbalance.

15. Never give calcium and Tetracycline antibiotic together. Calcium will block the absorption of tetracycline.

16. Condition that results from low calcium level in blood is termed as Hypocalcaemia. It could also result in Hypocalcaemic tetany whereby the bird suffers spasms or seizures due to malfunctioning parathyroid glands that result from calcium deficiency.

17. Calcium deficiency in birds can also result in unhealthy heart.

18. The condition that results from high blood calcium levels is called Hypercalcaemia.

19. If the calcium level is high in birds that are laying eggs, the eggshells will be very thick and the chicks will not be able to hatch out of shell.

20. High calcium levels also result in constipation in birds and abdominal pain.

Therefore, both too much calcium and too little calcium can affect your birds health. 

Top Foods That Will Make Your Birds Breed Fast - Best Kept Secrets Revealed!

Top Foods That Will Make Your Birds Breed Fast - Best Kept Secrets Revealed!

What Type Of Food Improves Breeding Activity In Sun Conures, Other Parrots and Cockatiels?

What feed should I give to make my birds breed fast?

One of the important questions that I was preoccupied with when I was starting to breed my Sun Conures, cockatiels and other parrots including Senegal Parrots is 

“What type of food will increase the breeding activity of birds?”

I found myself scouring the web making countless searches for hours together with the following bird feed and breeding related questions:

What feed should I give to make my sun conures breed fast?

What food will make my parrots lay more eggs?

What feed will increase the clutch size of my Senegal parrots?

What kind of food will get healthy cockatiel chicks? 

The list of questions simply extends.

Other breeders and experts may have different opinions and views on what I am presenting here. These are just my personal observations and learnings that have proven to be helpful in improving my birds’ breeding behavior. You are free to try them at your own risk and use your discretion taking into account your birds general health and well being.

The Magic Of Vitamin E in Birds Reproduction

It is no secret that Vitamin E plays a very important role in your bird’s breeding behavior. It is commonly known as the reproductive vitamin. Your birds need good supply of vitamin E to boost the breeding behavior and to increase the hormones that trigger breeding behavior. Vitamin E has other far reaching benefits on your bird’s health and well being besides triggering the reproductive hormones which we are not going to get into. I would rather prefer to have a detailed discussion on the complete list of benefits of Vitamin E in birds in another post while limiting this post to the discussion on foods that are important for your birds reproductive health.

Now that you know that Vitamin E is important in improving your bird’s breeding behavior, you will have to start looking at the rich sources of vitamin E that you can use. Here are few good, rather very good sources of vitamin E for your birds.

Sunflower Seeds – Sunflower seeds have very high Vitamin E content. You could already been feeding your birds with sun flower seeds regularly, if your birds feed includes sun flower seeds then continue with it. One of the disadvantages of using sunflower seeds is that it has very high fat content too that can make your bird obese. Obese or fat birds can become lethargic and could show very little interest in breeding. You will therefore need to make sure that you train your birds to take other foods as well so that your entire bird diet is not limited just to sunflower seeds.

Wheat Germ Oil – Wheat Germ Oil in fact contains the highest content of vitamin E. I have not tried wheat germ oil myself personally. Instead of giving my birds wheat germ oil, I give soaked, germinated wheat. Actually, wheat germ oil is extracted from wheat germs. My Senegal parrots love germinated wheat and they do have a very good effect on my birds. I am hoping to try wheat germ oil soon and when I do, I will hopefully post the results here in this blog. If you do not have access to wheat germ oil readily, you can try soaked, germinated wheat. Just a quick warning, if you have chicks, do not feed soaked wheat or germinated wheat to your birds as it makes your chicks highly prone to yeast infections and it is fatal. I have lost many cockatiel chicks in the past making this mistake. If you are giving soaked wheat, limit its supply only up to hatching of the chicks. You can resume giving soaked wheat, when the chicks come out of the nest box. Here I would like to mention this is my personal view based on my personal experience.

Vimeral Liquid Vitamin Supplement – This again is a very good source of Vitamin E the reproductive vitamin in birds. Vitamin E concentration in Vimeral is 48 mg per ml.

Ground Nuts – Ground nuts or pea nuts are another good source of vitamin E. I do not use ground nuts regularly with my birds but just use them occasionally. I am yet to experiment with ground nuts diet.

I have just pointed you the direction in which you are required to travel, you can explore other healthy Vitamin E options for your birds. Surf around, make searches online for nutritional facts and vitamin E sources, you are likely to come across many other sources that you can safely use for your birds. Just make sure to cross check the facts with multiple sources just to ensure that the information that you have at hand is correct because you are dealing with lives here and you don’t want to make mistakes.

Fresh Food – Includes Greens, Vegetables, Fruits and Corn

When I was scouring the web like you were doing with the intention of finding the best breeding diets for birds, one thing that every breeder online said is to include plenty of fresh food to the birds. So I started bringing in as much variety as possible in this regard. Here are few things that I include in my birds diet, which has kind of helped in triggering and sustaining the breeding behavior of my birds. With each food, I have indicated how frequently I use these food items and you can decide how frequently you want to give your birds with these fresh foods depending on what your birds like. Just make sure that you bring in good variety in your birds food.

Carrots – Grated – I have also read that too much of carrots is not good for the birds because it obstructs calcium absorption in birds as carrots contain oxalic acid which combines with calcium to form calcium oxalate preventing calcium in the other food from reaching the bird. Do a bit of reading on your own in this regard before you make your conclusions. I include carrots quite regularly but as it is a good source of vitamin A.

Greens – Chopped – I include greens at least for two days per week. It is often two subsequent days as I feed the birds with greens when they are still fresh when I get from the market. I do not store greens in the fridge. It is recommended that you do not given anything that comes out of the fridge and I religiously follow this. I do not store the vegetables or greens that I feed my birds in fridge. To keep the greens fresh, I wrap a wet cloth around the greens and keep them wet. It keeps my greens fresh for a maximum of three days. When you are giving greens make sure to wash them thoroughly as they may have been sprayed with pesticides that are not just toxic but they can prove to be fatal. The same applies to other vegetables that you are giving your birds. You cannot afford to make mistakes here and there is no room for laziness whatsoever.

Beetroot – grated. I give beetroots on alternate weeks.

Capsicum – chopped. Capsicum is a rich source of vitamin C and it helps your birds immunity. My parrots love capsicum. My sun conures do not prefer Capsicum so much but they do not hesitate to try though.

Fresh Corn Cobs – Depending on the availability, I give them half a cob to full cob daily. There are also days where my birds go without corn for days together. I just go with the availability of corn in the local market.

Chickpeas - Soaked – A very rich source of protein. I feed my birds almost on alternate days with soaked chickpeas. It is soaked at least for 24 hours. I make sure that I feed my birds with soaked chickpeas daily when I have chicks. It is a very good soft food option when you have chicks. It is even better if you can germinate chickpeas.

Guava – Not too frequently. Depending on the availability. My parrots love them though. As the breeding season approaches, I try to increase the frequency at which I give guava.

Musambi – Not too frequently. Once in a week or ten days.

Sugar Cane – Chopped – Seasonal. I don’t get a regular supply of sugar cane round the year. I give sugar cane from November to February or March. My birds love sugar cane too.

Are You Making These 2 Dozen Deadly Bird Keeping Mistakes

Are You Making These 2 Dozen Deadly Bird Keeping Mistakes?

Aviculture is a wonderful hobby; it is both relaxing and lucrative but only when you are doing things correctly. For someone that is just beginning, it might be bit unrealistic to expect to do everything correctly and to be error free right from day one. We are prone to making mistakes and learning through trial and error. The learning curve can be a frustrating if not a depressing process demanding lot of patience at least for some of us. Successful and the most experienced breeders in the country know that one has to be prepared for lifelong learning process. Another factor to be taken into cognizance here is that there are certain information that breeders do not readily share and are kept as trade secrets. I know of a breeder that was not ready to share how to sex African Lovebirds when I was purchasing a pair of Lutino African Lovebirds from him. Cannot blame him or any of the breeders for withholding the hard-learned lessons in breeding birds. Everyone has to go through this school of learning. Having said this, I cannot generalize the above statement because there are good number of breeders that encourage beginners by sharing all the valuable information and I have come across several helpful breeders too. The bottom line however is that correct information on breeding birds and complete hands on guides on breeding birds is rare to find, there are books you will say but those literary sources can prove to be way too expensive for many of us so we navigate through the challenging path. Even for those that can afford expensive books on aviculture, one should know that birds do not go by the books. What is found in the books could be based on one or few people’s experience, which cannot be made universal. Moreover, to my knowledge most of the books are written by non-Indian authors meaning from a totally different geographic setup, which is a key factor in bird traits, food habits and behavior. I do not mean to say that book are totally futile but there is nothing like hearing from an experienced local breeder.

When it comes to breeding birds more than doing things correctly, not doing things wrongly is more important because some of the mistakes can be greatly damaging and some of the damages could be irreversible if not lethal for the birds. It is for that reason, I decided to write about the seven important areas where the most mistakes are committed by the beginners in my first post so that we can first stay away from these mistakes that affect the well being of our birds before we start looking at other healthy procedures that increases the rate of success in breeding and rearing birds. I have intentionally stayed away from discussing the right thing to do while pointing out the mistakes that we commit. Some of the mistakes committed might sound too basic for someone to commit but believe me, people do make these mistakes. The list of mistakes listed below is not an exhaustive one, these are some of the most basic ones and we will cover other advanced areas in the future posts, do keep coming for fresh information.

Area 1 – Food And Supplement Management Mistakes

1. Giving just one type of food and not bringing in variations to ensure a balanced diet.
2. Giving food that are not compatible with bird’s digestive system.
3. Giving vegetables, fruits, greens without carefully washing whereby there is a danger of contamination with pesticides and fertilizers.
4. Giving too many supplements at the same time without any discretion.
5. Not removing the old / stale food from the cage / aviary.
6. Giving wrong dosage of antibiotics and de-worming medication.
7. Going on a trip for several days without leaving enough food supply in the cage

Area 2 - Water Management Mistakes

8. Not providing adequate water to drink as well as to bathe.
9. Not changing the water daily.
10. Leaving residual food and bird feces in the water bowl.

Area 3 - Cage and nest box management Mistakes

11. Keeping the birds in cages without any shady roof where the birds are continually exposed to direct sunlight, rain and the other elements of nature without any protection.
12. Leaving the birds in a very small cage thinking that it will improve intimacy between birds and improve the chances of breeding.
13. Changing the cage location too frequently not allowing the bird to settle.
14. Changing the nest box location within the cage frequently out of impatience to see the birds get into the nest box and exhibit signs of courtship and breeding.

Area 4 - Light Management Mistakes

15. Keeping the cage in a room or location where there is no provision for natural light to enter.
16. Keeping the cage in a place where the lights are switched on round the clock with no dark hours for the birds.
17. Switching on the lights erratically not allowing the birds to settle with any pattern of rest.

Area 5 - Ventilation Management Mistakes

18. Keeping the birds in a room with poor or no ventilation.
19. Keeping the cage in the path of the draught.
20. Keeping the birds in a place where the air conditioner is turned on.
21. Keeping the birds in a room that gets extremely hot during summer.

Area 6 - Noise Management Mistakes

22. Leaving the birds in an overly noisy environment, it could be noise from heavy traffic, machinery, music system, TV, etc.

Area 7 - Privacy Management Mistakes

23. Leaving the cage in a room or path where people walk in and out too frequently, whereby the birds get startled several times during the entire course of the day.
24. Leaving the cage where other pets like dogs, cats and reptiles are housed to which the birds are not used to.