Insectivorous birds that enter our home include: sparrows, jackdaws, thrushes, crows, rooks, swifts, tits, swallows, wagtails, etc. To provide them with comfort and good food you need to know a few things:
- They are wild birds and should be handled with care. Trying to escape, they may injure themselves or you.
- You cannot feed insectivorous birds with bread alone, so you need to prepare for extensive work.
- If you took a chick, then most likely you will have to keep him, even if he gets on his feet.
- It is impossible to accustom an adult bird, and even the smallest trust is difficult to achieve.
- A cage with a wild bird should be covered with a light opaque cloth so that it does not hit the bars.
- Chicks have a very fast metabolism. In daylight, you can not leave them without food for more than 3 hours.
When you find a wounded bird and bring it home, give it a drink. If she does not drink herself, then by soaking a cloth or using a pipette. For the first time, you can feed it with a boiled egg, cottage cheese, some birds - berries. But soon you need to think about a more serious approach to nutrition. Because it is necessary to feed an insectivorous bird with insects.
If it is winter, then insects who are lucky are caught at home. They are lightly pressed down in the head area so that they do not scatter, but are alive - and presented to the bird. If the bird does not eat itself, then you need to open its beak and push the insect closer to the throat - this is how the chicks are fed.
In summer, you can catch insects on your own. But in any case, insects can be bought or grown in special home conditions. Homes usually grow maggots or mealworms.
With the advent of an insectivorous bird in the house, you should also have a regular supplier of food for insectivorous birds. Because food is difficult to find, but it will be necessary in order to keep the bird in good shape. This food contains all the necessary nutrients and even carcasses of insects - all in powder form.
For the sake of economy and greater usefulness, you should learn how to make a mash from factory-made food for insectivorous birds. The finished mash is rolled into balls the size of a match head and fed to birds.
Ingredients of the mash: lightly boiled ground beef or chicken meat, boiled egg, carrot, cottage cheese, lettuce, a little boiled small cereals, the main part is factory food for insectivorous birds. Chop it all up and mix. The mash is stored frozen and thawed as needed.
It is convenient to feed the chick with tweezers. In nature, in order for the chick to understand that now it will be fed, the mother, arriving with food, slightly shakes the nest.
How to feed the nightingale, thrush, robin, titmouse, wagtail, myna, bluethroat, starling, sparrows and other insectivorous birds kept at home?
First of all, songbirds need to be provided with live/fresh insects. Insects are critical food for these birds, so I'll start this series of articles with forage (and not so forage) insects.
Almost all members of the passerine order are insectivorous birds. The division into granivorous and insectivorous is conditional and, in my opinion, incorrect. Yes, many species of songbirds and ornamental birds that are traditionally considered granivorous and even bred in captivity can live for years on grain mixtures alone with a little addition of vegetables and fruits. But such birds cannot be called healthy. Even canaries are not strictly granivorous birds, although many generations of these birds have been bred on grain forage - however, the health of most canaries leaves much to be desired, which is a consequence of the depleted diets of these songbirds.
In this article I will talk about insect feeding of thrushes, buntings, nightingales, robins, wagtails, tits and other decorative and exotic songbirds, which, by a lucky chance, were called insectivorous and therefore their diets in captivity are still richer than that of that category. birds, which were called granivorous.
The division into insectivorous and granivorous is not correct, because almost all songbirds in nature are polyphages, i.e. they eat everything they can eat. In some species, due to specialization, the proportion of animal proteins is greater, in others it is less. But all passerines feed on insects and other small invertebrates.
Insects in songbird diets
Fresh (live) insects must be available to the birds at all times. And the range of species available forage insects should be as wide as possible. The more diverse assortment of insects you can provide to the bird (breed or buy), the better.
Flour worm and zoophobas
Traditionally, the most accessible food insects are flour worms and zoophobas. These insects are very fatty and for most songbirds they should be given when the insect is still small or as pupae. The adult forms of the tormenter and zoophobas are hard beetles; And what is important - the process of obtaining such beetles is interesting to the bird. But an excessive amount of flour or zoophobas in the diet leads to rapid obesity of songbirds.
There is an opinion that the zoophobas or tormenter can gnaw through the goiter of insectivorous birds. This is not true. Even when a bird greedily swallows a live zoophobas, such “worms” will not cause any harm to the bird. Most songbirds crush prey for a long time before eating an insect.
The Chinese nightingale eats a mealworm. Pay attention to the perch: it is from a bamboo branch. Despite the fact that bamboo has a smooth texture, the thickness and shape varies along the length of the stem and this gives an additional physical activity on the paws of a bird.
If you breed a flour worm or zoophobas yourself, then feed these insects with a variety of fresh food, then the nutritional value of food insects will be high.
You can buy mealworm and zoophobas in zoological stores or order them in specialized online stores.
Locusts, cockroaches, crickets
Right now in major cities you can easily buy fodder locusts, various cockroaches, crickets. All of these prey insects should be included in the diets of insectivorous birds as often as possible. However general advice remains true for all these animals: the smaller the insects, the less fat they contain, the more protein, the more tender, i.e. they are most helpful. Adult crickets, cockroaches, locusts are quite fatty foods.
In the video, a robin fed for 10 minutes fights with a cockroach. Check your endurance: can you watch it without rewinding to the end of the video)
Bee brood. Waxed moth
A good food for insectivorous birds is bee brood, waxed moth. These insects are purchased from beekeepers. The waxed moth is occasionally farmed for food insects, but the more often you buy moth from your feed supplier, the more it will be bred.
Silkworm
Caterpillars and pupae of the silkworm are valuable food for insectivores. They are also well suited for feeding nestlings of insectivorous birds. But this food is available only in the areas of distribution of mulberry (mulberry) and industrial silkworm.
Caterpillars. butterflies
All "kinds" of hairless caterpillars are well suited for feeding birds. You can buy hawk caterpillars in pet stores. In spring and summer, you can collect cabbage caterpillars. Adult cabbage butterflies are eaten with pleasure by all songbirds.
Ant egg
Ant egg is a very useful food for all insectivorous birds, but it is quite difficult to buy an ant egg, and besides, not all ant egg collectors take care of anthills. Therefore, I do not recommend giving birds an ant egg without special indications.
Grasshoppers
by the most the best option, in my opinion, is feeding birds with small grasshoppers. However, catching grasshoppers is not possible in all regions. If you have such an opportunity, then as often as possible provide insectivorous birds with small live grasshoppers. Grasshoppers should not be confused with locusts. Locusts are less nutritious than grasshoppers.
Freezing food insects
You can freeze insects for future use. You can store a supply of fodder insects in a conventional freezer, but frozen insects quickly deteriorate, turn rancid, and slime even directly in the freezer. Thawed food is eaten by birds with less interest, leaving thawed insects in the feeders very quickly becomes dangerous to the health of birds. If you decide to freeze a batch of insects, then break them in small portions, so the food will freeze faster and if a mucus process occurs associated with the development of fungi and bacteria, it will not apply to the entire food supply at once, so you can control the cleanliness of the blanks.
It is not right. First, because in nature, in any case, insects are more nutritious than those grown on farms. Secondly, in any case, insectivorous birds, like all other song and ornamental birds, should be soldered twice a year with anthelmintic preparations.
Tips for feeding insectivorous birds with insects
- Live/fresh insects should be included in the songbirds' diet every day.
- The greater the variety of food insects available to your birds, the healthier the birds.
- Try to give immature forms of insects (small in size).
Parrots have long become a common bird for home keeping. However, do not forget that there is great amount species of birds that delight with their bright appearance and melodious songs. Few people notice that our "native" representatives of the bird fauna can become wonderful feathered pets. And if a real Belarusian exotic has settled in your house, then, first of all, this is an indicator that the person caring for him is an outstanding and responsible person.
Which songbird to choose?
What birds do you think you can see or hear outside your window every day? Most often these are passerine birds. Consider several representatives of this detachment, unpretentious and suitable for keeping at home. Most often, cages contain siskins, bullfinches, tap dances, finches, buntings, goldfinches and greenfinches. These are not all types of birds that can be tamed.
Before you get such a pet, you should study a lot of literature and learn that these birds require special attention. You can’t just catch a bird from nature and put it in a cage. She will most likely just die. We need to act with wisdom and patience. It is rare to find wild songbirds on sale from private birders, but if you are lucky, you should pay attention to granivorous birds, since insectivorous birds are quite difficult to keep precisely because of their diet.
The first bird that can be recommended for keeping a novice animal lover is siskin. Once you get to know him, you will forever remain attached to this wonderful bird. Despite its modest appearance, the siskin captivates with its grace and liveliness at the first meeting. And with a longer acquaintance, the chizhik amazes with its gullibility and accommodatingness. In a matter of days, he stops being shy of people, gets used to flying out of the cage and comes back.
Chizh
Of all the household, he usually singles out the one who cares for him. And it is to this person that he will turn all the "requests" for a treat or bathing, raising the feathers on his head, jumping along the perch as close as possible to his person. And having settled down in the house, siskins do not at all feel the desire for freedom and can live up to 10 - 12 years.
The domestication of the siskin lies through the love of delicacies. Some prefer sunflower seeds, others hemp, others pine nuts. The song of a siskin is a soft, melodic chirping, which distinguishes it favorably, for example, from parrots with their sharp and loud voice. Surrounded by other singers, the siskin enriches his song with borrowed knees. A captured male siskin begins to sing in the cage during the first or second week and sings diligently throughout the year, excluding periods of molting. Female siskins usually do not sing, but there are also singing ones.
GoldfinchIn addition to siskins, the black-headed is quite easy to keep. goldfinch with its bright, really smart coloration, red-breasted bullfinch with its melodic whistle and creak, smart finch, which in color will not yield to parrots.
How to keep songbirds at home?
Songbirds can be kept in cages, cages and aviaries, it all depends on the number of pets. They should be placed at a distance of 40 - 50 cm from the floor and above.
With a daily change of food and water, do not make sudden movements. You need to approach the cages and aviaries carefully, talking in an undertone to the birds. Only with such treatment they quickly get used to the person.
Drafts and sudden changes in temperature should also be avoided. A sharp noise, the unexpected appearance of a stranger near the cage, the sudden turning on or off of the light greatly frighten the birds and can cause their death.
It is not recommended to populate cages and aviaries a large number birds, as this leads to rapid contamination, which can lead to an outbreak of diseases. New birds should be settled in the premises in the morning, so that during the day they get used to the conditions of detention and can easily spend the night. Otherwise, without having time to adapt, they will behave restlessly, beat against the bars, and may be injured. It is necessary to select birds for joint keeping, taking into account their size and behavior.
The diet of granivorous birds usually consists of a mixture of seeds from various plants. However, it is impossible to be limited only to grain, the composition of the feed must contain millet of various species, canary seed, oatmeal, oats, colza, rapeseed, flaxseed, lettuce seeds, seeds of coniferous trees, hemp, sunflower, chumiza, burdock, quinoa, meadow herbs, as well as cultivated cereals - wheat and rye, corn. In addition to the listed components, green fodder, berries, vegetables and fruits, buds of various trees and shrubs must be present in the diet. Sometimes food of animal origin should be included in the diet - ant pupae, boiled eggs, flour worms, dry gammarus. The composition of feed mixtures is determined by the species and individual characteristics of birds, and the ratio of components should be changed taking into account palatability.
Unfortunately, there is practically no food for wild birds in pet stores, then you can take food for finches and canaries as a basis, and harvest the rest of the components yourself. The diet must contain a mineral mixture, chalk and sepia. As you can see, feeding indoor birds is an everyday and far from simple concern.
The only disadvantage of keeping songbirds is their rather liquid droppings, this should be taken into account when cleaning and choosing bedding for the bottom of the cage.
With proper care, your feathered pet will delight you with its singing, mobility and longevity.
When using a special entomological trap with a powerful light source, the catch in one night is sometimes calculated in kilograms of insects. Especially a lot of them fall on dark warm nights and when there is a massive flight of insects, such as gypsy moth. Of the insects thus obtained, I have always chosen the lacewings (green insects of the order of the lacewings) and released them: they are very useful as aphid exterminators.
Butterflies and other insects can be dried for future use. It is best to freeze them with heat. Caterpillars can be used as food by most birds. With manual collection of scoop caterpillars in the garden of the nearest collective farm, all birds in the aviaries of the Bolshevo Biological Station were provided with fresh and good food for a long time. In a gauze cage, caterpillars live for a long time. You just need to occasionally throw them a fresh leaf of cabbage.
Insects on herbaceous plants can be mowed for insectivorous birds. With sharp blows on the grass of a strong net set sideways, insects are "mowed" into it. "Mowing" is especially prey in the second half of summer on dry meadows, where there are many fillies.
Insects are given to live birds directly in the net or shaken out of it onto the floor of the enclosures. Birds accustomed to such feeding immediately flock and eat this food in a few minutes.
Insect food can also be prepared for future use. To do this, they are marinated in a jar with a ground or rubber stopper and then dried in the oven. Store insects in a dry place and give to birds dry (tits) or scalded with boiling water. May beetle larvae are found in forest areas when plowing or digging ridges, but rarely in large numbers. Larvae are sometimes hammered even by great tits. More willingly, however, they eat adult May beetles. The latter are also loved by many other birds: the grosbeak, the nuthatch, the starling, the red-footed falcon.
The larvae of the bronze beetle are eaten by corvids, thrushes and starlings, both adults and chicks. Starlings are especially fond of them. This food is very satisfying: the starling, remarkable for its voracity, usually eats no more than two larvae in a row. To small birds, the larvae should be given by cutting into pieces and pre-squeezing out the contents of their intestines. Bronzovka larvae live in abundance around the anthills of red forest ants, as well as in old, burned-out manure. In a narrow strip of half-decayed needles, between the soil and the living part of the anthill, several hundred larvae can be obtained. The extracted larvae in a jar of earth live for weeks. Adult bronze beetles, it seems, are not eaten by anyone, except for the red-footed falcon. Earthworms can be a good nutritional aid for corvids, starlings, and most thrushes. They serve as almost the only natural food when raising chicks of blackbirds, especially black and songbirds (this is often their main food in nature). Hoopoe worms are especially well eaten.
Worms crawl out of any feeder, so before giving them they have to be cut into pieces. Small red worms live in manure, emitting a pungent odor. Adult birds do not eat them. The chicks fed with these worms begin to shake their heads, burp them with a lot of foam, and die about an hour after feeding.
Substitute feed
In addition to natural feeds, similar to those that birds consume in nature, substitute feeds can be used with success. Boiled and finely chopped meat is a good food for starlings, tits and corvids. In the form of additives to the feed mixture, it is given to most insectivorous birds. Raw meat is the main food for birds of prey. Shrikes, starlings, corvids (except jackdaws) willingly eat it.
Any meat is given to birds: beef, horse, lamb, cat, fox, etc. It should not be salty or too fatty. Birds of prey and owls need at least occasionally to give animals, such as mice, rats, sparrows, whole. This food is especially needed for growing chicks. Partly it can be replaced by pieces of meat, rolled in bone meal and feathers.
Small rodents are caught with ordinary mousetraps-crushers in houses (house mice) or in the field, in the forest, near the gumen, haystacks (field and forest mice, voles). Fish is the main food for chicks of gulls and terns (especially large species), herons and other fish-eating birds. Chicks of corvids (worse than others - jackdaws) and even starlings get used to eating it.
White bread, dry, soaked in water or, better, in fresh milk, is eaten by almost all birds. It can be the main food for corvids, starlings and some other birds. It is permissible to give white bread in milk for several days in a row as the main food not only for granivorous, but even for the most whimsical insectivorous birds (warbler, bluethroat, robin).
Boiled eggs in small quantities can be added to the feed of all birds. Eggs, especially the yolk, act as a fixative. Various porridges (millet is better than others) can serve as the main food for starlings and corvids. Thrushes, great tits, and little by little almost all granivorous and even insectivorous birds eat steep porridge.
Fish oil in very small quantities is added to the feed of insectivorous birds, if it is monotonous. For carnivores fed only meat, fish oil is required once a week.
Leftovers from the table (cheese crusts, bread crumbs, carrots and potatoes from the soup, pieces of the second one) can be given to starlings, corvids. Great tits love to "nibble" the bones boiled in the soup.
Blue-headed pionus, or Brazilian black-eared parrot (Pionus menstruus)
Green feed
Birds that do not receive berries and fruits need abundant green fodder.
Birds love two herbs very much: wood lice ( Stellaria media) - garden and field weed growing in wet places, and knotweed (bird knotweed, bird buckwheat, goose grass ( Polygonum aviculare), growing in dry places - on paths, roads, even between pavement stones in cities. It is convenient to store wood lice in a plate with water, pressing the grass with a pebble. So she does not fade for weeks.
In urban conditions, a salad is good. By spring, you can plant oats in boxes and feed them when they reach 5-10 cm in height. The tradescantia, a plant with creeping stems, is most convenient for indoor birds. It is planted in small flower pots. When the shoots of tradescantia reach several tens of centimeters, the plant is suspended next to the cage so that 1-2 leaves penetrate into it. The bird pecks at the leaves, and new ones develop in their place. Whole shoots can also be placed in an indoor aviary, which are also replaced as their leaves are eaten.
Some birds willingly eat the winter buds of trees, such as lindens (bullfinch, grosbeak, sparrows), or needles, they ate better than pines (crossbills, siskin). Take advantage of every visit to the forest to bring some fresh branches to your birds. If the latter are kept in the cold, they do not dry for a long time.
In the spring, the earthen floor of the enclosure is sown with oats, buckwheat, quinoa and other plants, dug up, densely sown again and leveled with a rake. Seeds that have fallen to different depths do not germinate simultaneously, and therefore the birds eat the seedlings for quite a long time. It is not possible to save the grass until autumn: it is destroyed by the inhabitants of the enclosure or it dies from an excess of their droppings.
Mineral feed
Egg shells in a finely ground form (once or twice a month) are mixed into the feed. If birds breed in captivity, the need for females is very high and it must be given daily during the laying period. Birds eagerly peck even clean shells at this time.
When raising chicks, I gave them eggshells every day, rolling pieces of food in the powder from them. In nature, birds bring to chicks, starting from the second day of their life (field sparrow), eggshells, shells of mollusks or pieces of lime.
Pebbles are necessary for grinding food in the bird's stomach. If the bottom of the cage is lined with paper, then sand (if possible coarse) should be given at least once a week. The bird immediately begins to choose from it pebbles of a rounded shape, and the hardest ones are quartz. Their size in small birds is 1-2 mm. Therefore, sifting sand through a fine sieve, as is sometimes done, is completely unacceptable. Even on the floor of the outdoor enclosure, you need to occasionally sprinkle sand, as the birds quickly select all suitable pebbles from it, which pretty soon wear out in their stomachs. Granivorous birds are especially in need of pebbles, and first of all swallowing seeds in the shell: quail, larks.
Composition of feed mixtures
Grain mixture is made according to tastes different types. The main rule to follow with regard to grain mixtures is the greatest variety. Cannabis should be given less.
A properly formulated mixture should be eaten by birds without residue. We give examples of mixtures for some birds.
For oatmeal
Millet - 50%
Oats - 20%
Canary seed or lettuce seeds - 20%
Weed seeds - 5%
White bread - 5%
Of course, very approximate ratios between feeds are given, but the general nature of each mixture is still clearly visible: some contain only oily seeds (for crossbills), others only mealy seeds (for oatmeal), and still others - both.
Grain mixtures have various additives: white bread (at the bullfinch), berries (at the crossbill), etc. When compiling mixtures, one must also take into account the individual characteristics of the birds. In our practice, there were cases when one siskin preferred hemp to any food, while the other could not live without flour worms. Or, for example, out of two greenfinches, only one ate, and, moreover, very willingly, burdock seed.
Taritsa - a mixture of millet, crushed wheat, barley, vetch is recommended for pigeons, larks, oatmeal.
Nightingale mixture is the basis of nutrition for insectivorous birds in captivity. Scalded, cooled and slightly squeezed ant eggs (40%) are mixed with grated carrots (30%) and crushed white breadcrumbs (30%). You can add some raw minced meat (the mixture spoils quickly) or finely chopped boiled meat. For the most unpretentious birds (robin, thrushes, starling), the number of ant eggs can be reduced or even completely eliminated. The nightingale mixture is also well eaten by granivorous birds, to which it is given as an additive to grain feed. In winter, the mixture is stored during the day. In the summer it is usually not consumed. At this time, fresh ant eggs are given.
Literature: K.N. Blagosklonov. Birds in captivity. Moscow, 1960
DISEASES OF SONG AND DECORATIVE BIRDS
ROSSELHOZIZDAT 1980
VETERINARY REQUIREMENTS FOR THE KEEPING AND FEEDING OF BIRDS
When keeping birds at home, the main attention should be paid to the prevention of diseases. Advanced chronic cases often do not respond to treatment or have a short-term improvement.
The veterinarian should not only cure the bird, but also give advice on its proper maintenance and feeding at home.
Content.
Some hobbyists let the birds out of the cage to walk around the room. The cage in this case serves only for food intake and night rest. This content prevents metabolic disorders, especially with a tendency to obesity.
Good results are obtained by keeping in aviaries and large bird cages, where the bird is able to fly freely and choose communities of other birds. However, birds should not be placed in aviaries in severe frosts and in hot weather. During the formation of pairs when kept in aviaries, birds may show aggression towards others.
One or two birds are often kept in a cage, it is better to place a larger number in a room aviary. Making a good cage that meets all veterinary requirements is not an easy task. Almost always small, often round or polygonal cages with a gabled roof go on sale. For many species of birds, they are completely unsuitable. The most suitable is a flat, rectangular cage in size depending on the type of bird (they are listed below).
A cage for large birds should be equal to the full span of the wings so that the tail and flywheels do not deteriorate. Inside the cage, you should not install more than three or four perches, which the bird can hit when taking off from the floor. For parrots, it is also necessary to install a swing, taking into account their number. It is best to make perches from soft woods (elder, willow, linden, etc.), whose thickness and elasticity contribute to the exercises of the toes and prevents anomalies of the flexor tendons of the fingers.
Nesting equipment
1 - basket, 2.3 - houses for small birds, 4 - closed basket, 5 - house for small parrots, 6 - house from natural material, 7,8 - lining for nesting
On sale, sometimes there are cages with plastic perches that are easy to disinfect and wash, but due to their hardness, they can cause inflammation of the plantar crumb (pododermatitis) in birds. Install a perch inside the cage away from the drinker and feeder to avoid contamination of feed and water. Having carefully studied the behavior and movement of the bird, you need to position the perch in such a way that the bird i.e. could touch the walls of the cell with plumage.
The main cause of injuries in budgerigars can be damage to the skin and limbs from the protruding corners of the feeder, drinkers, nests, etc.
Different types of parrots have different attitudes towards bathing, but it is always good to have a bathing suit filled with water. Many species of parrots in nature bathe in plant flowers or near falling water, others preferentially in leaves covered with dew. In a cage for this purpose, you can use wet lettuce leaves, germinated oats. In some cases, parrots can be bathed under a light jet of a warm shower. This is especially important for those species that are native to countries with a hot climate and high humidity.
To maintain the state of the beak in order, it is recommended to place branches of fruit trees, birch in a cage.
Budgerigars, lovebirds feel better if I have the opportunity to fly freely in cages. Cages for budgerigars - 50 X 30 X 40 cm, for lovebirds - 80 X 40 X 60 cm. The risk of injury and disruption of plumage during movement often depends on the anxiety of the bird.
Grain eaters are kept in boxes or open cages, and this type of bird is recommended to be given more freedom of movement. The minimum cage size for two canaries is 50 X 30 X 40 cm. Most grain eaters like to bathe, so there should always be a bath in the cages.
Keeping and caring for insectivores requires in most cases much more labor and care than for granivores, and they are much less common. A suitable cage for them is one that is longer than it is wide, allowing them to jump from perch to perch. For example, the minimum cage length for this species of birds is 50 cm, for nightingales - 60, for thrushes - 75 - 80 cm. For keeping insectivores, a bird room or aviary is best suited, but the roof should also be covered with soft material. Most of the insectivorous birds are migratory; therefore, in autumn and spring, when kept in cages, they show considerable anxiety. At adverse conditions in insectivores, the plumage is broken when hitting the net.
The droppings of this bird species are moist, so the floor must be kept clean and the sand or sawdust changed frequently. With unsanitary maintenance, the litter is mixed with a layer of sand and forms growths on the legs after drying.
Insectivores, like granivores, are big lovers of bathing, so they put a bathing suit in the cage, around which plastic is laid to prevent excessive moisture from entering the litter. It should always be remembered that severe contamination of a bathing suit or bath can lead to the development of dangerous infectious diseases.
Swallows and swifts are placed in a cage in exceptional cases: only in case of diseases (swallows cannot tolerate being kept in cages). At the same time, heating the cell with a specially equipped heat source, a reflector, and an infrared lamp is of great importance.
Lapwings are the most sensitive to home conditions of keeping and feeding. Such a need is often associated with damage to the wings and legs. Peat is used as bedding for this species of bird.
Wild birds are kept in cages or better in aviaries. All bird species in captivity gradually lose their ability to fly. Certain species of wild birds practically cannot develop in cages, because they are naturally predatory.
Captivity is especially difficult for sea birds capable of long-term flight. To help a sick or injured bird, it is placed in a special cage that restricts movement.
It is difficult to note in detail the feeding habits of numerous species of birds within the scope of this book, but the main recommendations should be paid attention to, as they help in the diagnosis and prevention of the disease.
Feeding
Feeding rations for birds are based on their species and age. The feed should contain the necessary nutrients: fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, macro and microelements.
The need for nutrients is closely related to the activity of individual birds: when kept in aviaries and freely distributed nutrients, the body needs more than when kept in cages and rooms with optimal temperatures.
Fats and carbohydrates serve as an energy material for the bird, in addition, fats can be vehicles for fat-soluble vitamins and organ function (eg, egg production, excretion, fats).
Proteins are the main component of muscles, organs, feathers, skin, beak, bones and eggs. Enzymes and hormones are also formed from proteins. Vital essential amino acids are not synthesized in the body, they must be contained in the feed. Depending on the presence of amino acids in the diet, we can talk about the usefulness of feeding. Their quantity in seeds poor in protein (millet, millet, barley) is lower than in fat-containing seeds (rice, sunflower seeds, anise, poppy seeds, hemp, Walnut, peanut), and most of all in feeds of animal origin. Red, white and yellow millet contains almost no essential amino acids - lysine, tryptophan, it also lacks methionine. For granivorous feed, several types of grain should be included. With a combination of millet and oats, the bird is provided with all essential amino acids. During molting and feather formation, the need for amino acids and minerals for feather formation increases significantly. The bird should be provided primarily with sulfur-containing substances, amino acids. During the period of reproduction and feeding of young animals, the requirements for nutrients also increase.
Decreased fertility of eggs and death of embryos indicate malnutrition, despite the fact that the adult bird does not show visible disorders.
Along with fats, proteins and carbohydrates, for the normal life and reproduction of birds, the body needs vitamins, macro- and microelements. Grass seeds serve as a source of vitamin complex B but do not contain vitamin C and D. Yellow corn grains are the most important source of provitamin A. Grain germinated before pecking is rich in all vitamins (especially vitamin E), therefore, during the breeding season of the bird, the grain is placed in a flat dish (plate, cuvette), cover with gauze and moisten with water until the sprouts peck.
Depending on the type of birds, feeding should be specific and varied. In order to prevent diseases of metabolic disorders in the diet of birds, it is necessary to include natural sources of vitamins and trace elements: green grass, germinated seeds of plants, carrots, apples, oranges, juice of fruits and berries, in winter - dried leaves of clover, alfalfa.
Parrots, canaries as a feed additive should be given sprigs with bark and buds of various trees (birch, cherry, apple), which contain trace elements and other vital components.
Most metabolic disorders in the body occur in late winter-early spring, when the body's vitamin stores are reduced, and the need for nutrients increases dramatically due to molting and preparation for the sexual season.
Bird owners use a grain mixture for feeding (canary seed, millet, oats). Before feeding the grain mixture, it is advisable to view it through a magnifying glass, select high-quality in color and appearance. New food is given gradually, adding it to the remaining small stocks of the old. Abrupt transition to a new food can lead to gastrointestinal diseases. Normal digestion is facilitated by gravel (fine river or sea sand), which must always be in the cage.
Sometimes poultry farmers use multivitamin preparations A, B1, B2, C, D2, E, which are best added to drinking water. Fish oil contains vitamins A and D.
Vitamins should be used in a minimal amount (1 - 2 drops of an aqueous solution), since an overdose causes a disease, more often fatty degeneration of the liver and poisoning. The principle "the more - the better" for songbirds and decorative birds is unacceptable. Usually, young and adult birds experience a greater need for vitamins when feeding.
Certain requirements are also needed for tap water, which after neutralization contains no a large number of chlorine. Drinking such water for a long period of time is dangerous for the chicks. To remove chlorine, the water is settled for two days in an open container.
Of the means that neutralize and soften water, you can use avisanol (manufactured by Derks). This preparation contains calcium in an easily digestible form. Avizanol in drops also destroys pathogenic pathogens, prevents feather plucking in birds, and prevents skin irritation. It is enough to add a few drops of this drug to the drinker.
There is a special drug "Mauser" against molting, which is injected into water or food. It contains a set of microelements and multivitamins in an easily digestible form for active vaporization.
Often there are metabolic disorders with insufficient or excessive intake of nutrients in the bird's body. Nutrient requirements vary widely among bird species due to growth, temperature environment, hormonal function, Some species of birds, under adverse conditions of feeding and keeping, do not respond to their action, while in others this is manifested by persistent pathological changes. Pathological anatomical symptoms in malnutrition in some cases have characteristic pronounced syndromes (encephalomalacia, exudative diathesis, perosis, etc.), in others they may be vaguely expressed.
The incoming energy substances are necessary for mechanical work muscles, active transport of optimal intra- and extracellular concentrations of substances. For all metabolic processes a certain amount of heat is released.
Many species of ornamental and songbirds are very active, so they need high-energy substances. The amount of useful energy in different species of birds, depending on the environmental conditions, varies between 70 - 90%. The energy requirement of some birds is much higher than that of mammals. A bird with a body weight of 50-100 g eats daily food, which is 5-10% of its weight.
The nutrition of birds should be varied and differ according to the periods of the season, special attention should be paid to feeding during the breeding period of rearing young animals.
The growth rates of budgerigars, presented by G. I. Michaels (1971), show that at first the body weight tends to constantly increase, and in the adult state it decreases slightly.
|
Body weight (g) |
|
The consumption of water and feed depends on many external factors, such as the duration of light exposure, the ambient air temperature, the season of the year. With high light exposure and low air temperature, feed intake increases.
Bird lovers often do not pay attention to this, but in such conditions, a molt begins in a bird. To regulate the light regime in the evening, it is necessary to close the cage with matter, reducing the length of daylight hours to 7-8 hours.
Most parrots have a strong beak, which is necessary not only for crushing grain and hard fruit, but also for processing nest material. The upper part of the beak, in contrast to the design of the beak of most other bird species, is connected to the skull, the lower part of the beak moves only forward and backward. The device of the oral cavity in parrots is such that the grain does not fall out. In macaw parrots, the beak and the membrane of the oral cavity are very hard, therefore, with the help of their beak, they can destroy the wire of the cage, perches (Fig. 1).
Rice. one. Various forms beak in birds in normal and pathological conditions: A - granivorous; B - insectivores; B - parrots; G - incorrect growth of the lower part of the beak; D - incorrect growth of the upper part of the beak
Parrots have (300 to 400) numerous taste glands in their beaks. The upper and lower parts of the beak have the function of touch. Feeding parrots is not difficult: they can eat a large amount of millet and other types of grains that are sold in stores in the form of a grain mixture. parrots can long time stay healthy when fed with one grain.
Introduction to the diet of fruits and juice of oranges, apples, plums, pears, grapes is an additional food source of easily digestible carbohydrates, peptides, vitamins. Loria parrots are best given fruits, sugar, juices, and nutritious infant formula.
In summer, plant seeds also contain vitamins. In winter, millet and oats are used. Not all parrots are vegetarians. Boiled egg, flour worms, meat are sources of protein. There are observations when parrots grind bones and use them as a top dressing. However, an excess of animal protein is very harmful to parrots and can lead to perversion of appetite.
An approximate daily diet of budgerigars includes at least two or three types of grain and a set of components that provide the need for vitamins, protein and amino acids. In quantitative terms, we can recommend the following composition (g): millet - 12, oats - 6, sunflower - 1, canary seed - 3, white bread - 5, dry millet - 1, boiled millet - 2, flour worms - 0.5 , boiled chicken egg - 0.5, ant eggs - 0.5, grated carrot - 2, boiled baker's yeast - 0.2. One adult parrot per day should have 33.75 g of the listed feed ingredients.
The feeding technique is as follows: a grain mixture and a separate set of soft food are placed in the dishes. All minerals (shell, chalk, slaked lime, a small amount of table salt, sand) are poured into a separate bowl. With such feeding, there is no need to additionally introduce vitamins into the diet, since the need for them is completely covered by their content in this grain mixture. Sometimes only 2-3 drops of medical fish oil are added.
The natural sources of provitamin A are carotene, cryptoxanthin, xanthophylls, which provide intense coloring of the beak, foot, plumage. Especially a lot of these substances are found in carrots, spinach, dandelion, herbal flour. The need for them increases significantly during the period of molting, the formation of eggs. As a source of carotene, you can give the bird crushed grain of yellow corn, egg yolk.
Some poultry farmers use ordinary red ground pepper in feeding canaries, but this is not justified. Only cayenne, pre-processed peppers are suitable for this purpose.
Canaries are fed abundantly and variedly and at the same time they do not allow obesity. Oatmeal, hemp, crushed sunflower seeds, flax seeds, rapeseed, weeds - dandelion, shepherd's purse are introduced into the diet of this bird species; in winter, carrots, buds of cherry, birch, and linden branches are added. Spring colza is well eaten by canaries, it is advisable to pour the seeds with boiling water to remove the bitter taste. Seeds are fed at the stage of milky-wax ripeness, since in this case there is no danger of obesity. It is better to give young canaries ground grain, it activates the processes of digestion, is well absorbed and prevents beak formation anomalies.
The composition of the diet of canaries should include three to four types of food: grain, egg mixture, fruits, vegetables, greens. In a separate bowl, pour the shell of chicken eggs, chalk.
Obesity in canaries often occurs when the ratio of feed components is not observed, for example, an excess of flaxseed. Canaries willingly eat birch seeds (in the amount of 3-5 g daily), mature dandelion seeds, which have inflorescences after cutting Brown color. Seeds can be harvested for the future.
The egg mixture is prepared from a boiled egg without a shell, rubbed on a grater with the addition of crackers crushed into a fine powder. The ratio of the mixture is 1 egg and 1.5 tablespoons of rusk powder, then it is moistened with carrot juice and 18-20 drops of fortified fish oil are included.
In order to provide the bird with minerals, shell rock and egg shells are added to the diet, which can be introduced into the sand or placed separately in the form of a mineral supplement.
Powerful vitamin premixes, trace elements, feather meal, fish oil and some others should be given only after consulting a veterinarian.
The diet should contain several types of grains. Under natural habitat conditions, some species of granivorous bring insects to their chicks in the first days of life.
Finches also have a favorite food of grain, in connection with this, the upper part of the beak is designed in such a way that they are able to separate the husk and destroy the contents of the grain.
In addition, finches also eat herbaceous plants in the form of a feed mixture with pleasure. The short beak and its special arrangement enable them to exclusively feed on this type of food. A strong beak even allows you to destroy a stone from a cherry, so some species, in appropriate habitat conditions, feed on the seeds of fruit trees. Various species of finches eat large amounts of grains of their own choosing.
The upper part of the beak of the bunting has a special growth of a massive shape. Seeds (kernels) are deeply pushed inside the beak with the help of this outgrowth, and the shell is also separated by it. Oatmeal can feed on the seeds of timothy, awnless bonfire.
Nightingales have a special beak device that allows you to press the grains with your tongue to the top of the beak and squeeze one of its edges.
The mixture for finches is made up of a large amount of millet, while care should be taken that, along with small oat grains, there are also coarse, unprocessed, covered with husks, which are necessary for the constant strengthening of the beak. In pet stores for granivorous, you can buy ready-made food. But along with dry grain as a source of vitamins, they should be given fruits and vegetables.
As a rule, many species of birds are happy to eat branches of young fruit trees, especially cherry and pear trees. In winter, this food can completely replace the need for vitamin supplements. Grain-eating vegetable protein is obtained by feeding cookies, as well as flour worms, fresh pupae from butterflies, which are pre-harvested from May to August. A good protein food is freshly boiled eggs and dairy products, but care must be taken to clean the beak of granivorous at all times, as such a mixture can cause the formation of growths.
The food source of insectivorous birds in nature are various living insects, but since it is not always possible to find such food when kept in captivity, a healthy bird is given a substitute. A fresh and complete source of animal protein for this species is ant eggs, which are frozen (in this form they are stored for a long time). However, at present, due to nature conservation requirements, it is not allowed to disturb ant settlements. Insectivores can be given mealworms, but at a certain stage of development when they are white in color. When feeding yellow or brown larvae in large numbers, there is a risk of disease. Willingly eaten by thrushes, starlings and other species of most insectivorous earthworms. However, feeding of untreated earthworms serves as a vector; feeding of singamo-feeding of earthworms found in soil treated with herbicides and insecticides can cause bird poisoning.
Myx should be used to feed insectivores; some bird species also willingly eat daphnia. Live daphnia serve as good food for rearing the offspring of small insectivorous birds. You can feed them to butterflies, beetles and other insects, both live and dried in the form of a mixture that keeps well in the refrigerator.
Thrushes are fed coarse-grained food, including dried ant pupae. Often chopped nuts and some types of berries are also introduced into it. This food can be prepared carrot juice, water in the form of gruel.
A bird that readily eats fruit can be mixed with crushed apples. In the summer to prevent disease gastrointestinal tract constantly monitor the quality of feed. In the evening, it is necessary to remove the remains, as the food sours overnight.
Insectivorous birds in a crushed form add May beetles in small doses. To prepare an egg biscuit, take the boiled egg yolk, then grind it and dry it.
Insectivores develop a certain habit to one or another type of food. For example, a favorite treat for thrushes is finely chopped (cooked or fresh) bovine heart muscle.
Mineral top dressing of a bird is received from the crushed shell of eggs. For those who eat nectar, a substitute is prepared - 1 tablespoon of honey, milk and infant formula and 6-7 tablespoons of water. All this is laid in a special tube through which the bird consumes food. In the afternoon, you can change the composition of the mixture: 1 ml of honey in 3 - 4 tablespoons of water. This solution should also be mixed with meat extract, multivitamins and lime for 2-3 weeks.
With long-term keeping in cages of wild birds, it is necessary to regulate feeding, including live or dead birds, mice, rats in their diet. Lack of such food can lead to metabolic diseases. You should also take care of the baths for bathing.
Owls, which can sit still for hours in freedom, are provided with regular feeding by the hour. Their diet is no different from other types of birds of prey. Crows are happy to eat fruits, such as cherries, plums, strawberries, grapes, apples, etc. However, in captivity they especially need mineral supplements. Yeast, wheat husks or feather meal are used as its substitute. An adult bird loves a mixture of crushed oatmeal, rice, potatoes. In spring and summer, they are given earthworms, May beetles, which can be replaced with mealworms. Add pieces of beef meat, sprigs of hazelnuts to the diet. They make a certain mixture of bread, eggs (cool) and baby flour. They easily clean fresh cooked bones from meat residues and willingly eat cartilage.
Ravens, when kept free, swallow small pebbles the size of a small hazelnut. The reason for this phenomenon is little known, but pebbles (gastroliths) play an important role in the process of digestion. It has been established that, when kept in captivity, the absence of these components sometimes leads to the death of crows.
Insects, as well as crushed heart of cattle, freshly boiled eggs can serve as food for swallows and swifts. When forcibly giving food in swallows, blockage of the upper part of the esophagus is possible, so it should be formed in the form of balls and injected through an open beak. Water the bird with a pipette.
The food of lapwings consists of crushed cattle heart muscles, flour and earthworms, and a small amount of white bread moistened with milk.
It is more difficult to raise a young bird when an adult bird dies or leaves the nest. Chicks are very demanding on the conditions of detention, so a person can rarely replace their parents. Birds, depending on the breeding of chicks, are divided into two groups: chicks and broods.
A chick group is one in which naked, blind, helpless chicks are hatched, for a long time adults feed them until full plumage and usually do not leave them even after departure. Some species of insectivorous, granivorous and omnivorous groups belong to nestlings.
Broods, after hatching, have full plumage, can leave nests in the first days and search for food and water on their own. Representatives of this bird species are chickens and waterfowl.
A distinct difference between chicks and broods is the foraging technique. Individual representatives of insectivores pick up a large number of insects and worms in their beaks and then fill their goiter, and then feed their chicks with this mixture. Granivores can feed their chicks with special goiter milk, which is secreted, for example, from pigeons, in the first days after the chicks hatch and serves as an exclusive food for them.
The technique of feeding the chicks plays an important role in the replacement of parents. Sometimes they have abnormal development of plumage and a number of other disorders associated with improper feeding. Of great importance is the duration of feeding. Certain types of chicks require frequent feeding and cannot survive 30 minutes without food, after which they die. The urge to feed is manifested by anxiety, squeaking, to which the caregiver must respond. After receiving food, the chicks fall asleep. At artificial feeding chicks, care must be taken in the process of opening the beak (due to its softness). For this purpose, a smooth stick should be used, which is placed in the corner of the beak, and food is put into the gap formed. Drinking water is given through a pipette, instilled into an open beak. Falcons and owls in freedom can do without water for a long time, so it is not necessary to water the chicks of this species. If mixed dry food is used, it is pre-soaked in water so that there is no blockage of the esophagus. Very young chicks should be fed at least 6 times a day. In the future, they get used to eating food themselves. Granivore and insectivore chicks are given an egg, egg biscuit, minced meat, granivore love strawberries, carrots, apples. At the same time, a drop of fish oil, a small amount of mineral additives are added to the mixture. From insects, flour worms are used.
The main food for young granivorous is crushed plant seeds. For this type of bird, ready-made canary food available in pet stores can be recommended. Swallow and swift chicks are fed with ant pupae, flies, minced meat, and freshly boiled eggs.
Young chicks of birds of prey should be fed unsalted meat, freed from fat, frogs, fish, and fresh insects.
Feeding brood chicks often does not present great difficulties. Within a few days after hatching, they easily perceive food, which has its own characteristics for each species. This bird species quickly develops a pecking reflex from an adult bird.
In chicken species of birds, the ability to peck develops a few hours after hatching. However, there are cases when, when an adult bird dies in untrained chicks, food intake is disturbed. Then resort to force-feeding.