Feeding for Breeding
Birds in Focus...
A huge amount has been written on various feeding methods when breeding Budgerigars. Almost every breeder has a proprietary recipe for soft-food or egg-food and different seed mixes are common. Some breeders swear by a nothing more than seed and water regime, others make a veritable smorgasbord for their birds.
I've spent a lot of time and effort looking at the various options and what follows below is the regime I've settled on and this covers not just the food but some method for breeding and raising my birds.
Firstly there are some criteria that need to be satisfied.
1. Balanced nutrition, the birds should be provided with good array of food with vitamins, minerals etc
2. Protein, key in a Show Bird's make up is size and protein is how to achieve this.
3. Continuity in growth, it's important that the young birds get constant feeding and don't suffer a loss of growth time.
4. Time, like many people I don't have time to spend more than about an hour a day on my birds so any time saving methods I can utilise are important.
Balanced nutrition in my flights during the non breeding season is achieved by feeding the following:
Seed - I mix a sack of mixed Budgie Seed with a sack of Canary Seed and this provides the mainstay mix. The reason I used Canary Seed is that it is higher in protein than Millet etc. Occasionally (weekly) some whole Oats or for younger birds crushed Oats are provided, but I am careful with these as they seem to be very fattening.
Minerals - My flight floors are crushed shell, I also provide the birds with a mix of poultry grit, crushed microwaved hens egg shells, a small amount of medicated pigeon grit, "nibble" blocks made from these and plaster of paris, and periodically a small amount of a cattle salt lick block.
Fresh foods, Carrot, Silver-beet (Swiss Chard), Dandelion, Sows Thistle (in NZ, Puha) Corn on Cob and seeding grasses as available, are provided daily.
Water, I have a self watering system that is adapted from a garden-watering timer system, so that the water in the flights is replenished and the old water flushed twice daily. Twice a year I'll use a prophylactic antibiotic, and wormer followed by pro-biotics. My flights are open to the sun and rain so I have to be careful with wild bird transmitted problems.
Once my birds have been paired up I make sure that in each cage each pair has the following :
Seed hopper with the normal seed mix.
Drinking fountain with pro-biotics (this keeps the parents and chicks internal bacteria in a good state).
Dish of poultry grit, crushed microwaved hens egg shells, a small amount of medicated pigeon grit, "nibble" blocks made from these and plaster of paris.
Dish of crushed oats.
A Dandelion leaf per pair daily, two or more leaves when chicks arrive. Dandelion seems to have a natural medicinal quality.
Egg-food, once a week before chicks arrive and every two days once the chicks have hatched. I find that if fed every day, less seed is consumed and I'm pretty sure that seed should be the major part of the bird's diet.
Time saving Egg Food recipe: 3 eggs, 2 tbsp water 1 tsp glucose, roughly beaten, microwaved for a minute, then beaten again and another minute in the microwave, broken up with a fork into rice-size pieces, then cooled and 2 tbsp rolled oats mixed in.
The last thing I feed the birds may surprise some. I've tried, things like poultry chick starter pellets, laying mash and others. But what I've hit upon and that the birds have taken to, is Dog Biscuits. I tried the various ones that I fed to my dogs and one day found, that the birds really liked a particular kind of beef and vegetable biscuit. I am pleased with this as it ups the protein intake of the birds and is a time saver. The research that goes into the pet-food industry ensures that there a good levels of vitamins and minerals. This and the birds seem to have a glossier coat, err... feathers...
Additionally, when the chicks are still in the nest and are feathering up, I put in a small handful of seed into the nest box. The chicks are picking up things off the floor any way and if there's seed there they take to feeding themselves much quicker when they leave the nest box. This keeps them growing at a stage that often can see them lose condition, when before they would take a few days to learn about seed.
Once they've been on the floor of the cage a few days and can be seen to be feeding themselves, I move the chicks to a creche cage with other chicks and give them a week or so there, still with egg food etc that they were getting in the parent's cage.
And when the time comes to put them into the flights, I usually stop the egg food but continue the Oats and Dog Biscuits.
I've had a good crop this year following the above, but as with anything, your mileage may vary.
Mark Nissen.