Human research applied to parrot diets

Human research applied to parrot diets

While there is a good amount of research on wild birds, there is precious little on captive birds. We do have a lot in common with birds, however:

  • Overall human health, especially in western countries, and captive bird health is poor
  • We share most of the same important internal organs and they perform the same functions
  • Many very common diseases in humans are also common in birds
  • Especially in the United States, we are both advised to eat a low fat, high carbohydrate diet (USDA, AHA, and others)
  • When our birds are ill with diseases in common with humans, we are typically given the same proposed remedies

The food for thought here is whether, given the similarities, we can apply this human research on diet to captive birds.

Here is a short list of diseases we share that are at least partially influenced by diet:

  • Cancer
  • Diabetes
  • Fatty liver disease
  • Gout
  • Heart disease
  • Heart attacks
  • Kidney failure
  • Obesity (metabolic disorder)

I’m dipping my toe into a difficult topic here: bird diets.… READ THE REST

Grass for grassland birds

Grass for grassland birds

There are a number of species of birds, some very popular ones, that are grassland birds in the wild. Below is a non-comprehensive list. Look up your bird on Wikipedia and it should have a section called “habitat” that you can use to see if your bird is a grassland bird.

  • Africa
    • Lovebirds
  • Australia
    • Bourke’s Parrot
    • Budgies
    • Cockatiels
    • Cockatoos (Galah)
    • Neophemas (grass parrots)
    • Red-rumped Parrot
  • South America
    • Hyacinch Macaw

Obvious in retrospect, I’ve discovered that my grassland birds really love grass! It’ll hold their attention longer than just about anything, even millet sprays sometime. They love to eat the seeds, if present, or gnaw the blades of grass.

Hazel bathing in grass.

Some things you can try:

  • Grow wheatgrass. You can buy this at most garden centers already sprouted. Put it on the bottom of their cage or in a flat area they run around in.
  • Get cuttings of grass from your yard.
… READ THE REST
UV myth #6: Windows block all UV light

UV myth #6: Windows block all UV light

There is disagreement about what effect windows have on UV light. However, this is something that can be easily measured with UV meters. The end result is that windows only partially block UVA light, while completely blocking UVB light.

Ordinary window glass passes about 90% of the light above 350 nm, but blocks over 90% of the light below 300 nm.

Ultraviolet—Wikipedia

Below 330 nm (UV-B and UV-C), almost 100% is blocked by normal glass

UV FAQs—International Ultraviolet Association

Note: If your windows have a special UV coating applied to them, then you should check with the manufacturer to see how it would affect UV light.

The conclusions from this:

  • UVA, the type of light known for enhancing bird vision significantly, is only partially blocked by glass. This means that putting a bird in a room with abundant light coming through windows could have a great impact on their lives.
  • UVB light is blocked by glass, so there is no Vitamin D benefit from being in a sunlight filled room with closed windows.
… READ THE REST
Exceptional toys for small birds

Exceptional toys for small birds

I like to share products that I love and I feel are unique and exceptional. When I shop for bird toys, I often find the following:

  • Plastic and lots of it
  • Toys that skew towards larger birds
  • Toys made out of only one or two materials
  • They aren’t particular clever or interesting

The company I want to share is called Little Blue Bird Toys. It’s potentially a one person operation but I never asked. They sold on Etsy for awhile but appear to sell exclusively on their website.

The toys are very unique, unlike most toys I’ve seen. My favorite part is the list of materials they use is very long. And most toys have 3 or more different types of materials. Here’s a list I compiled, which may not be comprehensive.

  • cork
  • cardboard cups
  • paper shred
  • balsa
  • wooden beads
  • paper cord
  • hardwood
  • leather
  • cupcake paper
  • bamboo
  • paper woven balls
  • palm shred
  • yucca
  • grapevine
  • pine
  • popsicle sticks
  • coconut
  • mahagony
  • sola
  • willow
  • loofah
  • buri
  • basswood
  • tree roots
  • paper straws
  • pod cups

Here’s one product my cockatiels love.… READ THE REST

Case study of “How do I know who to trust?”

Case study of “How do I know who to trust?”

I wanted to provide an example to back up what I wrote about in How do I know who to trust? I wish I could say it’s easy to spot misinformation, but it does get easier over time.

I could’ve picked any number of articles, but I chose this one to illustrate how I determine a trustworthy source.

Proper lighting to support avian vision

On the plus side

  • It comes from a seemingly credible source, one of the largest bird rescue organizations in the US
  • Clearly a lot of effort was put into writing a very wide-reaching article that is presented and formatted nicely and with images

On the minus side

This article has a number of obvious red flags to start off with:

  • No author is listed as well as no contact information
  • No sources are cited for an article that is highly technical and critically important to bird health

Analysis

Now I’m going to go through the article and quote some bits of it and explain the concerns that I find.… READ THE REST

UV myth #5: Diet is better than sun for Vitamin D

UV myth #5: Diet is better than sun for Vitamin D

It’s commonly thought that diet is the optimal way to ensure that birds get the right amount of Vitamin D. It turns out that you can end up with too much or too little Vitamin D with diet alone and adding sunlight or UVB lighting is your best option.

Note: The research for this post mostly come from one article in a scientific journal, but it collects research from 69 sources so it’s pretty comprehensive.

There are two ways to get Vitamin D:

  • Supplementation, typically in food
  • UVB from sunlight or artificial lighting

Hypovitaminosis (low Vitamin D)

Low Vitamin D can lead to all sorts of problems. Birds can even get rickets!

Although vitamin D is critical to calcium/phosphorus homeostasis, bone formation and remodeling, there is evolution-based variation between species in vitamin D metabolism and susceptibility to rickets and osteomalacia.

The pathology of vitamin D deficiency in domesticated animals: An evolutionary and comparative overview—International Journal of Paleopathology—December 2018

And here it’s noted that sunlight or UVB supplemention are in some cases required to have adequate Vitamin D levels.… READ THE REST

UV myth #4: Full spectrum bulbs contain UV light

UV myth #4: Full spectrum bulbs contain UV light

When recommending avian lighting, the suggestion is often that you should buy a full-spectrum bulb. However, if you are wanting UV light, a bulb labelled as full-spectrum is unlikely to put out any UV light at all.

The term “full spectrum” doesn’t have a strict definition when it applies to light bulbs. Wikipedia clearly explains the difference between full spectrum and full-spectrum lighting.

Full-spectrum light is light that covers the electromagnetic spectrum from infrared to near-ultraviolet, or all wavelengths that are useful to plant or animal life; in particular, sunlight is considered full spectrum […]

“Full-spectrum” is not a technical term when applied to an electrical light bulb. Rather, it implies that the product emulates some important quality of natural light.

Full-spectrum light—Wikipedia

More importantly, use of the term is not regulated nor is there any kind of certification organization. So, when you see full-spectrum on the box for a light bulb, it is typically one of four options:

  • The manufacturer is misusing the term for marketing purposes when the bulb has no full spectrum qualities at all
  • It’s a bulb that only spans the visible spectrum
  • It’s a bulb that includes visible spectrum and UV-A
  • It’s a bulb that includes visible spectrum, UV-A, and UV-B

Sadly, the term is meaningless.… READ THE REST

UV myth #3: UVB light will lead to cataracts

UV myth #3: UVB light will lead to cataracts

There is a lot of misinformation out there about UV light and how it affects birds. Here’s one of them.

UVB light will cause cataracts

Let’s look at the different sounces of light.

Natural light

As with almost anything, even water, too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. There is pretty solid agreement that exposing a bird to 5-10 minutes of direct sun is beneficial to them. Here is one source that indicates that the risk for cataracts requires more exposure.

[…] It has been surmised that in July at noon at 40° latitude […] lens damage due to UVB exposure would take 245 hours, but the cornea could potentially be damaged in 23 minutes of direct exposure.

Vitamin D and Ultraviolet B Radiation Considerations for Exotic Pets—Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine—’Oct 2014

Note that it says potentially. Like many things, you may need to weigh the health benefits of sunshine and fresh air against a very low to zero chance of a problem.… READ THE REST

How do I know who to trust?

How do I know who to trust?

If you do a web search on any bird topic, you’ll probably get some results, but how do you know if it’s good infomation? This is especially difficult if you find conflicting information from multiple sources.

Is this a trusted source?

Sometimes the publication or author is enough to give credibility to an article. I can’t tell you which sources to trust, but I can tell a few that I trust to give you an idea.

If it’s from a source you don’t know or don’t trust, here are some questions you may ask.

Does the author cite sources?

It’s unfortunately uncommon for articles about birds to cite the source of their information.… READ THE REST

UV myth #2: Exposed skin needed to synthesize Vitamin D

UV myth #2: Exposed skin needed to synthesize Vitamin D

There is a lot of misinformation out there about UV light and how it affects birds. Here’s one of them.

Only bird species with exposed skin can synthesize Vitamin D from the sun

Vitamin D synthesis in humans begins when UVB rays from the sun are absorbed by the skin. Some people make the argument that birds don’t have exposed skin (some have a little), therefore they get no Vitamin D benefit from the sun.

It’s kind of an amazing trick, but when your bird preens, s/he may be kicking off a process that ends with producing Vitamin D.

The secretion of the tail gland contains 7-dehydrocholesterol. After the secretion has been spread over the feathers by the beak, this compound is converted by ultraviolet light to provitamin D3, which is in chemical equilibrium with vitamin D3. Hence if exposed to sunlight, birds are able to synthesize vitamin D3.

… READ THE REST