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ISSN 1492-8132
Issue 136, © 2006
No reprints without permission
Sponsor's Space
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For a full selection of cages and cage accessories, visit BirdandCage.com.
Bird Food Fact
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Did you know you can make your own wintertime birdie treats? You can, and it's quite easy, too!
First, make the base. Take equal parts of peanut butter and lard, warm them a little in a microwave or dry frying pan or pot, and stir them together. Add enough whole wheat flour to make the whole thing stick together - the amount can vary. You want the mix to feel about like a cookie dough, not too stiff, but not sloppy.
Then take some mixed birdseed - what kind of seed depends on what birds you're making these treats for, just use some of their regular seed mix - and mix in as much birdseed as you can manage. You've got the right amount when you can take a handful of mix and squeeze it together, and it holds its shape without falling apart. If there's too much seed, it won't hold together - if there's too little, it will be too squishy.
Press the mix into a bunch of lightly-oiled individual chocolate moulds; tiny ones for small birds, larger for bigger birds. Plan to feed at the same rate you would offer other fatty foods in your birds' diet - for example, for a canary, if the amount in the mould is equal to a teaspoon or so, you'd feed no more than one treat a week or so.
If you want to hang or tie these treats to a cage (or to a tree for outdoor birds), pack the mix around a piece of jute or cotton twine when you're pressing the mix into the moulds, so that the mixture will harden around it.
You can also press this mix into pinecones, which adds a little fun to the eating, especially for the larger hookbills. When I'm done, I just pop the treats into the freezer, and once they're frozen, it's easy to pop them out of the moulds and bag them. I don't bother to thaw them before offering them - I used to, but stopped when I realized that the birds don't care either way.
Whether you make these treats for your wild bird feeder or your tame pet birds, these simple, fun-to-eat goodies are great for that special occasional wintertime treat.
Help Needed
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Welcome to Robirda's Companion Bird eZine
For breeder or pet bird owners who care.
Feature Article
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As spring approaches and breeding season draws ever nearer, bird keepers everywhere will be checking their birds, trimming nails and examining vents, trying to ensure that every bird in their care is in top condition. Every once in a while a bird will be found whose upper or (more rarely) lower beak is longer than it should be. What causes this, and what's to be done about an...
Overgrown Beak
by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © Jan 2006
Our bird's beaks are designed by nature to assist them in eating their food. Many birds, including canaries, have beaks that evolved especially to help assist in the chore of cracking and eating various kinds of seed, which make up a good part of their diet.
Most birds manage to keep their beaks in good shape with no help from their caretakers; frequent 'wiping' on perches, along with regular chewing on a cuttlebone or mineral block, as well as gnawing on other tough items such as the stems and leaves of dark leafy greens all contribute to this, helping to ensure that the top and bottom of the beak stay about the same length, so the bird is able to easily eat their food.
But sometimes things get out of balance, and one part of the beak will become overgrown, resulting in an extension of the upper or lower beak. Whatever the cause, this problem must be corrected, or the bird will find itself unable to eat properly.
Sometimes an overgrown beack can be caused by the bird, for whatever reason, not chewing on his cuttlebone or mineral block. There is a variety of possible reasons for this; perhaps the cuttlebone is placed so that the bird finds it frightening and won't approach it, or perhaps it is fixed so the hard side is facing inwards, rather than the softer, chewable side.
In the first case, simple changing the cuttlebone from upright to horizontal may do the trick; others will break a cuttlebone into pieces, and fasten the smaller, less threatening pieces into the cage for chewing on. Always make sure that the softer side of the cuttlebone faces inwards, towards the bird; if you can't scratch the surface with your fingernail, the bird won't be able to chew on it either.
Similar problems can arise with mineral blocks; many are made for hookbills, and are too hard for the smaller species such as canaries and most finches. Before you buy a mineral block, make certain that it is made to be useable by the smaller species. Similarly to the cuttlebone, you should be able to easily scratch the surface with your fingernail.
If the cause of the overgrown beak is due to a lack of chewable items, these simple remedies should work nicely. But what about those birds who have and use a cuttlebone and/or a mineral block, but still have an overgrown beak?
In this case, finding the cause may be more problematic. Overproduction of keratinous materials such as beak and toenails, can be a sign of liver problems. This could be due to dietary problems, but may also be exacerbated by an inherited genetic tendancy. In either case, a long hard look at the diet is necessary. Liver problems need not be deadly, but can and often do take a fair bit of time and patience to remedy.
Firstly, look at the amount and quality of protein you are offering in the diet. Canaries require less protein than most hookbills, and will do nicely on a regular diet consisting of 12%-14% protein. The KIND of protein is important, too; most vegetable proteins are incomplete, meaning the bird will not benefit as much from these types of proteins. Worse, a diet based on incomplete proteins leaves the body lacking certain essential nutrients, which can in turn also cause problems.
Meat proteins tend to be much more complete, but improper processing or handling during food preparation can cause the spread of disease. Due to this fact, along with the higher cost of materials, most of the protein in many commercial diets - even pellets - is vegetable or seed based.
Careful dietary balancing can blend several types of vegetable proteins to produce complete proteins that will digest fully, but you need to do some research if you want to blend your own foods. A good example of vegetable proteins that complement each other to produce a more complete and digestible protein, is corn and beans. Alone, each adds only a partial protein to the whole. Together, the proteins complement each other and are much more complete and digestible.
What all this means is that it's a good idea, when choosing a basic food for your canary, to go a little further than the analysis of percentage of proteins and fats; you want to also take note of the kind of proteins and fats. Are they animal based or vegetable or seed based? How likely are they to be complete? If they are seed or vegetable based, you will need to supplement the diet, in order to see that your bird recieves the complete nutrition he needs in order to thrive.
Besides kind and quality of protein, dietary fats can cause liver problems too. Too many fats in the diet can stress the liver and heart, so it's wise to reduce the overall amount of fats in the diet, when you find a bird with an overgrown beak. Don't elimimate all the fat content though - just most of it.
At the same time, try to see that the bird gets all the dark leafy greens he can eat - items such as kale, collard greens, dandelions, chickweed or leafy endives. Offer enough so that there is a little left uneaten at the end of the day, that way you can be sure the bird is getting all he likes. The greens will add extra moisture to the overall diet, and will also help to ease the burden on the liver, allowing it to begin to flush out any excess accumulated toxins.
So you've reduced the amount of proteins and fats in the diet, and have seen that what is still included is as digestible as possible. Now, see that he has access to plenty of easy-to-eat, easily digestible soft foods like cooked rice, rolled oats or cous-cous. The idea is to offer foods that will cause the least amount of stress to an already-overworked liver.
Make the cous-cous or rice with apple juice instead of water, it will help a little to encourage his liver to slowly begin to detoxify. Don't try to rush the process; detoxification is much the best if it is accomplished slowly and steadily. That's because cleansing the liver of accumulated toxins entails slowly flushing these toxins out of the liver and into the bloodstream, where they can be processed and removed.
If you encourage his liver to detoxify too quickly, it will dump a bunch of toxins into his bloodstream, and that will make him feel sick. This in turn can result in eating less, which will undo all the good of the cleansing.
The trick is to encourage his body to heal itself slowly and steadily, while allowing him to feel good enough to remain interested in eating, allowing him to keep his energy levels up with the high carbo content. Slow and steady is the key.
Organically grown apples are wonderful for encouraging a slow detoxification of the liver, so you can go ahead and offer a good-sized wedge every day, if you have a good source. They will help encourage his liver to start cleansing out toxins, without rushing things too fast.
Milk thistle is often mentioned as a good detoxification agent as well, and yes, it can help - but again, care must be taken to see that the process is not rushed. Limit the amount of milk thistle offered, to be sure the cleansing process proceeds gradually and gently, with as little stress to the bird as possible.
It's a good idea to add a little extra vitamin B to his diet, while all this is going on - this is the 'stress' vitamin, and it will help him to resist becoming ill, and will also assist in encouraging the detoxification process. The easiest way to add some extra vitamin B to the diet is to go into a health or natural foods store and pick up some nutritional yeast.
Try offering him some in a little cup, and see if he will eat it on its own - sometimes they will (many critters, including birds, seem to regard this stuff as being rather like 'cheese', and will eat it greedily).
If he won't try it this way, then try sprinkling some onto his soft foods or greens; I love it on my salads, and often, so do canaries. If all else fails, mix a little in with his cous-cous; it's a rare canary who won't eat that!
I have found it helps tremendously to provide plenty of live probiotics in the diet during the cleansing process, too. If you are unsure whether the probiotics you have on hand actually offer live beneficial bacteria, there's a simple test you can do; just add a bit to some room-temperature milk, and let it stand overnight in a warm - not hot! - location.
If by the morning the milk has thickened a little, then you can be sure you have live beneficial bacteria in your probiotics. If on the other hand, the milk seems to be the same as ever, your probiotics are useless - throw them out and get some fresh.
Whatever else you do, make certain that the bird has access to plenty of good clean water, and make sure that it really is *clean*! If you've been using tap water, boil it and cool it before offering it, and make sure to wash the drinkers daily - if you've been letting them go for a day or two, it could be that he's decided that he doesn't like the taste and isn't drinking enough.
Plenty of good clean water is essential to the detoxification process - without lots of water present in the system, the toxins cannot be flushed from the liver. In fact, if there is one element that by itself can sometimes be enough to tip the scales one way or another, water is it. Access to plenty of clean, safe water is *very* important, in order to keep the body and especially the inner organs healthy and functioning properly.
Without adequate water, the organs that act as filters for the bloodstream (ie, the liver and kidneys) cannot processs all the toxins from the diet, which in turn causes the excess to accumulate in the body, particularly the organs and joints. An ongoing lack of adequate water in the body's system creates an inability to flush these toxins out, and allows them to build up to the point where they begin to cause problems.
Keeping the stress levels as low as possible is another aspect of detoxification, and an important one. The bird should have its own cage, so there is no competion for food or water, and also to make it easier for you to keep an eye on him. This also makes it easier to keep an eye on his droppings, too - are they large, small, wet, dry? The state of the droppings is a good clue to what is really going on inside your bird.
Of course, after you have done everything you can to see that an overgrown beak won't happen again, you still may need to trim it. It's best, if you can, to have somebody who is experienced in how the beak should look examine the bird, and tell you if, in their opinion, it requires trimming or not. Sometimes it's better to leave it alone and let it wear away gradually, while other times the beak will have to be trimmed, or the bird won't be able to eat. It all depends on just how and why the beak became overgrown in the first place.
by R C McDonald
www.robirda.com
Copyright © Jan 2006
"Everyone always asks me why my birds are such beautiful singers and breed such magnificent babies...I tell them that I learned from Robirda! While they give their birds all kinds of 'magical' formulas, I just follow your guide to 'keep it simple.' My birds are now very healthy, and there has been no recurrence of the infection. Thank Goodness!" R.C., Florida
"I cannot thank you enough for your kind and considerate responses to all of our questions. Your website has really been a wonderful find for us! And we absolutely love your canary CD!Thank you for your love of birds and your commitment for helping those of us who are learning to share our lives with our feathered friends!"
Song CD
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Do you like to keep your canaries singing? Our CD of Robirda's canaries in full song stimulates pet canaries to sing more, and is a popular choicebird-lovers and pet owners of all kinds, and their birds, too! We have received a great deal of positive comments from many of our customers. Here's the most recent:
"Received the 'New Songs from the Birdroom' CD a few days ago... Professionally done, great sound quality! I enjoy listening to this CD very much but most important, I have happier canaries. They looooove listening to the other birds! So happy I bought it, thank you."
Find out more about our Canary Song CD!
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Stories Wanted
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"Hi Robirda! Thanks for your thoughts. My little one is singing as loudly as ever. He looks much better today. Your advice was most welcome; I'm particularly grateful about the recipes! I sent you the same amount the vet charged me; you have done no less than he did. You are a real blessing to all of us canary lovers the world over."
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