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From: rjacobs@gara.une.oz.au ( ABRI)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: INDOOR - Novice questions about pet birds
Message-ID: <5120@gara.une.oz.au>
Date: 2 Jan 91 05:54:06 GMT
Organization: University of New England, Armidale, Australia
Lines: 27

The discussion about fasting a bird for 3 days is an interesting one,
because it invokes a knowledge of avian physiology and behaviour which
is lacking in many of us.

I know very little about cockatoos, but the vet who advised food to be
with held from the cockatoo may have been right or wrong. He is a vet
with experience with raptors and it is common to remove food from
medium size to large size birds of prey for several days in order to
get them to come to the fist. My first Harris Hawk refused to eat for
7 days before she would eat off my fist. Although, this is quite worrying
for a beginner, raptors will rarely starve themselves to death.

In the case of the cockatoo (as in the case of raptors) I guess the length
of period that it is safe to fast depends on the birds condition, weight,
metabolism, room temperature, health etc. In general smaller birds need to
eat more regularly than larger ones and therefore, smaller birds can't be
fasted as long as larger birds. Since the cockatoo had food available, I 
guess it never got hungry enough to try the newer food. I didn't see the
original posting, so I don't know what was done to introduce the new food.
But it may have been better to introduce the new food slowly by adding with
the old food and/or letting the bird eat in close proximity to a bird
who did eat the new food.

So I can't still can't pass an opinion whether the vet was right or wrong.
A 15% loss in body weight by the cockatoo that was ill would be worrying,
but since the bird was ill the loss in weight was much higher than you'd
expect in a healthy sedentry cockatoo.