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From: kaufman@maxzilla.Encore.COM (Lar Kaufman)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: It's all your fault! (was Re: Hookbills)
Message-ID: <4148@encore.UUCP>
Date: 9 Nov 88 16:01:26 GMT
References: <599@dinorah.wustl.edu> <4120@encore.UUCP> <1282@inuxd.UUCP>
Sender: news@encore.UUCP
Reply-To: kaufman@maxzilla.UUCP (Lar Kaufman)
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Organization: Encore Computer Corp, Marlboro, MA
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In article <1282@inuxd.UUCP> jla@inuxd.UUCP (Joyce Andrews) writes:
>> You should be aware that the common practice of simply providing seed
>> mix for the birds does not provide a balanced diet for the bird. You
>
>Here in the Florida Keys (KoKoMo), everyone has a hookbill.  A
>favorite food is chicken leg bones (the drumstick).  I haven't
>given any to Madeira, but others let their birds break the bones
>open and eat the marrow.  I am afraid of pointed splinters of
>bone (the reason you shouldn't give them to dogs and cats), but 
>my friends tell me that the birds have a better crushing
>apparatus than dogs and cats, and the marrow is good for them.
>does anyone else feed chicken bones to their hookbills?
>
>	Joyce Andrews King                      
 
Interesting. My Bluefronted amazon, Vashon, also has a passion for
chicken bones. He particularly likes the soft ends of the drumstick
and thigh bones. I also give him the breastbone "keel", and he likes
to eat the cartilage and soft bone. This is very nutritious, of
course, and many domestic birds do not get enough calcium, so I am
inclined to indulge this treat. Vashon never attempts to eat bone
splinters and also seems to understand that some things are to be
cracked open and only the contents consumed. My bluecrowned conure,
Elliot, seems only to like small slivers of chicken or pork, and will
not deign to get his feet greasy handling bones. 
 
I have to say I miss Vashon, as he is now "put to stud" and is no
longer a companion bird. He is reported to be happily united with a
lovely female bluefront in Connecticut, and will probably breed this
winter or spring. I'm contemplating acquiring a pair of lorikeets
which I can keep in my apartment and still breed (the birds can breed,
that is), and getting a mealy amazon as a companion.
 
In the wilds, parrots seem to get some animal protein in the form of
insects. Some of them, such as the keas of New Zealand, are
omnivorous. I figure that if they will eat it and it's non-toxic, then
it's OK. There are limits, of course. Parrots use their opposable beak
to pre-grind seed and the like before swallowing it, so their "gizzard
muscles" are much less developed than in most bird species. To
accomodate the varied diet, however, I always keep a supply of grit
and crushed oystershell handy as a dietary supplement to aid the
digestive process. Also, I supplement their diet with yoghurt, which
assures a benign bacterial culture in their crop and protects against
sour-crop syndrome. Finally, I never give them avocado or raw tomato;
two foods that have been implicated anecdotally in dietary deaths in
parrots. (Vashon likes the tomato sauce in his helpings of pizza,
though. Also the pepperoni. :-) )
 
 -lar
 
"...no retreat, baby, no surrender!" - Bruce Springsteen


 Lar Kaufman   <= my opinions          Fidonet: 1:322/470@508-534-1842 
 kaufman@multimax.arpa    {bu-cs,decvax,necntc,talcott}!encore!kaufman