by Wolf » Thu Jun 11, 2015 8:06 pm
Discussions about lighting and diet can both get rather lengthy, so I will start with the short version and we'll see if that does it or not.
Lighting is very important for a bird as it controls its biological or internal clock which in turn regulates most of the birds internal functions and is one of the primary triggers for signaling the start of breeding season and its ending. The UV light from the sun has various functions including the conversion of vitamin D precursers into vitamin D-3 which is needed for proper calcium absorption. Modern glass and some of the screens on windows block these UV wavelengths. Also a parrot that is deprived of the proper UV light is effectively visually impaired as although UV wavelengths are invisible to us a parrot sees into the UV spectrum. Next to a parrot that gets UV light we are nearly totally colorblind. A solar light schedule is very basically the exact same light schedule as wild birds have. They are outside so they are exposed to the first hints of light in the morning sky right on through the twilight of dawn and then wake up at sunrise. They have the sunlight all day long and then go to eat and drink at dusk which is also a twilight period and then they go to sleep at full dark. It is the two twilight periods together that are responsible for keeping the biological clock tuned properly and it is accurate to about 15 minutes.
That is basically what a solar light schedule is and what it is all about. Most of the rest of what we know is the effects of not getting enough of this light schedule for their body to function correctly.
Diet is equally important to a bird, and is also one of the primary triggers for starting the reproductive cycle in our birds. Although the veterinary books only devote a single chapter or two to this area of avian husbandry, entire books have been written on the topic of avian nutrition and at best these are all incomplete. This is because except for the past 20 to 25 years there have been no studies on this subject, especially in regards to parrots despite the fact that there are over 350 different species of parrots all over the world living in most of the temperature zones from temperate to tropical and in rain forests to deserts. Each of these species with their own diets that are unique to each of them. There was even a native parrot to the United States that ranged from the Gulf coast to the Great Lakes, until we hunted it to extinction by the early 20th century.
The first actual studies on avian nutrition were done on chickens, for the obvious reasons of increased growth rates and egg production. The first pelleted diets for parrots were based on these studies. I don't know the actual dates but the next studies were done by Drs, Harrison, the same as manufacture pellets for parrots. These were better although, they were also flawed in that they were all short term studies of a year or less and they only used cockatiels for this set of studies. This means that the current feeds are based on either chickens or cockatiels. We truly have a very long ways to go in this area of parrot husbandry.
It is impossible for us to duplicate our parrots natural diet as they eat such a wide variety of foods and this also changes in accordance with the seasons. Also parrots that are native to the desert regions of Australia do not eat the same diet as the parrots that are native to the African Congo or the parrots who live in the rainforests of South America.
We know that parrots eat a range of foods that are all very high in moisture content and that the derive a fair amount of their bodily moisture from their foods. We know that they eat and drink primarily in the mornings and again in the evenings. We know that the eat a variety of seeds, fruits and vegetation, including leafy matter and flowers and that some even consume a limited amount of insects.
All this translates into a lot of controversity to wade though when we as parrot owners try to find out what and how to feed our friends. Today despite the claims of some feed manufacturers there is no complete diet available to feed our birds.
We need to feed as large of a variety of fruits, vegetables and leafy greens as we can get them to eat. Seeds are good for our parrots, just not in the manner that they usually get them. Seeds can be fed all year long as long as they are fed in limited amounts. We have found that we can feed them whole grains as they are lower in fat and protein while still providing the bird with all of the nutrients found in seeds and are in fact supply some nutrients not found in the seeds.
Pellets are a source of much controversity in the parrot world. Vets recommend them, even though they know that they are not all that good, because they have learned that many parrot owners would not give their bird enough of a variety in their diets for the bird to get the nutrition that it needs. This is partially the parrots fault as the bird will pick out its favorite foods and leave the rest. Kind of like a kid in a candy store. Pellets are extremely dry, requiring the bird to drink more water than normal and still must pull moisture from surrounding tissues in order to digest the pellets. Many pellets are made with soy and soy products as a main ingredient and many of our parrots have an allergic reaction to soy. Likewise many of the pellets contain a large amount of sugar which the birds can not digest and this can cause diabetes in them. This does not even address the amount of dyes in their food that have been proven to cause cancer in humans, nor the preservatives and artificial vitamins and minerals to which our birds are sensitive to.
For these reasons I do not use pellets as a part of my birds diets. When my birds get up in the mornings I offer them a fresh raw vegetable, a leafy green and a fruit. About an hour later I feed them their breakfast consisting of cooked whole grains(40%), cooked mixed vegetables( 40%) and cooked white beans and lentils ( 20%). They get enough of all of these foods for all day long and then they get a good quality seed mix for dinner which is then removed when the bird goes to sleep for the night.
I hope that this will help you with your bird, let me know if you need further information.
