Moulting nutrition

[tiny_teesha]

My GCC was bought with a small amount of black banding....now he is starting to moult again adn his first feathers came out great! But now the newer feathers have black banding!!! We are feeding him the same, if nto more....what food are we lacking in giving him. he steals our table food, so he gets bits of this and that. We feed him carrot, silverbeet, broccoli, nuts, seeds, pellets (he rarely touches these), cracker or whatever we are snaking on, we give him some.
What are we doing wrong? What are we missing?

[Monica]

The black bands are not necessarily due to diet... they are normally caused by stressed in relation to diet, health, or possibly even a stressful environment. It's completely hard to say, actually.

[Cindy215]

I have no experience in the bands but for food if he's not eating pellets then you want to be very careful with diet. High vitamin A and calcium in particular.

I feed grains, dark leafy greens, veggies and fruits. I have the list down below.

I use Calciboost twice a week too even though my birds eat an excellent diet since I dont feed pellets (except to one budgie) and a multivit once a week. It's Calcivet in Europe and only available online or through some distributers usually breeders.

Make sure he's getting sunlight not filtered out with windows either outside at least 20 minutes three times a week or full spectrum indoors.

I'd follow a strict natrual daylight schedule too including dusk and dawn no artificial lighting either during that time. With a quiet mostly dark night.

I lost track of your summers now in the Southern Hemisphere...it's still early summer right? So he shouldnt be molting that shouldnt happen till the end of your summer. Unless it's a Juvenile molt around 5 months old some a bit later...

One reason for excessive molting is too much protein that means including nuts and seed. But I dont know about the stress bands.

Here's the list, sorry it's a little choppy, I cut and pasted it:

There are many working foods, alot of nutrition.

**grains

that I've cooked and frozen in advance and break a hunk off, usually the night before and warm up in the microwave to room temp/slightly warm. I cook about 10 of them once a month. I cook them in the microwave and spread out on a large area and let them cool to room temp. Then I mix them all up with a skewer and put in zip lock bags not with the zipper the ones you press closed, flat. It looks like a Nutriberry Avi Cake. They thaw beautifully.


Quinoa, barley, bulgar, wheat berries, buckwheat (my hen's favorite I think it's technically a fruit), oats and grouts,cous cous, red millet, white millet, wild rice, brown multi variety rice, and I forget what else - whatever I can find. They also sell 10 grain cereal for breakfast you can make up at once but it's not the whole shape more like shaved and not as interesting for them.


**Lentils, Pinto beans - I make these and put them in the bag too, only about 10% of the volume of grain.

** dark leafy greens - . Very important backbone of their diet. It's necessary to rotate as one of all the same kind has too much of certain vits and minerals like iodine...watercress, collards, kale, escarole, endive, chicory, frizee, mustard, turnip, dandelion, beet tops, chard, the spring or mesculin mix especially the baby green size....but you have to vary it. Romain is sorta weak and not that beneficial physically but I put a couple of pieces in the mix every now and then. No iceburg, though its a waste and no nutrients. I also add raddichio and the various cabbage veggies, bok choy. No spinach or parsley it binds calcium.


**frozen veggies - I blanch very quickly then freeze the same way, then can break off a hunk.


** fresh veggies - in the summer alot more. But every day I thaw the above for 15 sec on defrost then add fresh of something. Even radishes and other wierd stuff. Today I found some baby cauliflower in purple, lime green and pinkish color. My birds would eat broccoli every day of the week so I dont give it to keep them interested.

Veggies, dark red is good, peppers, pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower especially the new orange variety with a ton of vit A, peas, snow peas, sugar snaps, carrots (blanched quick to soften the celuose is better to be digested), sweet potato is excellent vit a, broccoli, squashes, zucchinis, cucumber a bit no skin they love the insides, radishes, tomatoes not more than once or twice, too much acid or just like, one cherry tomato, celery isnt much but entertaining.

Corn, peas from sugar snap peas (my male's VERY FAV), shredded carrot, string beans chopped cooked awhile, broccoli rabe, all different color peppers, sometimes all mixed together sometimes not. And anything else I find. You of course could buy mixed veggies frozen. I also give frozen bagged veggies to keep them flexible.


** fruits, I give 2 different fruits at least every day and that includes tomatoes at least once a week but not more than twice. I use the fruits to hand feed them with their vitamins on it so I'm sure they are getting it. I give canteloupe, watermelon, figs, berries, mango, papaya, apple no seeds, and jicama. Oranges just once a week.

**It's own category **sweet potato/yam highly important for vitamin A.

OK, this sounds like alot but it's not really when you freeze it ahead. Or just break off a stalk of the greens or broccoli, wash well and put it on a plate in the bottom. They like the stalk they extract the juices from it. No longer than 2 hours especially if it's mixed.

Sometimes I put baby food from a jar or different herbs on it for a different flavor. And to keep them flexible lol.

You could grow your own "greens" in a little cup WHEATGRASS. They sell it for birds you could get it on the internet or we could send you some. But you can just put wheatberries in a cup of sterile soil and they grow in about 5 days. They just chomp it off out of the cup or you cut it off. It's best short not overgrown.

Also birdy bread you can make like a corn bread then throw veggies in it. Even some seed or nuts. You can get freeze dried veggies on the internet too. I use Goldenfeast Gardenflora. They make it in three kinds. Small shredded for budgies, medium for everybody, and large (Veggiecrisp) like with the whole green bean or zucchini or whatever in it. I use Goldenfeast alot, actually they love the Australian Blend.

http://www.goldenfeast.net/gourmetblends.htm
http://www.mommabird.com


I know you may have different selections in AU but this is an idea to use what you have. Here's a link if you want to see the vitamin contents:
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c20ln.html

[tiny_teesha]

Monica i didnt know it could be caused by stess. Nothing has changed much so don't think its stress....
Wow....Cindy215......that is ALOT of information...
ok so silverbeet...is bad to feed then? Coz it bind the calcium.....? I read once if you dip it in hot water for 10 sec it deactivates the oxalic acid.....
I hope its good for birds coz i feed them silverbeet almost daily....
well yeh we just give him what we are eating. If we're eating a stir fry, we give him little tid bits, like a few grains of rice, a chunk of carrot and any other veggies, not onion or avo or anything...we give him bread and bits of our cereal...so i'd say he is getting variety....
We'll i'll just start giving him more greens and carrots (carrots are high in vitamin A too, as well as C i think)
we'll see how he goes.
Just to share,....this morning i had a shower and put him on my shoulder and he bathed in my damp hair!!!! Amazing!!! hehehe, it felt funny nad he dired my hair faster then a blow dryer! hehehe.
So u recon so restimulate him to shower i should spray leaves???

[Cindy215]

well I dont know about the soaking deactivating it so I'd cut way back. Just in case. I cant tell from your post if the tidbit thing is his main food or if he eats something else as a main food but I think that increasing his green/veg/fruit variety and focusing on the calcium and vit a can only be a good thing. If your goal is to get him to actually eat the pellets (I dont feed pellets) you could try Harrisons mash. It s pulverized and you can sprinkle it on everything and eventually he'll eat it. my one hen has lipomas and I attribute her living as long as she has to Harrisons Hi Po with CoQ10 and flying. She is throwing some feathers right now and I think it's my heat and not enough humidity so I've moved the humidifier up a notch to 52 percent or so. She also bathes the least of everyone. If I make birdy bread I alway use canned pumpkin for the liquid too. Or pulverized red peppers in a liquidy form. If I'm going to feed something it'll be a working food not just liquid like water.

[tiny_teesha]

i bought an iodine bell and told my mum to stop feeding him the silver beet! (for the 4th time!!!) i think she gets the point now! I will add even more fruit and veg and try cooking the pellets in something or wetting them. Would a bit of egg and bisciut be alright to feed him?