Vitamin D, calcium, and sunlight

[kcfd55]

I am a bit confused, or rather, MORE than a bit confused about vitamin D3, calcium, and sunlight.

I have read that birds need direct sunlight to get the D3 they need to absorb calcium, but the sunlight cannot be through windows as the glass blocks UV wavelengths. But how to birds get this direct sunlight when housed inside, as most keepers do?

This seems much ado about nothing if the birds get supplements, yes?

Thanks,

Mike

[Dave]

Hi Mike,

It is good if your birds can get direct sunlight, like in an outdoor aviary. But cage birds have been raised for generations without that.

And they do need vitamin D3, partly in order to be able to use the calcium they eat.

Some calcium supplements also contain vitamin D3 http://www.morningbirdproducts.com/prod ... mplus.html Eggs (that is, boiled chicken eggs) also can provide this vitamin.

I provided mashed up boiled eggs for quite a few years, and no other vitamin supplement. The birds bred fine. Now I do provide a supplement sometimes based on comments from others on this list. Be sure you don't supplement every day, but some days per week as per the instructions.

[kcfd55]

Dave:

I provided mashed up boiled eggs for quite a few years, and no other vitamin supplement.

I'll probably go the "mashed up boiled eggs" route given the size of my aviary. I can't see chasing the birds around to drop liquid in their mouths .

Thanks,

Mike

[Dave]

Well, it would make a good video!

Calcium supplements like that can also be added to the water.

[Fraza]

Hi you can just put them outside in your garden sometimes while it’s a sunny day and they will tweet away with the wild birds I used to do this all the time before I had an aviary, but watch out I had an attack by three magpies who killed and injured two of my finches

[Sojourner]

I am a bit confused, or rather, MORE than a bit confused about vitamin D3, calcium, and sunlight.

I have read that birds need direct sunlight to get the D3 they need to absorb calcium, but the sunlight cannot be through windows as the glass blocks UV wavelengths. But how to birds get this direct sunlight when housed inside, as most keepers do?

This seems much ado about nothing if the birds get supplements, yes?

Thanks,

Mike

Yes. I use Vitadrops. I get mine from Amazon. I add it to the water, 1 drop short of the recommended dosage to make up for evaporation (I live in the DESERT so its very dry). I give them plain water about once a month to give them a "vitamin vacation".

[Sheather]

Boiled egg is usually sufficient to provide vitamin D, and birds fed pellet diets receive all they need that way.

[Sojourner]

Boiled egg is usually sufficient to provide vitamin D, and birds fed pellet diets receive all they need that way.

I don't feed pellets. Too many breeders have suffered serious losses trying to switch to a primarily pellet diet. There is, somewhere, can't find it just now but I bet somebody has a link to it, a lengthy and in-depth report from an experienced and well known breeder who worked with pellet vs "normal" diets for his finches. He was able to document that the birds did considerably worse on a pellet diet.

Besides which most birds won't touch them anyway. Mine won't. Not the finches, not the budgies. And the finches actually came from a pet store where by management decree the birds were to be fed on pellets. I would rather spend the time and effort getting them to broaden their interest in fresh foods than mess about with pellets.

A primarily millet-based diet isn't good for them either, which is what most blends are. I do use a parakeet blend for all my birds but I also rotate through a wide variety of other seeds, plus corn-free bird bread, dry egg food, and fresh veggies. It is much more interesting for birds cooped up in cages to have seed and fresh foods.

I do not breed my birds, but if breeding birds die on it and loose their chicks, it isn't going to be good for them at other times either. I know pellet proponents are pretty gungho on the idea but the only benefit is the supposed lack of mess, which I don't have a problem with anyway. My guys scatter very little food outside of their cages. I have to sweep up the shed feathers anyway so what little does get out in the way of hulls isn't any extra work.