Austerity Diet Observations

[Icearstorm]

My birds have been on a near-austerity diet for the last couple of months that was composed of plain millet and minerals, plus some occasional canary seed and a few plants they pick at (ferns and magnolia). The Java finches and the gouldians didn't change their behavior much, though they weren't on it for very long before I sold them. The society finches, on the other hand, have been acting a bit differently.

The males still sing, but haven't been making the nesting call much. They still show some nest-building behavior, but aren't dragging nesting material around all day. They used to try to build nests out in the open and make the nesting call to get the female to join them, but now they wait for the female to make the nesting call and bring the nesting material to her chosen spot in the magnolia.

The female used to pluck other birds' feathers and eat them, but now she doesn't. The behavior was never much of a problem, but it's still nice that it's gone away. Feather-eating suggests a lack of protein, but she's eating less protein with a diet lacking eggfood. Her feather-plucking got worse for around a week after I removed the eggfood and higher-protein seeds, but then disappeared. This suggests that the diet change led to reduced hormones associated with breeding, thus reducing the need for a high-protein diet for egg-laying and feeding chicks. She never laid eggs without a nest, but it seems that she was still in breeding mode.

I replaced the dried-out magnolia leaves with some fresh ones that provided denser cover, and the birds resumed breeding behavior for a couple of days. The female flew into the cover almost immediately and spent the next several hours making incessant nesting calls. Her partner mated with her and all of the males worked on building a nest for the next few days before everyone returned to non-breeding behavior. It's been around a week since then, but the female hasn't laid any eggs, although she did get the fluffy butt like many birds do before laying (no, she's not egg-bound). The birds are now back to non-breeding behavior, aside from the males that have been displaying to and mating with each other.

Now that their hormones have cooled down, I've decided to end "winter," and will be getting them back to a normal diet. I've given them a bit of eggfood, and should be bringing back the vegetables, canary seed, and maybe sunflower seed in the next several days.

[haroun]

Icearstorm thank u very much fir sharing ur experience. Good to know and learn fromeach other very interesting article

[Icearstorm]

haroun

You're welcome! Bird behavior is fascinating; I've enjoyed observing them.

[Dave]

While many breeders swear by an austerity diet for a season, I've never thought it was a good idea. Another way to look at it is 'the bird is in such poor condition it doesn't breed'.

I wonder: is there is a middle ground that slows nesting behavior but doesn't deplete the bird? My guess is that many factors, along with nutrition, that affect breeding--day length, temperature, humidity, room to fly, competition from other pairs, nest sites, nesting material, the song of the male, etc.

[Fernando]

There might an other aspect to look at. While it is right that birds in nature have long seasons where they don't find an easy and 'complete' food and therefore breed in times of plenty, caged birds find there food easily and without limits.

Mostly the feeders are full of grains and the birds know it. The stimulus that there is food as much as the birds could ask for might be important for bird behaviour, too.

I don't use conventional feeders any more. As I can feed them every morning, they get earth/beach-sand/crushed egg-shells on their dish and some grains and green sprouts scattered over the surface. If they want to get food, they must search. There is enough but it is not visible. Some days the don't get new grains, for there are enough of them buried in the earth-mix.

As caged birds never move as much as free birds, in order to keep them healthy I want to encourage them to be actively searching for their food in the cage - as they would have to in nature, too.

[Dave]

Fernando, entretantasplumas is an awesome website. Wonderful pictures! And your idea of searching for food is a good one.

[Icearstorm]

Dave

While I don't agree with taking away all of the mineral blocks and other mineral sources, I do see the benefit of restricting fat and protein for a few weeks.

In the wild, less nutritious food would take birds out of breeding condition and act as a "reset" for the hormones. Winter is a resting period where many birds won't do much aside from looking for food and shelter. This provides a break from the months of courting mates, defending breeding sites, building nests, and taking care of offspring all day long.

Sure, winter is one of the riskiest times of year for wild birds, but captive ones aren't faced with nearly as many issues, since they are kept warm and provided with adequate calories. So this is a kind of "middle ground," so to say; the birds have decent food and shelter, just lower quality than they would have during breeding season.

Captive birds also tend to get fat during breeding season, so something approaching an austerity diet helps remove the extra weight. Both my gouldians and Javas went from overweight to healthy weight within about a month on the diet without any issues.

I adjust the lighting throughout the year, and the temperature also changes by a few degrees; however, my birds are inside, so it's more difficult to adjust the environmental conditions to fit the seasons. I also only provide nests for a few months each year; my birds suck at building their own nests and nesting material doesn't seem to affect their behavior much.

[Icearstorm]

Fernando

Making the birds search for their food is definitely a good idea. Captive birds don't have nearly as much room to explore, so extra mental stimulation is a plus. If I'm being perfectly honest, I'm too forgetful to remember to tend to the birds every day, so I use the hopper feeder and and gravity waterer so I know they won't run out. I did add magnolia branches and a potted fern foraging box for them to explore, and they've been a lot more active since. I'll have to bring in more leaf litter, since they like digging through it.

[Fernando]

Just one word about 'winter'.
I now have owls and emblema picta. Both come from regions where the seasonal winter is not cold. The 'months of diet' would those months without regular rain, with all the grains already scattered on the ground and no much green - or only just along the water courses.

As I live on the Canary Islands, I notice the huge mistakes canary-holders make when assuming that winter is the season of least activity for canaries in the wild. Winter - that is from 21 dec on - is the season over here when all gets green again, and, though tº are low (at the coast 15ºC mininum, at 2000m around 0ºC), the nests are built and there are chicks from february on. Still short days (though at 28ºnorth there is not so much difference ...), but plenty of food.
Now - may - the grasses are ripe, the lower parts of the islands are dry already, and this dry period lasts until the first rains in october/november, if it rains at all ... this makes six month of uncertain feeding!

In more northern (or southern) latitudes the 'real' winter IS the season when finding food is the bottleneck of survival. There - and only there - you have, cold, short days, less light, less food all together at the same time. All this factors act in the same direction.
Outside this region of cold winter months, the availability of food may be only crucial one for bird behaviour, because plenty of food is the signal to successfully rise the net generation. In fact, hot tº would be detrimental in rising chicks.

Thanks, Dave!

[Icearstorm]

Fernando

Interesting; I suppose it would have been more accurate for me to describe it as "nonbreeding seasaon," then.

It looks like the white-rumped munia lives at around the same latitude as canaries, so seasons probably function similarly. Monsoons are especially important in Southeast Asia, so the finches would probably sync their breeding to the rainy season. That makes me wonder if society finches become even more willing to breed if exposed to rain and high humidity, or if they are only affected by food.

[Sojourner]

Icearstorm

Mine were not affected by food AT ALL, but only by day length.

And a tumor. My last hen died of what turned out to be a brain tumor but for several months before it got big enough to kill her, she was an egg-laying machine, no matter what I did, including removing her from the cage and keeping her away from my male.

[Icearstorm]

Sojourner

Huh, mine didn't seem particularly sensitive to day length. Then again, sunlight could have made it where the photoperiod was longer than the amount of time the lights were turned on.

Sorry about Pyewacket... It sounds like the tumor must have been affecting her hypothalamus or pituitary gland or something in the months prior :/