bigbroth@cathedral.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (James M. Coleman) (11/03/90)
Please send replies to UN106153@WVNVMS.WVNET.EDU. I am using a friend's
account.
Does anyone reading know of a product that can be used in heating an ill bird?
I currently have the cage covered with a bed sheet with a 15 watt light bulb
providing heat - as perscribed by my vet. For two weeks now Frech, my
cockatiel, has been in constant light. Since he will be in this position for
about two more weeks I've been thinking about some alternate heat sources.
What I'd like to do is put a buffet warmer under the cage and use a thermostat
outside of the cage but under the sheet to regulate the temperature. The
problem I'm having now is finding a buffet warmer. If the person who mentioned
using a buffet warmer or if anyone else knows where I might find one please
send me mail.
The vet felt the reason Frech became ill was because of drafts caused by my
heating system. How does one keep a bird out of a draft. Frech wasn't in
the heating outlets direct path. The vet suggest covering three sides of the
cage whenever there was air movement - a/c, heating, fan, whatever. Does
anyone else take these precautions?
I'm interested in providing nuturitional supplements for Frech. I've been
feeding him Petamine. Are other supplements on the market better - Budgamine,
Nekton, etc.?
Lastly, I read the Compuserve article posted on changing a bird's diet and am
interested in switching Frech to a pellet diet. A local pet shop owner said
he saw no benefit in providing a pellet diet. Does anyone disagree with this
pet shop owner and if you do what are the top pellet diets for cockatiels?
Thank you
Shane Saddler
UN106153@WVNVMS.WVNET.EDU
stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) (11/03/90)
In article <962@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu> bigbroth@cathedral.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (James M. Coleman) writes: >Does anyone reading know of a product that can be used in heating an ill bird? I've seen this used for brooders, so it might be a bit moist, but ... Put water in a critter pen (plexiglass pen for raising insects), and warm the water with a fish tank heater. Mount the cage just above the level of the water. >Lastly, I read the Compuserve article posted on changing a bird's diet and am >interested in switching Frech to a pellet diet. A local pet shop owner said >he saw no benefit in providing a pellet diet. Does anyone disagree with this >pet shop owner and if you do what are the top pellet diets for cockatiels? I disagree strongly with that pet shop owner. Pelleted diets (the good ones) provide a completely balanced diet for your bird. Many birds (including cockatiels) don't crave variety, so pellets are great. It also allows you to adjust their diet when they are breeding, moulting or ill (by using a different formulation of the same pellet). All my birds (finches -> macaws) have been fed pellets since 1987. I have used (and would recommend) the following pellets: Lafebers Avi Era (we have used since 1987) Lakes Parrot Buffet (we have used since 1989) I have minimal use of (and would recommend) the following pellets: Roudybush (never used) Ziegler (never used) Wings of Life (used for about 4 months) Pretty Bird (used for about 1 month) I would avoid: Tropican (made by Hagen) Scenic (made by some subsidiary of Iams) Stewart -- Stewart Winter Cognos Incorporated S-mail: P.O. Box 9707 VOICE: (613) 738-1338 x3830 FAX: (613) 738-0002 3755 Riverside Drive UUCP: uunet!cognos!stewartw Ottawa, Ontario The bird of the day is .... Peach Fronted Conure CANADA K1G 3Z4 Newsgroups: UN106153@WVNVMS.WVNET.EDU Subject: Re: INDOOR: Need advice for the purchase of bird supplies. Summary: Expires: References: <962@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu> Sender: Reply-To: stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) Followup-To: Distribution: Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada Keywords: In article <962@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu> bigbroth@cathedral.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (James M. Coleman) writes: >Does anyone reading know of a product that can be used in heating an ill bird? I've seen this used for brooders, so it might be a bit moist, but ... Put water in a critter pen (plexiglass pen for raising insects), and warm the water with a fish tank heater. Mount the cage just above the level of the water. >Lastly, I read the Compuserve article posted on changing a bird's diet and am >interested in switching Frech to a pellet diet. A local pet shop owner said >he saw no benefit in providing a pellet diet. Does anyone disagree with this >pet shop owner and if you do what are the top pellet diets for cockatiels? I disagree strongly with that pet shop owner. Pelleted diets (the good ones) provide a completely balanced diet for your bird. Many birds (including cockatiels) don't crave variety, so pellets are great. It also allows you to adjust their diet when they are breeding, moulting or ill (by using a different formulation of the same pellet). All my birds (finches -> macaws) have been fed pellets since 1987. I have used (and would recommend) the following pellets: Lafebers Avi Era (we have used since 1987) Lakes Parrot Buffet (we have used since 1989) I have minimal use of (and would recommend) the following pellets: Roudybush (never used) Ziegler (never used) Wings of Life (used for about 4 months) Pretty Bird (used for about 1 month) I would avoid: Tropican (made by Hagen) Scenic (made by some subsidiary of Iams) Stewart -- Stewart Winter Cognos Incorporated S-mail: P.O. Box 9707 VOICE: (613) 738-1338 x3830 FAX: (613) 738-0002 3755 Riverside Drive UUCP: uunet!cognos!stewartw Ottawa, Ontario The bird of the day is .... Peach Fronted Conure CANADA K1G 3Z4
kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann) (11/07/90)
In article <9003@cognos.UUCP>, stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) writes: > I disagree strongly with that pet shop owner. Pelleted diets (the good > ones) provide a completely balanced diet for your bird. Many birds > (including cockatiels) don't crave variety, so pellets are great. It > also allows you to adjust their diet when they are breeding, moulting or > ill (by using a different formulation of the same pellet). All my birds > (finches -> macaws) have been fed pellets since 1987. The only problem with this is the following. There have been NO long term studies about the effects of feeding only pellets. We recently had two very nice cockatiel breeders die due to calcified organs. The vet thinks, no real clue here, that it was because they were on a pellet ONLY diet for all of their life. We feed a variety of foods, seed, pellets, and fresh fruit and veggies. Do the same for you bird, there just has not been enough study done yet to know for sure that there are no long term problems with pellets. -- Kurt Baumann InterCon Systems Corporation 703.709.9890 Creators of fine TCP/IP products 703.709.9896 FAX for the Macintosh.
stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) (11/13/90)
In article <273716A3.4683@intercon.com> kdb@macaw.intercon.com (Kurt Baumann) writes: >The only problem with this is the following. There have been NO long term >studies about the effects of feeding only pellets. No, but the effects of feeding a seed-only diet are well known. Not every bird will accept a varied diet ... in these cases pellets present the only option. Stewart -- Stewart Winter Cognos Incorporated S-mail: P.O. Box 9707 VOICE: (613) 738-1338 x3830 FAX: (613) 738-0002 3755 Riverside Drive UUCP: uunet!cognos!stewartw Ottawa, Ontario The bird of the day is .... Peach Fronted Conure CANADA K1G 3Z4
ooblick@intercon.com (Mikki Barry) (11/15/90)
In article <9033@cognos.UUCP>, stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) writes: > >The only problem with this is the following. There have been NO long term > >studies about the effects of feeding only pellets. > > No, but the effects of feeding a seed-only diet are well known. > Not every bird will accept a varied diet ... in these cases pellets > present the only option. Unfortunately, the effects of feeding only CERTAIN seed-only diets are known. There have been no studies on a fortified, no-sunflower mix of FRESH seeds. Also, birds can be coaxed into accepting a varied diet, just as they can be weaned onto pellets. Most birds do not naturally accept pellets. Getting them to eat foreign looking brown things is as much a fight as it would be to get them to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. ALL of my birds eat fruit and veggies. Granted, not all birds will eat all the food I give them (they have their own personal preferences), but pellets are not the ONLY option. Mikki Barry --
mm@lectroid.sw.stratus.com (Mike Mahler) (11/15/90)
Mikki's got a good point here. The are some seed diets that are great for SOME birds. My folks have always had parakeets that live to 12 years feeding ONLY Hartz Mountain seed mix and lettuce. I doubt my nape would do well on this, in fact he hasn't and recently had a bacterial infection that we believe was caused by a immune deficiency PERHAPS caused by bad diet or stress (from lack of attention due to our new dog) or BOTH. The bacteria is very common and should not have settled in the bird like it did. Luckily it was easily knocked out with Bactrin but I might not have been so lucky if he didn't start picking his feathers since he showed NO other symptoms in stool or behaviour. Some suspected causes now are dog food (Mikki mentioned this to me and it never occurred to me that the food might contain pastorella) that I was giving occasionally, the dog's interest in the bird and his sticking his tongue and nose in (which the bird quickly pecks but to my misfortune the dog LIKES) and something else (Mikki I didn't mention this to you)... where I live the water is pretty loaded with Chlorine (from a reservoir) to kill the algae growth that happens at the change of seasons. Towards this end I bought a activated carbon water filter for the kitchen drinking water (not the little dinky ones you screw on, a bigger table top unit) and it cut down ALL the chlorine taste which is what I bought it for. However it occurred to me that these units DON'T kill bacteria and this might be where the bird caught it. My birds now only get bottled water (and even then I check to see where it comes from and how it's filtered). Added 80 watts worth of VitaLite to their cage area (two birds) and they are doing much better! Was it the dog food? Water? Dog? Light? Me? All of these? Who knows (no one really does actually. In fact many vets who claim they do don't) but I learned alot from this experience. I, unfortunately, learned that my vet's a total shnook and I was fortunate to find another very good one. $oy$... -- Taking action is a choice. Taking NO action is a choice as well.
stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) (11/17/90)
In article <3102@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> mm@lectroid.sw.stratus.com (Mike Mahler) writes: > Mikki's got a good point here. The are some seed diets that > are great for SOME birds. My folks have always had parakeets > that live to 12 years feeding ONLY Hartz Mountain seed mix > and lettuce. I doubt my nape would do well on this, in fact > he hasn't I will assume that you are talking about budgies when you say parakeets (please correct me if I am wrong). I think you must keep in mind that the budgie has been a domesticated 'parrot' for a very long time (centuries). It has been 'tuned' to live off a simple diet. While I'll bet that they can get some benefit from a 'more than just seed' diet, the difference isn't going to be great. The caged budgie comes from generations of seed eaters and has become quite hardy. In addition, budgies are desert birds to begin with. These two factors, I believe, make them somewhat unusual for a caged bird ... I don't think they can be used very effectively to tell us much about other caged birds. Summary: I think some seed diets are great for budgies - probably almost no other birds though. Stewart -- Stewart Winter Cognos Incorporated S-mail: P.O. Box 9707 VOICE: (613) 738-1338 x3830 FAX: (613) 738-0002 3755 Riverside Drive UUCP: uunet!cognos!stewartw Ottawa, Ontario The bird of the day is .... Barraband's Parakeet CANADA K1G 3Z4
mm@lectroid.sw.stratus.com (Mike Mahler) (11/18/90)
In article <9054@cognos.UUCP> stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) writes: >In article <3102@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> mm@lectroid.sw.stratus.com (Mike Mahler) writes: >> My folks have always had parakeets >> that live to 12 years feeding ONLY Hartz Mountain seed mix >> and lettuce. I doubt my nape would do well on this, in fact >> he hasn't > I will assume that you are talking about budgies when you say parakeets >(please correct me if I am wrong). No correction needed. > Summary: I think some seed diets are great for budgies - probably >almost no other birds though. Ok, so we are in violent agreement? 8-? -- Taking action is a choice. Taking NO action is a choice as well.
susans@cfi.COM (susans) (11/19/90)
In article <9054@cognos.UUCP> stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) writes: >In article <3102@lectroid.sw.stratus.com> mm@lectroid.sw.stratus.com (Mike Mahler) writes: ->> Mikki's got a good point here. The are some seed diets that ->> are great for SOME birds. My folks have always had parakeets ->> that live to 12 years feeding ONLY Hartz Mountain seed mix ->> and lettuce. I doubt my nape would do well on this, in fact ->> he hasn't > -> I will assume that you are talking about budgies when you say parakeets ->(please correct me if I am wrong). I think you must keep in mind that ->the budgie has been a domesticated 'parrot' for a very long time (centuries). ->It has been 'tuned' to live off a simple diet. While I'll bet that they ->can get some benefit from a 'more than just seed' diet, the difference ->isn't going to be great. The caged budgie comes from generations of seed ->eaters and has become quite hardy. In addition, budgies are desert birds ->to begin with. These two factors, I believe, make them somewhat unusual Stewart: I have read and found very useful all of your postings, and now have a question: aren't cockatiels from the same area that budgies are? Therefore, wouldn't their native diet be very similar to the native diet of budgies? Also, haven't cockatiels been domesticated for a long, long time? My bird came from Maine! I have been able to get my budgies and cockatiels to eat broccoli and a little spinach, but never any fruit. I feed them a mixed seed mixture--the budgies is fortified with SuperPreen powder, and I give the cockatiels SuperPreen seedlets with their seed (they now scream out "Wanna treat" when I shake the bottle). Is that reasonably sufficient? -- Susan S. (susans@cfi.com) Another Friend of Bill's
lark@tivoli.UUCP (Lar Kaufman) (11/21/90)
In article <958@cfiprod.UUCP> susans@cfiprod.UUCP (Susan Scheide -CFI-) writes: > and now have a question: aren't cockatiels from the same area > that budgies are? Therefore, wouldn't their native diet be very > similar to the native diet of budgies? Actually, if they are from the same habitat it is a safe bet that their native diets are different (with some overlap), otherwise, only one of the species would have thrived in the ecological niche. Diet is only one factor, of course, but a very important one. -lar -- --------- TIVOLI Systems, Inc. Lar Kaufman 512-454-3301 (voice) 512-329-2455 4503 Sinclair Avenue (fax) 512-329-2755 Austin, Texas 78756 USA (e) lark@tivoli.com
stewartw@cognos.UUCP (Stewart Winter) (11/24/90)
In article <958@cfiprod.UUCP> susans@cfiprod.UUCP (Susan Scheide -CFI-) writes: > and now have a question: aren't cockatiels from the same area > that budgies are? Therefore, wouldn't their native diet be very > similar to the native diet of budgies? Also, haven't cockatiels > been domesticated for a long, long time? My bird came from > Maine! A couple of people have answered some of these better than I could, but I'll try to tackle the last one. I don't think cockatiels have had the same kind of extended popularity in captivity. Every kid knows (and did years ago) what a budgie is ... fewer know of cockatiels. Also, cockatiels have mutations of colour, but physically remain fairly consistent in appearance. English budgies, for example, are so physically different in appearance from a 'genuine' budgie, that it's hard not to believe the bird could have been altered in other ways. If a bird was fed a consistent diet generation after generation (and budgies were mostly brought up on a 50/50 millet mix I think), the ones that could adapt best to that diet would probably do the best. These survivors may have problems coping with a more normal diet. This is far from a sure thing, but I think it is a plausible theory. Stewart -- Stewart Winter Cognos Incorporated S-mail: P.O. Box 9707 VOICE: (613) 738-1338 x3830 FAX: (613) 738-0002 3755 Riverside Drive UUCP: uunet!cognos!stewartw Ottawa, Ontario The bird of the day is .... Barraband's Parakeet CANADA K1G 3Z4