FEATURE


ANYONE FANCY A CARROT STICK?


I


suppose there are many people who can walk past a fish and chip shop without their nose twitching at the enticing aromas coming from within, strange how we don’t react the same way to a bowl of lettuce or carrot sticks even though they are healthier. Proof that our bodies don’t always crave what is good for us, the same can also be said for our parrots. I recently attended a talk on Avian Nutrition given by a visiting avian vet; it was very informative and even to those seasoned bird keepers among us it was a bit of an eye opener. The vet told us, that in his opinion approximately 80% of parrot deaths are caused by malnutrition. When I heard this I looked around the room and registered the looks of disbelief on all the faces present. To most of us the


word malnutrition conjured up images of starving people in third world countries. That surely couldn’t apply to our pet parrots with pots of readily available food, unfortunately though it does. The word malnutrition basically means bad diet and the sad reality is that bad diets for our parrots can result in premature death. I don’t know why I was so surprised by this shocking statistic as I have seen far too many parrots come in to the Refuge in poor condition, some overweight and lethargic, some underweight to the point of their breast bones being clearly visible, they often have tatty, dry feathers, dull colouring, scaly and flaky skin and in general just not the beautiful creatures they are supposed to be. These birds aren’t suffering from any illness, for most of them a change


BIRD SCENE 25BIRD SCENE 07


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