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09 Nov 2017

Handfeeding Macaws

Posted By : Guest

Filed Under : Nutrition | Birds | Roudybush

Tom Roudybush, owner and nutritionist of Roudybush, Inc., began manufacturing pellets, crumbles, and handfeeding formulas in 1985 after doing 16 years of nutritional research at the University of California, Davis. Mr. Roudybush studied various bird species, including 10 years of research on the nutritional requirements of pet birds. There is a commonly held belief among aviculturists that macaws need a higher percent fat diet, especially during the handfeeding period. This is based on some handfeeders having a difficult time maintaining good growth rates and based on observations of what some species of macaws eat in the wild.

No research has been done to determine what the fat or fatty acid requirements for growth are in macaws. Some handfeeders get good growth in macaws using Roudybush formulas and some handfeeders feel that they need to add fat to the formulas. In general, the handfeeders that get good results with Roudybush handfeeding formulas are those that feed a little higher percent solids than are used in other species of birds. For example, instead of feeding 25% solids, they are feeding 30%. Instead of feeding 30% solids to older chicks, they are feeding 35% solids. Roudybush recommend feeding the higher percent solids to macaws, especially the larger species of macaws.

Roudybush is concerned about people adding fat to the diet to achieve 15% fat or more. The increased weight gains may not be healthy, lean tissue gains, but excess body fat. Research needs to be done to determine the optimum dietary fat level for lean muscle mass gain in macaw chicks. There does seem to be some sort of specialized nutritional need in hyacinth macaw chicks. Again, research is needed to determine what that need is.

Handfeeders who include ground macadamia nuts, ground palm nuts, or coconut milk have much better success raising hyacinth chicks. These ingredients are not just high in fat, they all have saturated fat in common. Most vegetable oils, nuts, and seeds have unsaturated fat only. Roudybush suspect that when research is done, it will show that hyacinths have a requirement for certain saturated fatty acids. Hyacinths raised on formulas without saturated fats tend to develop crop stasis and “failure to thrive” syndromes. Therefore Roudybush recommend that handfeeders add about 10% ground macadamia nuts, palm nuts, or coconut milk to Roudybush formulas when feeding hyacinth macaws.

When interpreting observations of what birds eat in the wild it is important to remember that wild birds are searching for the most energy input for the least energy output. They are limited to what is most available and accessible. Of the available and accessible foods, they will choose high-energy (high fat) foods first because they are the highest input for the least amount of energy spent in foraging. It is quite possible, even probable, that we can greatly improve upon a wild bird’s diet and can get better productivity and longevity in our captive birds through these improvements.

Also, once we know what a bird’s nutritional requirements are, we can meet these through a variety of feed ingredients that are not a part of the wild bird’s diet. The nutritional composition is what is important, not the ingredients used to arrive at that composition. Therefore, it is not necessary, nor even advisable, to only feed what a bird in the wild would be eating.