Nutrition options for pet birds: critical care to normal diet

摘要

Nutrition is an area of companion avian medicine that has been one of the most active in advancing the health of companion birds. Situations and/or periods of life where nutrition is a major influence on birds' health include physiologic stress, growth and breeding. Many companion bird feed companies have used the poultry model as a basis for developing feeds that try to meet the nutritional demands of pet bird species. Unfortunately this is not the perfect formula in trying to develop a diet for the number of different species of birds commonly maintained as pets or in an aviary setting. It does form a foundation from which to work and there are years of sound scientific nutritional studies that have been performed using poultry as the avian model. It is well known that more specific scientific studies need to be investigated using the primary psittacine pet bird species but until that research is published the poultry research will have to suffice.