It
finally happened. Well, OK--it
happens to everyone at one point or another…writer’s block. For some reason this month I had a lot
of trouble coming up with a topic for my blog. After a brainstorming session I realized some of my best
blogs were based on questions people have asked about our birds.
An assortment of food items cleaned, chopped, and ready to be delivered to the
birds (photo: Leah Tyndall)
This
month I decided to answer a question we hear frequently at World Bird Sanctuary
shows and on site, “What are you feeding them?” An excellent question!
We feed our birds an all-natural diet. If they eat it in the wild, we feed it to them in
captivity…as long as it is feasible.
For our meat-eating birds of prey we have a variety of options such as
mice, rats, rabbits, pigeon, fish, chicken, and venison.
The
omnivores such as crows, ravens, seriemas and cranes get meat as well as
delicious produce and soaked dog food.
It may sound a little strange, but dog food is an excellent source of
protein and well balanced for omnivores; also for many of the birds it is their
favorite part of the meal.
The
parrots have a special dry diet that looks remarkably like cereal (but doesn’t
taste like cereal), as well as freshly chopped produce. They also get nuts, over-ripe bananas
and hard-boiled eggs.
One of our parrots watching intently as his bowl is filled with produce (photo:
Leah Tyndall)
Raw
eggs are given as enrichment to the omnivores and vultures. Each species, and sometimes each
individual, has their own unique way of eating them. Crows and ravens poke the shells, vultures pick them up and
drop them, seriemas slam them to the ground.
Since
we process our own deer meat (donated by
generous hunters –or-- road-killed deer brought to us by the State Highway
Department), we often have deer leg bones that
we give to the vultures. Their
specialized beaks can remove the meat from the bone more cleanly and thoroughly
than we humans could ever hope to achieve.
Much
of our food is donated to us by various generous individuals and
organizations. Without them our
organization’s budget would be severely impacted. Not that we don’t spend a large part of our budget on food
for the birds, but donations help tremendously when you have about 200 birds to
feed. Since
our birds get an all-natural, whole food diet we have to do some prep work before it can be fed to the birds.
Be
warned this next section is a bit graphic! In the wild, birds of prey will catch their food and often
remove the lower digestive tract or “guts”
before enjoying their meal. In
order to make things easier on ourselves in terms of cleaning, and for the
health of the birds, we remove most of the guts
before feeding meat to our birds.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, we have to gut and cut up rats and rabbits and
deer (oh my) every day. Keep this
in mind if you ever plan to work with raptors.
Hunter, a Eurasian Eagle Owl, eating a tasty piece of rat meat after a lovely
bath in his tub; room service and a bath--what more could an owl ask? (photo: Leah Tyndall)
We
also must cut up produce everyday and soak dog food. Down at the behind the scenes area of World Bird Sanctuary
we spend over half of our day doing food prep. It’s a dirty, messy job, but someone’s gotta do it!
“But
Leah,” you may be thinking, “do you ever feed your birds live food?” Another excellent question,
hypothetical audience! We do
not--for a couple of reasons. The
first is that we do not want our birds to associate movement with food. Many of our programs take place
outdoors and we don’t want our birds taking off every time a squirrel runs by
or a songbird wanders into the theater.
The second reason has to do with the bird’s safety. All of our birds were raised in
captivity or must remain in captivity due to injuries that prevent them from
hunting properly. This means a
bird either never learned to hunt or cannot do so and pitting them against live
prey could result in the bird becoming injured if the prey fights back. The only time we use live prey is with
birds that are being rehabilitated to be released back into the wild. We need to be sure that they have fully
recovered and can hunt on their own after being fed by humans during their
treatment.
A
diet as similar as possible to their wild
counterparts is important to the health of captive birds. Through generous donations we are able
to feed our birds the best food for them.
This may look a tad unappetizing if you come to visit, but please know
that it is the best possible nutrition we can give our animals. It’s this knowledge that makes all of
the countless hours of food prep, the scissors hand cramps, and the over
familiarity with mammal and fish digestive tracts completely worth it.
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