Bottoms Up Revisited - A Very Happy Ending!

What a Difference a Day Makes!

The hen with the pasted vent recovered immediately! Notice the change in her eyes, how wide open they are now. Previously, they were dull and starting to close down and give a hint of a squint like when birds are dehydrated.

When I caught her to take her picture, she actually acknowledged me with a chirp every time she hopped from perch to perch. Birds who do not tolerate rich diets, are quickly fixed by lowering the dietary fat. In this case, I continued feeding the general seed mix but decreased the amount of sunflower chips. Even though I offered lots of oatmeal in the mix to offset the high fat, offering it and eating it are two completely different things! Luckily, she readily ate the extra supplement, a fine grind wild bird mix, which is simply fine ground mixture of corn and milo. This is made by Rausch Seed and Feed, Inc., 937 N. Railroad Drive, Belle Plaine, Kansas 672012, phone: 316 488-3939. It costs $11 for 50 lbs. It is sold as either coarse or fine ground. For canaries, fine grind is best. Just fine grinding corn and milo would be easy to duplicate anywhere. The fat content is 2% while protein is 8.5%. I was somewhat skeptical about the milo when Doyle mention this new mix he had found, as even my wild birds waste the milo and just refuse to eat it. The feed dealer also assured me that ground milo was a different story, and they even like it when it is ground. He was ever so right!

This mix is very good in breeds with sensitive guts and/or long feathering who are prone to pasted vents, like thin birds, borders, old crest, and glosters. It is also good because corn is high in lysine. My borders, like most borders, are a little finicky but the picture shows several young border cocks eating it readily on the first day I offered it! Birds getting the corn/milo mix in my aviary right now include all thin birds, borders, and hens. These birds are exhibiting tighter feather and appear even more fit!

The moral of this long two posting poop story is "If you hear hoof beats, think of horses and not zebras"!!!!!