Bottoms Up - Male Physical Exam

Richey, my new German Roller male, looks at me in disbelief. "Isn't the fact that I am always singing when you peak in the aviary good enough? ....  No and that is final!  I do not want to bare all on your blog!"

 As I proceed to catch him, he shyly hides from me and puts up quite a chase in protest.

 First the breast bone. Oops Richey, it is a bit sharp to my liking! Pelvis bones are also too prominent and no slight yellow fat layer on the lower abdomen. Richey, you are a little too thin!

When a male is too thin, they may not come into breeding condition and infertility is common. Too fatten him a bit, I add a generous amount of sunflower chips (pieces) and hulled hemp seed to some song food mix (Higgins brand). To this mixture I added Avigain from Avitech company.

Note the small vent is pointed toward the tail instead of bent forward toward the head. The color is yellow and not fiery red. The sides of the vent are parallel and not engorged. He is not ready but on a good note he has some development in spite of being on the thin side. (Sorry Richey about the slight trim so I could get this only slightly revealing photo, a little tricky shot since you are in one hand and the camera in my other hand, but when the time comes, I'll shape it some more and really trim off the side feathers! My husband Pat told me to just tell you to turn your head and cough!)

Time for extra nutrients. One of my favorites is 4 cups nestling food (Biodecken Novafood from Ricardo Sanchez ricardo@ricardosanchez.cc or 214 998-7474) and 1 tablespoon Miracle New Canariz vitamin amino acid from Italy (ABBA Products). At present I only feed this to males but will give to hens when close to breeding.

Today, I started coating the regular seed mix for all birds with fortified wheat germ oil. I use one cup to 50 lbs seed mix. First take about 5 lbs and add the oil and mix well and let stand till the oil is well absorbed into the seed, then mix in with rest of seed. I continue this till breeding season is over.

Today, I also will turn the lights up to 12 hour days. Richey being new to the aviary in November has been housed in his own cage. If I put him in with other males, to bring on some territorial fighting, he would lose more weight and condition.

As a side note: when you put males together for territorial fighting to condition, the easiest way is to put them all simultaneously into a different cage rather than adding a bird to a cage where the territory is already established.