Assessing Cock Vent Development

My target date for pairing is approximately March 8 but long before then it is important to assess how the cock birds vents are developing and adjust accordingly.

Male Number 1:

Click on these pictures and note the yellow fat layer building up which should it continue becomes and obstruction to mating. The vent itself shows good redness yet sides are parallel, so he is coming along but not ready at this point. We  certainly need to take control of his developing weight problem!

Male Number 2:

This cock has a red vent and abdomen and notice how the sides of the vent are rounding out rather than parallel like Male Number 1. He is getting ready nicely! Perhaps the sparing with other males helped him come into breeding condition even if he broke all his tail feathers and had to have them pulled so that new ones would come in to replace them!

Intervention:

Both these males came from the same cage with one other male, so even though conditions were the same, number 1 is too fat and number 2 needs to continue with current diet and exercise.

Number 1 needs calories reduced so he will be feed a lot of untreated grass seed (purchased from Wings and Things), some Blatner's Siskin Finch Mix (Bird Supply of New Hampshire) and plain canary mix (L'Avian Canary Plus) without added sunflower chips and uncooked regular human oatmeal. No more soft white bread each morning. Food will be only available from dishes on the floor. Water on high perch. Perches reduced in his cage from four to two and placed high in the cage to maximize exercise.

Two consecutive days a week I have added iodine in the water. I use vanodine 5 drops to a gallon of water. 24 hours after the first dose, I notice the lazy ones are more active.