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THE INCREDIBLE EDIBLE EGG!
A nearly complete food, the egg is the best source of protein you can feed your birds.
Think about it - what do birds hatch from? Eggs, of course. If an egg has everything that a bird needs to develop
into a hatchling, then it stands to reason that eggs will also be a pretty good source of nutrition for adult birds as well.
| The Incredible Edible Egg! |
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| Nature's Nearly Perfect Food - The Hardboiled Egg |
For some (including myself) this is not intuitive at first. I thought feeding
eggs to my birds was akin to cannibalism of sorts. Well guess, what? They will eat their own eggs and other
bird's eggs (and raw too), so why not feed them boiled hen's eggs? You and I are probably closer related to pigs or
cows than Estrildid finches are to chickens. So much for cannibalism.
And finches LOVE egg food and relish it once introduced to it. I currently
have over 300 noisy finches, but when I give egg food to all the flights, all I hear are beaks clicking and squabbles
over which bird gets to plop itself down in the center of the egg food tray. Not only do finches LOVE egg food, but
it's GOOD for them too. Gotta love that!
Please read on to learn more...
Egg: Nature's Nearly Perfect
Food
One large chicken egg has about 6 grams of protein, with the egg white having 3.6
grams and the yolk containing the balance. Eggs have the highest quality protein with an amino acid (protein
building blocks) composition nearly identical to all required essential amino acids. Eggs are easily digestible.
97% of egg protein is absorbed. This is why egg food is so critical for developing chicks. They can extract nearly
ALL the protein out of any egg they ingest, using the amino acids building blocks for bone, skin, muscle, organs and feathers.
Boiled Egg Amino Acid Profile:
* = Essential Amino Acid based on Chickens
# = Important for Feather
Production
& = Rate limiting for growth in Broiler
Chickens
$ = Essential for Calcium Uptake
Understanding Essential Amino Acids
Essential amino acids cannot be manufactured by the body. They
must be ingested in the diet. If an essential amino acid is missing, protein synthesis stops OR the bird will start
to break down its own muscle to get the required missing amino acid. (While this is a starvation condition, it can
also happen even with seemingly well fed birds who are on a low or unbalanced protein diet.)
| Egg Food with Paprika and Walnut Meal |
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| Notice the egg food has a slight reddish tinge to it. |
One Finch Chick Day = One Human Baby
Year
Human babies and Finch nestlings both enter the world in an embryonic state. They
continue to develop extensively until they reach adulthood. One example is that Finch hatchling eyes are not even fully
formed, no less open, at hatching. A newborn's eyes are open, but vision is very blurry and focus is optimized to
a distance of 9-12" for the first six months of life - which is typically the distance their parents' face would
be when being held.
Both types of babies are completely dependent upon their parents (or fosters) for
their survival. It takes Humans many years to achieve independence while Finch chicks develop extremely fast -
maturing in about only 2-3 weeks. The speed at which this happens never ceases to amaze me.
I use the following analogy: it take a Human child about 18 YEARS to mature
(some never do but that's another story), and the average Finch chick about 18 DAYS. That means that a finch develops
about 365 times faster than a human!
Of course, this is an oversimplification - and depends upon when you measure independence
and maturity. I'm using fledging or legally able to move out of home (18 years of age for Humans) as my measure.
There is no perfect correspondence since Finches are sexually mature after they fledge, Humans before. Finches still
need a few weeks of care to wean, most Humans can feed themselves after they move out, though few of us would call it nutrition.
However, I find a good mental picture is to assume that 1 Finch chick day = 1 Human baby year.
| Approximately Two Week Old Gouldian Chicks |
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| At this stage of development, most ingested protein will go to form feathers. |
| Moulting Gouldian Chicks |
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| Chicks from above, only FIVE days later. That was fast!!! |
Consequences of Poor Nutrition
Imagine now if a human child didn't recieve proper nutrition for a year, how
healthy would he be? Would he be stunted? Sick? Deformed? Mentally deficient? All of these?
Now what if the finch chick didn't receive proper nutrition for two days? Or three? Or the whole time it was trying
to grow and develop? Each day of a finch chick's life is pretty analagous to one developmental year in a human
baby's life. Therefore, it is critical that chicks receive proper and wholesome nutrition EVERY DAY in order
to develop to their fullest potential. There are enough other things that can go wrong in raising exotic Estrildid
finches, NUTRITION SHOULDN'T BE ONE OF THEM!
Poor nutrition can also be an issue for adult birds and can lead to a plethora of disease
states as well as infertility or dead-in-shell (DIS) eggs.
Carotenoids: Eggs contain lutein, cryptoxanthin and
zeaxanthin as well as beta carotene. Please see in-depth discussion on the importance of carotenoids:
Carotenoids Introduction
Carotenoid Sources
Vitamins & Minerals: Vitamin A; B Vitmains -
B6, B12, E, Folate, Thiamine, Riboflavin; Vitamin E; Vitamin K; Calcium; Sodium; Potassium; Phosphorus; Magnesium; Iron;
Selenium and Zinc. Please see in-depth discussion on Vitamins and Minerals:
Vitamins
Minerals
Calcium: Not only does egg contain calcium, but the
egg shell is nearly pure calcium carbonate. Finches LOVE to nibble on egg shells. If you leave the egg shells
on when making egg food or save the egg shells and feed them separately, you are giving your birds an EXCELLENT source of calcium.
Please see in-depth discussion on Calcium and Egg Binding:
Calcium & Egg Binding - What EVERY breeder NEEDS TO KNOW!
Optimal Protein Levels
Chicks should receive between 18% and 23% protein in their total diet.
Growing poults and gamebirds need 26% to 30% total dietary protein while ducklings and goslings need only 20% - 22%.
I don't believe anyone knows the required protein level of finches. The best we can do at this time is to guess.
A seed only diet has about 12% protein - in other words - it's high carbohydrate and low protein.
Too much protein is not necessarily a good thing either. Excess
protein can lead to kidney failure as the body overworks to clear out the excess nitrogen. Protein is not stored. It
is either used or excreted.
Less than optimal protein levels will result in slower growth rates. There
are no obvious signs of protein deficiency in birds, with a few exceptions. Smaller birds grow and mature more
slowly. In mature birds, there may be egg production issues.
Amino acid imbalances can result in various symptoms including fatty liver syndrome,
prolapse cloaca (externalization of the tissues of the cloaca) and aggression.
| Lavender Breasted Black Headed Gouldian Hen |
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| All my Goulds, notorious for being picky eaters so I'm told, eat egg food with relish. |
Eggs Are Good For Finches!
IT'S TRUE! Not only is egg food nutritious, it's also delicious. Just
ask this Gouldian hen what she thinks, and she will tell you an emphatic 'wee-wee-wee!'
Now that you are hopefully convinced that nutrition is important particularly for
developing chicks and that eggs ARE good for your finches too, let's discuss how to feed eggs and how to do it safely.
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