Is your parrot has enough calcium? Calcium is the most important minerals found in bones and teeth. Due to the advertising and promotion of our industry, most of us tend to believe that their products are the best source to gain calcium.
And of course, these products are an excellent source of calcium — the different kinds of yogurt and cheese. There are many choices of products that we can buy at the grocery store. How about vegetarians and vegans? How about the parrot’s owner? How about our birds?
In this post, you’ll learn how to keep your birds safe from a lack of calcium. By being aware of the causes, manifestations, and appropriate intervention, you’ll make your birds healthy and happy.
Role of Calcium in Birds
People aren’t aware of some great sources of calcium found in commonly sourced vegetables. Birds also need the calcium the same as people.
Calcium helps the birds to become strong their bones and teeth. Calcium also maintains a normal heart rate, and it helps to communicate the nerves into the nervous system. All of the birds need a normal level of calcium in their diet. This is for the normal nerve and bone formation for the proper function of their muscle and brain.
Female birds need much amount of calcium to form their eggs. The shells of birds’ eggs are made of almost pure calcium carbonate. Almost all of the birds simply don’t get enough calcium in their diet.
What Is Calcium Deficiency in Birds
Hypocalcemia is a common abnormality of birds, in which they experience low calcium levels and symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency. It can lead to a bearing on cardiac and cognitive functioning. So, it is important to maintain and balance your bird’s calcium by feeding them high calcium. Vitamin D helps to absorb calcium in their body.
To ensure your parrot pet, you must give his or her well-balanced diets. Hypocalcemia is a presence of low serum calcium levels on the bird’s blood. Parrot pets usually lack calcium, so they can easily become calcium deficient. Parrot with a calcium deficiency can have a feather plucking, and the nervous behavior shows serious and life threats.
But this problem can be fixed with the use of high calcium vegetables and some other nutritious and healthy foods you can easily prepare for your bird’s diet. Dark heavy vegetables, as well as white beans and calcium foods such as sea vegetables and more. Most of this food found in the grocery store anywhere around the country.
Foods that High in Calcium to Help Address Calcium Deficiency in Birds
1. Greens
We all know that green leafy vegetables are such nutritious foods. Greens also rich in calcium. Those vegetables that are rich in calcium are broccoli, bokchoy, parsley, and also rapid.
2. Fruits
Fruits are too high in sugar, so they shouldn’t help your bird’s diet. But some fruits have extra calcium. Those dried fruits, especially raisins and apricots, are rich in calcium that can help your bird from deficiency. Try to feed them sweet fruits so you won’t have to persuade your pets too hard. Examples of Oranges, Fig, and apricots are rich in calcium.
Other foods that are rich in calcium are butter, brewers yeast, kelp, milk, oats, yogurt, cheese, and also herbs. This will help your pet bird from calcium deficiency.
3. Nuts and Seeds
Just like fruit, Nuts and Seeds are high in sugar so that this food cannot help for your birds’ diet, and they may become overweight. However, nuts and seeds can enjoy your parrot to become their diet.
4. Beans
Beans can give your bird enough calcium. Those kidney beans, pinto beans, black beans, and soybeans are rich in calcium. Make sure that you just feed your parrot when it’s cooked. Uncooked beans have a toxic that can cause nutritional deficiencies.
In birds, natural habitat, the food that they eat typically doesn’t have enough calcium for their needs, so they find another source. They commonly pick those animal bones to get supplemental calcium. But some of them find and eat eggshells of other birds.
Best Calcium-rich in Fresh Foods for Your Bird Feather
1. Broccoli
2. Pumpkin seeds
3. Bokchoy
4. Okra
5. Collards
6. Kale
7. Butternut squash
9. Almonds
10. Coconut meat
11. Green Beans
12. Spinach
13. Cabbage
14. Mulberries
15. Brussels Sprouts
16. Kohlrabi
17. Brazil Nuts
18. Sesame seeds
19. Artichoke
20. Chia Seeds
21. Goose Berries
Important Tips to Remember
Remember that to ensure your parrot pet in calcium deficiency. The bird also needs to get the right amount of Vitamin D so that the calcium will ingest to their body properly. It is very easy for your parrot pet to become overdose in calcium; that’s why take her/him to the veterinarian to ensure that you are correct in feeding them.
12 Common Symptoms of Hypocalcaemia
1. Muscular pain
2. Nervousness
3. Improper skeletal formation in young chicks
4. Loss of balance
5. Lack of coordination
6. Difficulty in climbing
7. Increased blood cholesterol
8. Trembling
9. Feather Plucking
10. Seizures
11. Poor eggshell formation
12. Unhealthy heart
Common Symptoms of Calcium Deficiency
1. Weakness
2. Tremors
3. Ataxia
4. Depression
5. Seizure
6. Pathologic fractures
Why Birds Need Calcium
1. Adult Birds Need Calcium
The most challenging mineral that birds need is calcium. Because of extreme changes in the period of demand, like egg-laying and chick development and because of many foods without enough calcium. Adult birds without enough calcium will utilize calcium from their bones, which could lead to weak bones.
2. The Egg-laying Mother Bird Needs Enough Calcium
Dietary calcium is used for shell formation in egg-laying female birds. In reproducing birds, their eggshells often become thin, hatchability band birds egg production decreased and a serious life threat.
Those egg laying, egg binding, or local prolapse are commonly the effects of calcium deficiency. Most of the birds lay more than 2-3 eggs, and it increases their calcium intake during the days of producing their eggs.
3. Eggs Will Be Stronger
Without enough calcium, the bird’s egg will become thinner than its normal shells. Those female birds don’t have enough calcium, and they may not produce many eggs.
4. Developing Chick Birds Need Calcium
In chicks, calcium is required for the formation of their bone properly. Having a calcium deficiency causes skeletal abnormalities, including lameness, rickets, enlarged and painful joints, and misshapen bones.
Conclusion
Be an active parrot pet owner that knows how to identify what is the dosage of calcium you will feed on them. And also, you need to know, knows how you will need them to take care of them and how you will feed them. Make your pet bird healthy. If you think that this cannot help your bird pet, or see many signs from calcium deficiency, its better you go to the veterinarian for the check of your parrot. The vet will know what the best thing to do with your parrot bird is, and they will prescribe a medicine for them.
