Abstract
D espite the fact that a variety of birds are becoming domesticated in captivity through proper handfeeding and nurturing techniques, they still carry many of their wild ancestral characteristics and instincts. Our birds' highly alert, sensitive, emotional personalities may cause them to experience stress at the drop of a hat. (No pun intended.)When your birds encounter stress, you want to help them through those times in the safest, most gentle way possible. Some birds become stressed over what may seem like a minor change in their lives, i.e., having their cage moved to a new location or upon being offered a new toy, perch, or food.
These new items can seem like a foreign invader and a serious threat to your bird and may be avoided at first sight. A new location, even if it is for the betterment of your bird, may take the bird some time to accept. Each bird reacts differently to change in his or her life. What may affect one negatively may not faze another in the least. When change is considered a threat, it can be quite a traumatic experience for your bird.
Sometimes stress is initiated by a more dramatic change, like a new member to the household, a new cage mate, a loss of a companion, a move to a new home, or a traumatic event like being mishandled, abused by a former owner, or groomed roughly.
Knowledge of your bird's diet and care history will be very helpful for properly understanding the stress symptoms your bird may be experiencing today. For many breeder birds, the breeding season is a stressful time. Sometimes when eggs or babies are disturbed or removed, the parent birds become stressed and/or depressed. In my experience, some parent birds are more tolerating than others of any human disturbances during the breeding preparation time, and the brooding and feeding of their young. Parent birds may fight with one another if they feel threatened or stressed by environmental disturbances. The parents, due to stress and anxiety caused from external interference, may even injure their babies in the nest.
While we can't prevent every stressful situation from occurring, we can help our birds to endure stress better by providing them with a healthy diet for a healthy mind and body. But what about the nutrients in natural foods? Can they help provide stability during harsh times?
Food selection can prove to be an important tool for reducing the symptoms of stress. A poor diet may play a major role in causing stress and optimal nutrition is an important facet of stress management. It is very difficult to relieve stress symptoms entirely when adequate nutritional support is lacking. A comprehensive nutritional program can help stabilize and calm your bird and promote optimum function of its immune system and digestive tract.
In addition to providing your birds with a nutritious diet, there are many herbs, which can also help relieve the symptoms of stress, add nutrients to the diet, and optimize your bird's health - all without drug intervention.
Reducing the stress in your bird's life through dietary measures may be simpler than you think.