Feeding Your Pet Bird

To ensure that a bird stays healthy, feed it a proper diet. A balanced diet contains ingredients from all the major food groups. Adjust quantities of different foods so that your bird samples everything and doesn't fill up on just one preferred food. A seed-only diet is deficient in many nutrients and leads to malnutrition, poor feathers, increased susceptibility to illness, and a shortened life. Processed pellet foods, fruits, vegetables, cereals, breads, and proteins like beans, eggs, or meats should be offered to provide a well-balanced diet. Birds are one type of pet where we encourage the feeding of people food.

Clean, fresh water always must be available. Nutritional and vitamin supplements can be used under the guidance of your veterinarian. Birds, like people, frequently have strong preferences for certain foods. Even if they are stubborn, we should not give up on getting them to eat what is best for them. If you notice a sudden decrease in appetite, contact your veterinarian- it could signal an illness requiring medical care.

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Feeding Rats, Mice, Hamsters, and Gerbils

Whereas owners of pet rabbits have ready access to quality pelleted, commercial rabbit feed, owners of small rodents must obtain feed from the array of colorful boxes of food and supplements at the pet store. Included among these feed may be seed mixtures, seeds mixed with vitamin and mineral pellets (often ignored by the pet), hay cubes, pelleted complete diets, salt blocks, pieces of chewable wood, and a variety of treat foods that lure the unsuspecting buyer because those treats resemble the snack foods preferred by pet owners.

Of most pet rodent feeds available, only the pelleted, complete diets (with at least 16 percent quality protein) have use as primary diets. The standard pelleted, complete diets may be fed to the Old World rodents: hamsters, gerbils, mice, and rats. The recommended diet for these pet rodents, therefore, is a reasonably fresh pellet incorporating essential nutrients, containing at least 16 percent crude protein, with the box labeled "meets NRC requirements" or a similar message.

Conventional (natural ingredient) pet animal diets produced by reputable companies usually contain adequate balanced nutritional components, but even those diets can be altered by damp, heat, oxidation, and vermin contamination. Owner-compounded diets, on the other hand, are more likely than are commercial products to lack certain trace nutrients, to be unbalanced, or to be contaminated with bacteria or mold.

Pelleting involves heat, moisture, binder, hot-air dry, and compression in a shaped mold. This form usually is well received (at least by rodents old enough to gnaw the hard pellets), and little is wasted. Powders and meals are wasted: the dust can collect around mouths and in noses and predispose a pet to medical problems. Water is best provided in bottles with, preferably, metal sipper tubes. Hamsters may gnaw or break plastic or glass tubes. Having fresh water available is critical, as many pet rodents presented as "sick" are in fact dehydrated.

Supplementation of standard feed with fruit, vegetables, hay, and preferred feed is done often with pet rodents, but the balanced diet should not be diluted by more than 10 percent except in older animals, in which case dilution to perhaps 25 percent with fiber may retard obesity.

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Feeding Green Iguanas

If you own a green iguana, no doubt you've seen lots of information about what to feed your pet. Unfortunately, much of the information that is on the market is misleading. Green iguanas have fairly specific nutritional needs, and winging it can put your dear pet in danger of illness. In fact, many problems that veterinarians see in exotic pets are caused by poor at-home care, including poor nutrition.

If you do not already have one, find your pet a veterinarian who treats iguanas. Not all veterinarians do, so it may take some work on your part. But it's well worth it.

Iguanas in the wild are strict herbivores. They tend to eat many small meals throughout the day, and their natural eating habits lean toward a diet of fiber and plant protein, with very little fat.

When choosing food for your iguana, it's important to select different kinds of plant-based food in the right proportions: 90 percent should be vegetables and 10 percent fruits. While iguanas do enjoy the sweeter fruit choices, fruit doesn't have the same mineral and vitamin content as vegetables. To avoid getting your pet hooked on just a few foods, be sure to feed a wide selection of appropriate foods in the right proportions. In these cases, fresh foods are best, with frozen coming in second and canned coming in last.

Here is a list of some appropriate vegetables to feed your iguana. It's best to serve them raw; just be sure to wash them well.

The following flowers are also OK for your pet. Be sure they have not been treated with chemicals or fertilizers.

Appropriate fruit selections include:

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Nutrition and the Pet Rabbit

A rabbit's digestive tract is very different from that of a dog or cat. A rabbit has an active cecum that allows it to digest hay. Many nutrients are made available by digestion that occurs in the cecum, which is located at the origin of the large intestine. In order to allow absorption by the small intestine, the rabbit "recycles" these nutrients by eating their own pellets. Rabbits even make a different type of pellet, called a "cecotrope," that has more nutrients. This behavior usually happens at night and is often unnoticed by the owner.

The balance of bacteria and other organisms in the rabbit's digestive tract must be just right to maintain normal motility, digestion, absorption, and elimination. We know that fiber is an essential aid to this process. Many cases of diarrhea are due to an adverse change in the balance of organisms in the digestive tract. Proper nutrition plays an important role in this balance.

Older practices of feeding just alfalfa pellets and treats leave a rabbit prone to a variety of ailments such as obesity, foot problems, hairballs, diarrhea, etc. Grass hay is very important to a healthy digestive tract. Alfalfa pellets have too much calcium and the fiber is not coarse enough for a rabbit's needs, although feeding alfalfa pellets as part of a balanced diet is okay. Even alfalfa hay, though, is not ideal.

An example of a proper diet for a rabbit is:

Salt licks and vitamins are unnecessary. The food should be provided in heavy crocks or hoppers to avoid tipping. Water can be supplied in a clean drip bottle. As you can see, the "treats" are a very small part of a rabbit's diet.

Hay is available in manageable quantities at many pet stores, feed stores and other locations. It can be stored in a wicker basket or cloth sack. A pillow case works well.

Proper eating habits and exercise will lead to a happy, healthy, and long-lived rabbit.

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