Practical feeding Flashcards
Feeding rabbits
- crepuscular feeders
- hind gut fermenters (pure vegetarians)
- like to eat at dawn and dusk
Rabbit food
- Hay, grazing, browsing
- green vegetables
- sometimes concentrates (small amount fed at night)
Types of rabbit food
- Extruded pellets - best
- alfalfa mix - can be sugary
- cheap ‘museli’ mixes - high carb, upset gut flora, poor caecal flora, non-caecotrophy, soiled perineum prone to fly strike, dental disease
- ‘breeder’ pellets
- ‘treats’ often lead to obesity
Problems arising from poor diet in rabbits
- incorrect Ca:P (osteodystrophy, dental disease, calciuria)
- low fibre (poor gut motility, poor caecal flora, non-caecotrophy, dental disease)
What should Ca:P be in rabbits
1.5 - 2 : 1
How much concentrates should rabbits be given in food?
Don’t need any but can have up to 2-3% of BW per day
What greens should you give to rabbits?
- not lettuce
- not carrots daily as very sugary
Feeding guinea pigs
- herbivorous
- eat grass
- require daily vit C
- do not rely on in water supplementation only, or just vegetables
Vitamin C for guinea pigs
Require 10-30 mg/kg/24hrs
Disease may be seen within 14 days of starting a deficient diet
Requirement increases x2 or 3 in disease, growth, pregnancy, lactation, stress, etc
Correct feeding of guinea pigs
Grazing and/or hay
Concentrates adequately supplemented with vitamin C
+/- green vegetables
Avoid cheap mixes and very sugary treats
Problems arising from the incorrect feeding of guinea pigs
Lack of fibre
- Barbering
- Loose stools
Incorrect calcium ratios
- Renoliths and sludge
- Dental disease
Malocclusion
- Usually secondary to scurvy
- The lower teeth curve in and trap the tongue on the floor of the mouth
Scurvy (hypovitaminosis C)
- In young animals: joint swelling/pain
- Adults: malocclusion, poor wound healing, immunosuppression
Chinchillas
- Mountain dwelling herbivores from South America
- cannot tolerate more than 3% fat in diet
Correct diet of chinchillas
Hay
Good quality chinchilla pellets
Treats such as hard vegetables and fruit
Problems arising from the incorrect feeding of chinchillas
○ Dental disease
○ Oesteodystrophy
○ Hypocalcaemic fits
○ Greasy fur, scaly skin
○ Fatty liver disease
○ Paraphimosis
Colic/bloat
Degus
- Octodon degus - a Hystricomorph rodent
- True herbivores
- Lives in colonies with burrow systems in south America (rabbit niche)
- Commonly develops diabetes mellitus if fed diet too high in soluble carbohydrates
- Pellets and hay
Rats and mice
Parasites of man
- Eat whatever we try to grow for ourselves, or what we leave behind
- Require/expect plenty of animal protein in their diet
- True omnivores
Hamsters and gerbils - what they eat in the wild
- invertebrates
- fresh vegetation
- dry seeds
Commercial small mammal foods
- Differ greatly in quality, with many being mixes
- There are not some good pelleted foods available, though also some poor ones
- Consider supplementing with seeds, fresh vegetables/fruit, insects, other protein source
Problems of incorrect feeding in rats, mice, hamsters, and gerbils
- Undersize
- Poor skin/hair loss
- Poor immune system and poor general health
- Poor dentition
Ferrets
- Descended from polecats, not to be confused with American Black Footed Ferret
- Obligate carnivores
- Ferocious and determined hunters
- Kill and consume prey many times their own size
- Originally working animals
- A bit like cats
- Feed complete tinned food, ideally not dry food (dental disease)
- Carcases excellent for mental and dental health
Feeding cage and aviary birds
- Variety and stimulation (presentation)
- No birds should be fed entirely on seed and nuts (predispose weight gain and obesity, and can reduce calcium intake), except macaws
- Essential amino acids: lysine and methionine
- Max 8% fat in diet except for the big macaws
- Environmental enrichment
- Parrots tend to be neotrophic once mature
What do they sell in pet shops for birds?
- Seed and sunflower/nut mixes (poorly nutritious)
- Egg foods (high protein)
- pelleted complete foods (good but boring)
- speciality foods
- supplements
- cuttlefish bone
- oysterfish grit
- mineral grit
- combined supplements
- iodine blocks
Feeding budgies
○ Seed mic (trill)/pelleted food
○ Egg based soft food
○ Calcium source
○ Iodine source (if not on trill) otherwise will get a goitre
○ Grit
○ Green food/fruit
Millet sprays
Feeding cockatiels
○ Cockatiel or parakeet mix/pelleted food
○ Swap to budgie mix if birds become obese
○ Can be neophobic
○ Soft food
○ Calcium/grit
Fruit/green food
Feeding canaries
○ Canary mix/pelleted food
○ Soft food
○ Green food/fruit
○ Grit, calcium source
Many canaries are fed a ‘colour food’ during the moult to enhance feather colour
Feeding parrots
○ Most are mainly frugivorous
○ Diet varies according to habitat
○ No wild parrot eats dry sunflower seeds and peanuts
○ Max 8% fat (except large macaws)
Why shouldn’t you feed parrot mix?
§ Generally a rubbish diet, but unfortunately almost universally fed
§ High in fat
§ Low in fibre
§ Low in calcium
§ Lack lysine and methionine
§ Low in EFAs
Low in fat soluble vitamins
Complete extruded diets for parrots
§ One flavour, lots of colours
§ Good but dry and boring
§ Often not easy to convert birds to dry diets- takes time and patience
In essence a bit like feeding complete dog food, but to a more intelligent and discerning animal
Home made fresh diets for parrots
§ Excellent if the owner understands teh composition needs
§ Include pulses, maize, fruit, and vegetables
§ May need supplementation - especially certain species
§ May need a protein source
Easy for young bird that’s a member of the family
What not to feed parrots
§ Chocolate
§ Avocado - toxic to all birds
§ High fat foods
§ High salt foods
§ Caffeine
?human foods?
Treats for parrots
Fermented milk products are fine - mix with fruit
Bones, chicken legs, insects
Man made treats and juices - may make giving medicines easier if trained with syringe of orange juice etc.
Feeding lories and lorikeets
- nectar +/- fruit
- there are commercial nectar replacements
- some owners do a mix of honey, ‘complan’, baby foods, sponge cake, etc.
Feeding Mediterranean (tseudo) tortoises
5 main species
Herbivores (more or less)
Diet varies with the seasons in quantity and quality
There are very active animals, and have periods of rapid and nil growth during the year
Ideally adlib grazing
What do wild tortoises eat in addition to grazing
- flower petals
- fallen fruit
- occasionally invertebrates and carrion
Food bad for tortoises to eat regularly
- peas or beans
- dog food
- just tortoise pellets
- lots of fruit
Too much protein and will cause issues
What issues can too much protein cause for tortoises
Overgrown beaks and claws
Liver disease
Too rapid growth in young animals - shell abnormalities
Weakness/osteodystrophy
Hypovitaminosis A
Feeding red-eared terrapins and other terrapins and turtles
Omnivorous (but practically carnivorous)
Pelleted foods are now excellent, but should not me exclusive
We used to see osteodystrophy, thiamine deficiency and hypovitaminosis A - on fresh and frozen meat diets
Feeding common green iguana and other herbivores
Leaves, flowers, and fruit
Supplements
Full spectrum UK daylight fluorescent tube
Slow growth
Exercise
Feeding omnivorous reptiles
Insects, flowers, and fruit and greens
Supplements
High sunlight requirement - full UV spectrum light
Feeding insectivorous lizards
Dont eat greens
Commercial live food
Supplements (in date)
Some species like fruit/nectar
UV ‘daylight’ tube must be in date
Feeding carnivorous reptiles
Low calorie, infrequent feeding
Lots of exercise
Full spectrum UV lights
Tegus etc.
Locusts and crickets
The basis for most insectivore diets
Need gut loading and supplementation
Relatively expensive
Keratin on crickets can be tough
Can bite back! Dont just leave them in there
Mealworms
Cheap
Can be fatty
Slow moving
Ca:P = 1:22
Gut load and supplement
Feeding snakes
○ All are carnivorous (some just eggs)
○ If captive bred, will be used to and will feed on thawed out frozen rodents ○ Prefer a quiet environment with minimal vibration ○ Some are agoraphobic and neophobic
Will remember bad experiences and relate for future feeds
Food for snakes
§ Choose appropriate sized feed item
§ Feed as much as the snake wants to eat at one sitting
§ Feed with supplements if using immature feed
§ Do not feed again until faeces ahs been passed
§ Feed each snake in separate containers
§ Some eat eggs, amphibians, and other reptiles
Feeding taratulas
- Commercial livefood (which moves)
- Pinkie mice (need to be waved about)
Feeding Giant African land snail
- Fruit and veg
- calcium source
Stick insects
- Indian stick insect - privet
