Raptor food

[rt]

I feed my rt a varied diet of mice,rabbits,quail,squirrels and rats. Does any one use differnt foods?

[Weasel]

Aswell as those yyou listed, I use Beef heart, day old chicks, small birds such as sparrows and starlings.

[bobdale]

All of the above and the occasional neighborhood tabby .
I've been told that a balanced diet doesn't need supplimenting. Recently a very compitent avian vet told me otherwise. He recommened the use of Vita Hawk. If you don't have that, crush a One-A-Day and sprinkle a little of the powder over the meat. I paid for that info and i pass it on to you for free. That's just the kind of guy i am

[Weasel]

I use vitahawk religously on every meal. I sprinkle it on like I would, salt.

[Austin]

Seems I have read somewhere if a hawk get too much protien or other supplements they can develope bumble foot, anu of you heard that any where?

[frootdog]

Do you really mean too much PROTIEN? or do you mean something else. Protien is a majority of what they eat. The supplements to the best of my knowledge have no added protien. I'm not at home so I can't check my bottle of vita hawk. I work for a vet that treats raptors, and he recomends and uses daily vitahawk for all raptors. I know of nothing in it that would cause bumblefoot.

[Austin]

Well maybe I'm thinking about a story where a falconer fed his falcon nothing but quail for several weeks and it developed bumble foot. The story went on and the expert opinion was that too rich of a diet will cause bumble foot in most raptors.

[Minca]

At the zoo here they had a peregrine a few years ago that just dropped dead off her perch out in the weathering yard. Their falcons get nothing but quail there, and one of the keepers "thinks" she had a heartattack because of the richness or whatever of the quail. All speculation ofcourse. What i don't understand is if he really thinks the quail is the culprit, why wouldn't he put some effort into varying their diet? Who knows....

[Austin]

I think using any type of vita enriched minerals and supplements during the molt are excellent for development of beautiful shinny and strong feathers. That's what I always did when I flew racing hommers. But I think through out the rest of the year, unless the bird flew hard and may be under stress or recovering from an illness, most of the time vita supplements are really not necessary and I'm afraid that some learning falconers may over do it thining they are doing the right thing for the bird, any way kinda of how I think about the supplements thing

[frootdog]

Did they do a necropsy on the peregrine? That would have solved the mystery. I seriously doubt it died from eating too much quail. Again I hate to be redundant. My sponsor is a vet and he feeds quail and vitahawk to all his birds all year long. He has about 20+ falconry/breeding birds and up to 20 rehab birds at his house at all times. Some of these birds are in thier 30's and none have died fron too much quail or vitamins. He also has had no health problems that can be attributed to either of those things.

[Ooby]

I also feed my bird nothing but quail in the molt. My sponsor told me to, and he has been doing it for years with no adverse affects. Harris hawk, anatum peregrin and european goshawk all live on quail through out the molt. Never had a problem.

I really can't see quail causing bumble. Most likely it was the usual cause which is bad husbandry.

As for vita hawk, i was able to speak to the guy who makes it at the CHC meet, and he recommended it every day as many have said. I use it a couple of times a week though. My sponsor has agreed, and i can't think of what every day would prevent against that a few times a week wouldn't. Unless you are seriously being screwy with what you feed the bird so its not getting its normal supply of nutrients.

[Tiercel78]

I'll add something that I was told by a Master Falconer.
While we where at a meet, I asked why a certain birds feathers where Kinda wavey (Meaning: Wavey on the edges of feathers). His answer was that if they get to much protien in thier diet that will happen. It happens sometimes when the bird gets fed a lot of Beef heart or other High protien food. I vary my birds food source some to help prevent that.

Quail causing bubble foot? Thats kinda out there! Sounds more like bad perching and husbandry to me aswell.

[Yarak]

Just an FYI animals store very few vitamins and minerals.
They are metabolised by the body during periods of activity. They need to be replaced maybe not daily during the moult but certainly when the bird is working hard. Use vita hawk sparingly but use it often and you should have no deficiency in vital nutrional components.
Yarak

[bobdale]

As some one said earlier, the bulk of a raptor's diet is protien e.g. meat. I can see where beef heart, which is deficient in calcium, could precipitate a few problems if fed exclusively. Build up of lipid soluable vitimins (ADEK) could be a problem if the levels got sky high but that would take some doing. The other vitamins will pass as waste in the uria. Using VitaHawk as directed can't do any harm and has the potential to do lots of good.

[wes]

I too use vita hawk, 2-3 times a week, no bad effects I'm aware of, I also use foods spoke of earlier, add to that list Nutria, high in protein, easy access, concided Pest in my area, some rehaber's are using nutria as well for there larger rators such as Bald Eagles, Baldy's are feeding on nutria in wild down here as well. www.nutria.com/site6.php

wes