Nutrition                                                  

Sulphur containing Amino Acids

There are four sulphur containing amino acids. They are:
methionine, cystine, cysteine, and taurine. Of those, the essential
amino acid for birds...which means it must be supplied in the diet...is
methionine. Taurine is essential for cats but not birds). Sulphur is
also present in the B vitamins: thiamine and biotin.

Cysteine and Cystine are not essential. They are synthesized in the
liver. Cysteine is formed from homocysteine which comes from the
essential amio acid methionine. Cysteine can be converted to cystine and
taurine. Cystine contains two cysteine molecules.

Sulphur can be obtained from various foods. Legumes (beans) are
especially high in sulphur. Other foods from which it can be obtained
are: cabbage, garlic, brussels sprouts, broccoli, turnips, nuts, kale,
kelp, other seaweeds, and raspberries. Eggs contain sulphur. Animal
tissue contains approximately 0.25% sulphur of the total body weight.

A sulphur deficiency can be mistaken for protein deficiency. Sulphur is
used by the body in enzyme reactions, protein and collagen synthesis,
the production of keratin (hair, nails, fur, feathers), and other body
functions. Some skin and joint problems are a result of sulphur
deficiency.

The sulphur containing amino acids can also be found in various foods:
Cysteine - yogurt, oats, wheat germ, egg yolks, red peppers, garlic
onions, broccoli, brussles sprouts.

Cystine - is composed of two cysteine molecules, so is found in the same
foods.

Taurine is not essential because it can be prduced from cysteine with
the help of pyridoxine, vitamin B6. It is high in meats and fish
proteins.

Methionine is essential. It must be provided in the diet. It is of the
most concern because it is the least abundent protein in many foods. It
is particularly low in most legumes including soybeans and peanuts.
However...nuts, seeds, corn, rice, and other grains are high in
methionine. This is what accounts for the theory behind food
combining.(beans and rice casseroles)

However, current thinking holds that it isn't necessary to combine
grains and legumes at the same meal, as was once thought. On the other
hand, any amino acids that aren't used up to produce proteins place a
load on the kidneys, responsible for eliminating the discarded NH2 group
when the amino acid molecule is deaminated.
gloria

Protein Basics by gloria scholbe

Even though this is a long post, it is only the tip of the iceberg. You have probably figured out that there is vast disagreement among nutritional experts about protein requirements in human nutrition, let alone poultry nutrition.

As an example, there is one ideology that promotes a strict fruitarian diet for humans. They feel that the amino acid profile in various fruits is ideal and perfect. Any more protein is wasted and actually putrefies in the bowel, producing an ammonia by-product that causes toxic disease in the body.

Despite the 'faddy' nature of the site, I found it useful for a couple of reasons:
1. Many parrot species consume a substantial amount of fruit as part of their natural diet.
2. The site gives the amino acid profile of several fruits.
3. It also gives a link to an on-line book located at Perdue University
about tropical fruit nutrition.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/index.html

Amino Acid Requirements of Species
How much of each amino acid is needed? Different sites give tables with
a break down of the different amino acid requirements. All the tables
were different. We need to know amino acid requirements in order to
evaluate the amino acid profile of different foods. If an amino acid
profile shows that methionine, for example, is low in that food, does
that mean that the food needs to be supplemented? Not necessarily.
Not if the requirements are also low.

Here are some listings of amino acid requirements.  I'm only listing
'essential' amino acids. I'm also listing a range, because amino acid
requirements vary depending on age, activity, and health. I think this
might account for the differences in various tables. Young growing have
higher needs than adults.

                Chickens       Human Infant to adult     Swine
                 %                          mg/kg                  g/kg

Arginine          .75-1.00         not essential          4.4
----------------------------------------------------------------- 
Glycine           .44-.70          not essential        not essential
----------------------------------------------------------------- 
Histidine         .17-.26              8-28               3.9
----------------------------------------------------------------- 
Isoleucine        .40-.60              10-70              10.9
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Leucine           .65-1.10             14-161             13.1
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Lysine            .42-.85              12-103             15.3
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Methionine        .42-.62              13-58              10.9
& cystine1
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Phenylanine       .63-1.00             14-125             10.9
& trosine
------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Threonine         .37-.68              7-87               9.8
------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Tryptophan        .11-.17              3/17               2.8
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Valine            .41-.62         not essential          10.9

Although the swine table is listed as grams/kilogram and the human table
is milligrams/kilogram, the values of both are close enough that the
same equivalencies were probably used, so one of them is incorrect.

When I investigated the amino acid requirements for turkeys and
pheasants, they were higher than those for chickens. I couldn't find any
for parrots. I suspect that they would be lower than chickens but would
vary from one species to another.

Evolutionary diet is incredibly important when considering the
nutritional requirements of our birds. Birds whose natural diet is
primarily seeds will have different nutrient and amino acid requirements
than birds whose primary diet was: fruit, other vegetation, insects and
grubs, or infant rodents. 

Should amino acids be supplemented? If there are insufficient amino
acids in the diet to fulfill the requirements, then they will have to be
supplemented. Should the supplements be synthetic or should they be
supplemented in foods?

The Limiting Amino Acid Contents of Foods
Here is a list of foods and livestock feedstuffs with their amino acid
profile. I'm going to list only the three essential amino acids that are
usually considered limiting for birds in most foods.

**This table is based on % per kilogram of feed**

                                Lysine          Methionine       Threonine
Requirement range      .42 -.85           .42 -.62        .37 -.68
for chickens, approx.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Alfalfa meal                   0.8                0.3               0.6
Barley                           0.4                0.17             0.35
Brewer's dried grains     0.9                0.45             0.9
Corn                             0.24              0.19             0.35
 
Feather Meal                4.25             1.68             2.25
Fish Soluables               1.46              0.5               0.7
Fish meal                      4.0                1.7               2.25
             **In one study, fish meal was found to cause gizzard ulcers in birds**
Linseed meal(flax)        1.0                 .81             1.0
                **oil seed meals are what is left after the oil has been extracted.**
Oat groats                     0.5               0.2               0.5
Peanut meal                   1.7                 .44             1.1
      **peanuts are often contaminated with a mold which produces aflatoxins.**
Rice                               0.3                 .17              .31
Safflower meal               1.3                 .69             1.35
skimmilk dried                2.3                 .98             1.75
Soybean meal                 2.8                 .65             2.2
Sunflower meal              1.52              1.35             1.52
Wheat germ meal           1.6                0.3              0.8
Whey-delactosed           1.3                0.57            0.89
 

Green Food Supplements
                                   Lysine           Methionine    Tryptophan
Spirulina (based on %)    4.7%               2.3%             5.2%
WheatGrass
(mg/3.5gm - 1 Tsp)       38mg               18mg             42mg
Mighty Greens
(mg/8gm - 1 TBS)         58mg               31mg             61mg

Spirulina compared with other foods. Based on grams/100 grams
                                Lysine         Methionine    Tryptophan
Spirulina                     3.4               1.89             3.99
Eggs                            .89               .43              .59
Beef                          1.76               .43              .86
Soy                           2.58               .48             1.62

Seeds (mg/g)
hemp                         5.92              3.58            5.20
From research done in Africa's Camaroon African Bush Mango seed
                                 4.8                 0.8             5.0
Cashew                     4.1                 0.9            3.3
 

Food values found in USDA database
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl
based on grams/100 grams
Seeds:                   Lysine         Methionine  Tryptophan
Sunflower                 .937                .494             .928
Millet                        .212                .221             .353
Brazil nut                  .541               1.01              .46
Almond                    .601                .189             .678
Walnut                     .424                .236             .596
Pumpkin/
squash seed            1.833                .551             .903

Vegetables:
Spirulina                 3.02                1.14             2.97
dried powder

Whole fresh foods will have a lower concentration of nutrients / 100
grams because the water is included in the weight. Once foods are dried and powdered, the concentration of nutrients increases by weight. Less volume is consumed because water is eliminated.
grams per 100 grams
                            Lysine           Methionine     Tryptophan
Kelp                       .082               .025              .055
Endive                    .063               .014              .050
Pumpkin                 .054               .011              .029I 

Establishing Protein Requirements of Parrots
Now we have most of the pieces, so we can begin to put them together.
This is what we need to know:
1. The bird's total protein requirement
2. The ratio of amino acids required to balance the protein.
3. The amino acid and protein content of feedstuff/feeds/food.

First, we'll establish the bird's protein requirement. Let's cheat a
little. If you check the nutritional analysis on bags of pellets, you
will find that the nutritionists who formulated different brands do not
agree with each other. One bag says 12% protein, another
says 16%, another is up to 21%.

Part of the reason is there are different formulations based on
life-cycle needs. Birds have a higher requirement for protein when they
are growing and raising young. They also need more protein when they are molting, healing from injuries, or producing white cells to fight off
disease organisms.

Another reason for this variation in protein percentages is
different species have different protein requirements. Nutritionists
attempt to formulate a pellet that will 'blanket' the bell-curve. Birds
falling toward the edges or outside of this 'blanket' will eventually
show signs of protein excess or insufficiency. Some sooner than others.
Species who show clear and rapid health problems from the formulation will have a different feed formulated just for them. An example is the mynah pellet. Of course, in this case, protein isn't the only consideration.

The simple truth is exact protein requirements for each parrot species
has not yet been established to everyone's satisfaction. Roudybush may have established requirements for cockatiels, though I'm not aware if he published the long term effects of sustained 'optimum' protein levels over a period of years. If and when he does, he might also need to provide consideration of the color mutations.

So, we have a range for protein requirements based on manufactured feeds:
Parrots- 12-21%;
Chickens- 14-18%;
Turkeys- 18-20%;
Pigeon maintenance about 11%.

We also have a range of the percentage of amino acids that should make up the protein. Lysine and methionine are two of the most limiting essential amino acids, so we'll concentrate on those.

Lysine for chickens needs to be 0.45-0.85%
Lysine for turkeys is about 1.00%
Methionine for chickens is 0.20-0.30%
Methionine for turkeys is about 0.42%

Both chickens and turkeys fall within the 12-21% range for parrots.
Turkeys have a higher protein requirement, and the limiting amino acid
requirement also is on the higher side.

From the above figures, notice that as the protein requirement goes up, so does the limiting amino acid requirement go up, and vice versa.

Parrot maintenance requirements are probably on the low end of the
percentages, so I'd ballpark that an adult non-breeding parrot has
approximate daily protein requirements of about 12-14% and lysine needs to be about 0.5% (one half of one percent) and methionine needs to be about 0.20% (two/tenths of one percent).

Working with percentages is nice because you base it on the total food
ration. If a bird consumes one gram of food per day, the protein
requirements would be 12% of one gram. If the bird consumes one kilogram per day, the protein requirements would be 12% of one kilogram. (dry basis weight)

Based on this information, we could begin to formulate a feed ration for our birds. Formulating a feed ration begins by establishing the protein requirements of the animal, finding a cheap protein feedstuff (usually corn or wheat) and then balancing it (improving the amino acid profile) by adding a feedstuff that will supply the amino acids that are low in the cheap protein source. Usually soy or another legume is added to balance the lysine. Then feather or fish meal is added to balance out the methionine.

Part IV
In Part III, we talked about the specific amino acid requirements of
parrots, which was estimated from what is known of poultry requirements.

I worked from two different tables and reported two different results.
From the book 'Nutrient Requirements of Poultry, Ninth Revised Edition, 1994, the range of requirement for:
Methionine plus Cystine is .42-.62%,
Lysine is .42-.85%,

Let's go with this percentage, as the other is based on manufactured
feed analysis.

Why are these amino acids needed?
Lysine is:
needed for the promotion of bone growth and formation of collagen.
aids the absorption of calcium from the digestive tract
aids in the prevention and treatment of herpes simplex infections

Methionine is:
involved in the synthesis of choline needed for liver function
needed for normal musculature
prevents skin and nail problems
prevents excess fat buildup in the liver and the body
reduces release of histamine (allergy symptoms)
can lower elevated serum copper level
works as an antioxident

What are the symptoms of deficiency?
Lysine deficiency causes:
feather depigmentation in chickens, turkeys, and quail
reduced growth and immunity
increased urinary calcium

Methionine deficiency causes:
fatty liver disease
long and deformed beaks
notched feathers and stress bars

If you read/printed out the previous posts, you know that all the
essential amino acids are best found from animal sources: meat, fish,
milk, cheese, and eggs. However, according to Dr. Elson Haas, in
'Staying Healthy With Nutrition', good amounts of lysine can be found in
legumes (pinto beans, navy beans, peas, etc). Methionine is found in
nuts and seeds. Tryptophan, is low in grains and legumes but higher in
flesh foods, eggs, dairy, and some nuts and seeds.

I'd like to go briefly off on a tangent about tryptophan for the sake of
those who have birds and other pets that are a bit on the 'hyper' side.
>From 'Staying Healthy With Nutrition': "Tryptophan is the precursor for
serotonin, which influences moods and sleep. Serotonin levels are
directly related to tryptophan intake. Tryptophan is also the precursor
of vitamin B3. A deficiency of tryptophan combined with inadequate
dietary niacin, can cause the symptoms of pellagra (dermatitis, diarrhea,
dementia, and death. Low tryptophan levels aare found in those with
dementia and may have subtle psychological effects. Tryptophan is an
antidepressant, can lower blood fat levels, and is a pain reliever."

Now we know the importance of these amino acids. Do we need to
supplement? The answer depends on whether or not adequate amounts are
provided in the daily ration of food.

1. If you feed pellets only, you probably don't need to worry about
whether or not adequate amounts of essential amino acids are being
consumed. Feed manufacturers have already balanced the amino acid
profile to insure that the protein is complete. It is possible, however,
that too much protein is being consumed, depending on the species of
bird and the analysis of the feed. It is also possible that too many or
not enough of certain amino acids are supplemented for the species of
bird being fed. Pellets target the known needs of the average bird.
Those birds who fall outside of 'average' get either too much or too
little on a daily basis. Gradually deteriorating health will result.

The danger of a pellet only diet is that the same feed components are
being fed in the same ratio day after day after day. This increases the
chances of food allergy onset. In addition, pellets only provide for
known nutrient requirements. They cannot provide for unknown nutrient
requirements.

In this diet, you should not supplement unless you know your species has
a higher requirement for a nutrient than is provided in the formula. If
your species has a lower requirement, you should probably dilute the
excess with foods known to be lacking in the nutrient that is
problematical for your species. For example, if it is protein, feed low
protein foods.

2. If you feed seeds only, most birds will show signs of malnutrition
sooner or later. Those species of birds that have evolved on a mainly
seed diet most likely have adapted to lower lysine requirements. Other
nutrients not found in seeds are obtained in the birds' native
environment. Greens, for such birds, are important not only for adding
phytonutrients, but also for providing vitamins, minerals, and some
amino acids lacking or low in the seeds. Such birds would also have the
opportunity to lunch on bugs found among the grasses.

Other birds, whose major natural diet consists of fruit, bark, buds,
leaves, flowers, and also seeds and nuts, will show signs of
malnutrition on an all-seed diet much sooner than birds whose normal
diet consists mainly of seeds. Amazons with fatty liver disease,
overgrown beaks, and scaly feet are classic examples of the methionine
and Vitamin A deficient bird. Macaws with barred and blackened feathers
show signs of Vitamin A, methionine and lysine deficiency. Such birds
are not supplied with sufficient nuts, but rather are living on a parrot
mix that contains mostly sunflower, safflower, and peanuts.

In this diet, you should definitely supplement the missing amino acids,
vitamins, and minerals.

3. If you feed strictly people food, and you rotate foods so your bird
consumes a healthy variety, you may not have to supplement. It depends
what you feed your bird. I know a man who feeds his bird mashed potatoes
and gravy on a daily basis. The bird loves this food to the exclusion of
anything else. This bird is consuming a diet more limited than even a
seed diet, and it shows in the barred and blackened feathers. Although
the man also feeds carrots and other vegetables, the bird does not eat
them. Why? Because it fills up on mashed potatoes and gravy. The man
refuses to deprive the bird of the food it loves, and so he is killing
it.

In this diet, if the bird *consumes* (there is often a big difference
between what is fed and what is consumed) a wide variety of foods,
including meat, eggs, vegetables, and fruit, then I seriously doubt that
there would be any requirement for supplementation. However, consider
that soils are depleted, and food loses nutrient value when it is
cooked, stored, frozen, and if there is much time from harvest to table.
Just as humans should partake of some supplementation, so should birds,
to compensate for nutrient loss.

4. Combinations of the above diets are also a possibility. Diluting one
diet with another diet, if done intelligently, can result in the
inclusion of nutrients missing from one diet and supplied by the other.

Things to consider:
Pellets are mostly grains, so feeding other grain foods is not going to
do much to improve pellets. Therefore foods like pasta, rice, corn,
oatmeal, etc are not an intelligent improvement of pellets. In fact, you
will just dilute the nutrients and put nothing worthwhile back.

On the other hand, if you add greens, fruits, and vegetables to a pellet
diet, you will improve the diet because you are adding foods and
nutrients that pellets lack.

5. The best diet for any bird is the diet that provided the necessary
nutrients on which its ancestors survived, evolved, and flourished.
Since most birds originated in countries other than they are now living,
available foods are not the same. We can, however, provide reasonable
approximations with a little research. Find out what the bird's
ancestors ate. Dig a little deeper than information available from
cursory observation or examination of one season's crop contents. Try to
approximate the natural diet as best you can.

Barring a nutritional analysis of exotic foods, feed a wide variety of
available foods. Keep in mind a balance of carbohydrates, fats, and
proteins.

Should you supplement this diet? In order to cover the bases, you
probably should use a nutritional supplement. Should you supplement
every day with the same supplement? Probably not, because you would be
committing the same error made by feeding pellets every day.

Part V

***************************************** 
                                 begin math tutorial
***************************************** 
For those of us who have grown up without metrics, here are a 

few metric
conversion values for weight:

1 gram = 1000 milligrams or 1/1000 kilogram
1 kilogram = 10000 grams or 2.205 pounds
1 ounce = 28.5 grams or 1/16 pound
1 pound = 453.6 grams or 16 ounces

Here is an example of how to convert:
My jar of spirulina says it contains 3.4 ounces. How many grams is that?
In this case, you would multiply the ounces times grams per ounce to
find out the grams.
3.4 x 28.5 = 96.9 grams

Another example:
My jar of spirulina says it contains 56 grams of spirulina. How many
ounces is that?
In this case, you would divide the number of grams by grams per ounce in
order to find out the ounces.
56 divided by 28.5 = 1.96 ounces

Percentages: 25 parts - of 100 is 25%; of 1000 is 2.5%; of 10,000 is
.25%
(move the decimal over one place to the left for each zero.)
Here is the calculation:
25 divided by 1000 = .025 times 100 to make it a percent = 2.5%

My jar of spirulina contains 3 grams per 100 grams of lysine. What
percentage is that?
3 grams/100 grams = 3 divided by 100 = .03 multiply by 100 to get
percent = 3.0%

Figs contain 0.3 mg of lysine per gram. What percentage is that?
0.3 milligrams/one gram (mg/g)= 0.3 divided by 1000 (because there are
1000 milligrams per gram) = .0003 x 100 (to get percent) = .03%
*****************************************
                              end math tutorial
******************************************  

There is a table on the HolisticBird website that gives the nutritional
analysis of seed, but doesn't break the protein down into amino acids.
If anyone would like the job of researching those seeds for amino acids
and donating the research to the HolisticBird website, it would be much
appreciated by all. I'd be more than happy to post it to the site. Other
foods researched would be equally welcome. (BROAD HINT).

Meanwhile, I have already posted the lysine, methionine, and threonine
values of several foods in previous parts of this article.

Here's another list of foods, all from the USDA database, so we can work
with comparable values.  (I'm not sure where the fruit site obtained the
values I posted before unless they were working off of dry weight. Those
values were much higher than the USDA's values, which are based on raw
unprocessed food, unless otherwise noted.)

We are mainly concentrating on the limiting amino acids: lysine,
methionine, and threonine, but for curiosity sake, I've also included
some other values. Although some foods look poor in the protein
department, it is important to remember that they are valuable for their
vitamin and mineral content, which is not listed here. I've rounded most
of the numbers.

This table is based on percent

                protein  fat      carb   lysine  methionionine  threonine
canary:       13       3

corn:           8        4                    .2            .2          .3
oats:           12       4                    .5           .2          .4
pumpkin/squash seed                 1.8            .5          .9
rice:             8       2                     .09          .05        .09
wheat:        12       2                     .4           .17         .28
sunflower:  15    28          28        .9           .5           .9
millet:         10      4            6        .2            .2           .3
quinoa:       13      5.8        69       .7            .3           .5
brazil nut:                                      .5          1.0          .46
almond       21    50           19       .6            .2          .7

apple            .15       .3     15        .009       .003      .005
banana        1.0        .4      23       .04         .01         .03
beets           1.6       .17     9.5     .05       .01         .04
blueberry       .6       .14    14      .01         .01         .01
beans,
green           1.8       .12    7.1     .08        .02         .07
beans,
pinto            8.2       .5     25       .56         .12          .34
brussles
sprouts        3 .5     8.9               .15          .03         .12
broccoli       3           .3      5.2    .14         .03         .09

cabbage      1.4        .27      5.4    .06         .01        .04
cashew     15        46         32       .8          .2           .6
carrot          1           .2      10       .04        .001       .03
date, dry      1.9       .4       73      .06     .02       .05
fig, raw          .75     .3       19      .03        .001    .02
garlic,
per clove       .19      .01      .99  .008      .002      .005
jalapeno      1.3      .6      5.9    .06        .01          .04

GREENS:
arugula        2.5      .6       3.6
beet            1.8      .06     3.9      .05       .01          .05
dandelion    2.7      .7      9.2
endive                                         .06      .014       .050
kale            3         .7     10          .19       .03        .14
mustard      2.7      .2      4.9       .12       .02        .07
spinach       2.8      .3      3.5        .17       .05        .12
turnip         1.5      .3      5.7         .09      .03       .08

olive, ripe    .8      10        6         .03       .01       .02
peas           5.4         .4     14        .3        .08        .2
papaya        .6        .14    10       .02     .002      .01
pomegranate .9        .3     17
pumpkin      1          .1      6.5     .05      .01       .02

raspberry                                     .9        .5      11
spirulina dry 57     7      23     3.0     1.2         2.9
strawberry       .6  .3   7      .02       .00         .01
squash, acorn  .8    .1    10        .02      .01       .02
sweet potato
cooked              1.7     .11   24    .08      .04      .08
turnip                   .9     .1      6.2  .03      .01      .02
wheatgrass powder                     1.08     .51    1.2
*Mighty Greens* brand                 .72     .38      .76

From previous parts of this article, we have established that the
protein requirement range for parrots is around 12%. The amino acid
values we are using are: Lysine - 0.65%, Methionine - 0.25%, Tryptophan- 0.1%, Arginine - 0.55%, Threonine - .37%
These are range averages. You will have to adjust this figure for the
species and age of bird you are caring for.

Since we are providing a diet as close to natural as possible, and since
the natural diet of most birds is based on seed, let's start there. When
you calculate for your own bird, you can start with any food that most
closely approximates the natural food upon which the bird evolved. For
Thick Bills, it's pine nuts; for greys, it's palm fruit; for cockatiels
and budgies, it's grass seeds; for lories, it's flowers, pollen, and
nectar; for many parrots it's seeds, nuts, fruits, buds, and berries in
the locale.

The seeds that birds dine on in nature are often not available to us.
For example, Jardine's favor *podycarpus* seeds. I've kept tropical
houseplants, including podycarpus, but they never grew well enough to
develop seed and even if they did, there wouldn't be enough to maintain
my birds. Since we don't import tropical seed, we have to use what is
available to us.

First we have to decide how much food we are going to make. I'm going to
make a kilogram of feed. (about two pounds.) It needs to contain
approximately 12% protein, .6% lysine, .2% methionine, and .4%
threonine. I'd also like it to contain about 6% fat. I'm not going to
complicate things by calculating for the calcium/phosphorous ratio or
any of the other things taken into account when formulating a feed
ration. This exercise is just to establish whether we can reasonably
provide the essential amino acids from a natural diet without using a
supplement

Formulate the dry feed:

Just at random, I'm going to start with
                               prot    fat    lys     meth      threo
200 grams of millet     10      4     .2        .2       .3
200 grams of canary   13      3
50 grams sunflower    15     28     .9        .5        .9
25 grams almonds      21     50     .6        .2        .7
----                            ----   ----   ----      -----     ----
475 grams
together, millet and canary average
                                  12      3.5   .2        .2        .3
sunflower and almonds calculated proportionately (sunflower value x 2
plus almond value divided by 3)
                                   17     35.3   .8        .4        .8

Now calculate the millet/canary proportions against the sunflower/almond
proportions (use 5.3 because millet and canary combined are 5.3 times
the amount of sunflower and almonds combined...400/75=5.3

example: 5.3 x 12 plus 17 divided by 6.3 = 12.79, which is the value for
protein in our recipe.
the rest of the values using this calculation are:
                                    prot    fat   lys       meth     threo
                                 12.79   8.5   .29       .23      .37
 

Our recipe of millet, canary, sunflower, and almonds is a tad high in
protein and fat. It is a quite a bit low in lysine. We need to balance
with something higher in lysine, so let's look at the food table for
something with a high lysine value. Quinoa is high in lysine and low in
fat. Let's cook up some quinoa. We could use seeds as the dry portion of
our diet and add quinoa as part of the soft food. Since we are cooking,
let's add some beans.
We'll use                         prot    fat      lys      meth     threo
100 grams of quinoa           13      6       .7       .3        .5
100 grams of beans             8       .5     .6       .1        .3
                                         ----   ----     ---      ---       ---
average                             10.5    3.25    .65      .2    .4
 

Now we can calculate these figures proportionately in with the last
values we obtained for the recipe.
We use 2.4 because 475 grams of the first four components is 2.4 times
the 200 grams of the last two.
                                           12.1    6.9     .39     .22       .37
 

Protein and fat have come down a bit, lysine has gone up and methionine
and threonine are about the same.

We want to feed vegetables and fruit yet. So far we have used up 675
grams of our 1000 gram goal. Fruit and vegetables are high in water
content, so using them will add a lot of weight making the nutrient
values appear to take a dive. Since most of the weight is water,
however, the nutrient values will increase by whatever
nutrients are contained in the food.

Water weight for carrots is 87%, for broccoli is 90%, for blueberries is
84% for strawberries is 91%. If we multiply the raw value by 10, we will
get the approximate dry value. Here are some values comparing spirulina
wet and dry that I took from the USDA database:
             water  protein  fat   lysine   methionine   threonine

wet        91         5.9    .39      .31      .11         .30
powder     4.6   57.0   7.7      3.0      1.1         2.97

Let's add carrots, beet greens, and apples to the recipe. 1 small apple
= 135 gm,
1 medium carrot = 100 gm, 1 handful of greens = 65 gm. Total is 300 gm
fruit & veg.

                    prot     fat    carb          lysine    methio     threo
carrots          1        .2     10            .04         .001       .03
beet greens   1.8      .06     3.9          .05       .01          .05
apples            .15     .3     15            .009      .003       .005
                    -----    -----  -----        -------    ------          ------
                  2.95     0.56   28.9          .099      .014       .085
 
 

Now we have 975-1225 grams worth of a feed ration:
475 grams of seed....approximately 4 measuring cups
200 grams dry quinoa and beans...approximately 1.5 measuring cups
(when cooked, the quinoa/bean mixture will double in volume to 3
measuring cups and increase in water weight by 250 grams)
300 grams fruits and veggies: 1 apple, 1 carrot, 1 handful of greens.

I didn't do the calculations for the wet-based food because I hate doing
math and I'm not any good at it anyway. I just wanted to give you a
taste of how these calculations are done. Feed manufacturers would have
it a lot easier because their formula is done on all dry basis feeds.
Also, they only have to do the calculations once. If we were do do this
for our birds every day, as we vary the diet, we would spend all our
time doing math and looking up nutrient values for whatever we are
feeding.

We do not need to be so specific. Birds don't calculate the nutrient
content of the foods they forage and we don't do it when preparing foods
for our families.

Getting a ballpark idea of the amino acids contained in different foods
should be enough to give a sense of which foods should balance other
foods.

Methionine and lysine are the hardest amino acids to obtain in adequate
levels from most foods. Judging from the tables, those levels can be
easily supplemented with natural food concentrates, like spirulina and
wheatgrass powders. Brazil nuts are high in methionine. They should be
included in the diets of macaws, especially. Adding brazil nuts to the
diets of other birds should not be a problem as long as the fat levels
are compensated for by other foods.

The exercise above gives you an idea of how to balance one food against
another to obtain the approximate ideal levels of nutrients. You don't
have to do it with math, though.

If you don't feel comfortable supplementing with natural foods like
wheat grass and spirulina, then by all means purchase synthetic amino
acids. The disadvantage of synthetics is that all you are getting is the
amino acids. When you use natural supplements, you also get a whole host
of other nutrients that are needed to round out your bird's diet. You
may not know what all of these nutrients are, but they are present
anyway, working for you and your bird.

gloria