Honeyeater breeding techniques and natural breeding techniques
Wang Jingjing and others
Lory Lorikeet belongs to the family Parrotidae, which is mainly distributed in the Western Pacific Ocean and the East Indies, mainly feeding on pollen, nectar and fruit, and is listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In the wild, honey-sucking parrots nest in decaying trunks or dead tree holes. Information on captive honeyeaters is very scarce. At present, many zoos at home and abroad have introduced honey-sucking parrots, but there are few studies on their breeding management and natural breeding under captive conditions. In this paper, taking four pairs of honey-sucking parrots raised in Shanghai Zoo as an example, the daily breeding management and natural breeding techniques under artificial captivity conditions are introduced, in order to provide a reference for honeyeater breeders.
1 Rearing techniques
1.1 Environmental Management
In the wild, most of the nests of honeyeaters are stationed in the burrows of trees, and a few are built on the edges of branches. The cage of honeyeater parrots in the Shanghai Zoo park sits facing north and south, and the sun is abundant. The cage is mainly based on the inner chamber, the area of the cage is about 8 m2, the wall material is concrete, and the inner chamber is built with wooden perch. The front of the cage is glass for visitors to visit. Four nest boxes are placed in the top corner of the pitcher's interior, the breeding nest box is a wooden structure, the nest box is made of wooden planks about 3 cm thick, and its edges are edged by tin sheets. The pitcher is divided into two upper and lower floors, with a length, width and height of 15 cm× 15 cm×25 cm, and the upper floor is an open chamber with a small circular door opening of 6 cm × 6 cm to facilitate the entry and exit of honeyeaters. The dark chamber is located at the bottom of the cage, and the door opening at the bottom of the cage is slightly larger than the upper level, creating a fan-shaped hole in the middle layer of the nest box, with a side length of about 5 cm, to ensure that the air in the nest box can circulate effectively, and the honey-sucking parrot can easily enter and exit between the upper and lower layers. A 1-layer cushion layer is set up at the bottom of the nest box, and fine grass about 3 cm thick can be used. During mating, open the door opening and lay some fine grass on top of it. The perch in the cage can be built with branches of different thicknesses, and the perch should not only maintain aesthetics, but also reflect the layering of high and low to increase its range of activities, and it can use the perch for perching and playing. A small, irregularly shaped pool of 20 cm×15 cm× 12 cm, is built in the cage for honeyeaters to drink water and bath.
1.2 Day-to-day management
At about 8:00, before entering the cage, the keeper needs to first observe and inspect the mental state, behavior, feces and other abnormalities of the honeyeater parrot, and then clean the cage, while cleaning its food plate, changing water, changing feed, etc. To avoid frightening the animals, staff should lighten their movements when cleaning the cage. Around 13:30, observe the feces and feeding of the honey-sucking parrots once more, and change the water and feed again. At this stage, if the staff finds a problem, they should report it in a timely manner.
1.3 Feed feeding
Under captive conditions, the nutritional needs of honeyeaters come from human supplies, but in wild habitats, honeyeaters prefer pollen, nectar and fruits. Therefore, with reference to the wild feeding habits of honeyeaters and the actual situation of their daily rearing, a diet formula (Table 1) was formulated to provide them with a variety of varieties and nutrient-rich feeds. Diet formulas mainly include grapes, sweet oranges, apples, bananas, corn and dakang ingredients. The feeding method is to feed cooked carrots, corn, nest heads and boiled eggs in the morning, of which the nest head is prepared by corn flour, rice flour, flour, bran, bean meal, bone meal in proportion to 5.0:3.0:3.0:5.0:2.0:0.0.1, and can add nutrients such as meat pulp and dates; sweet oranges, apples, grapes, bananas and dakang materials are fed in the afternoon. In addition, according to the nutritional needs of honeyeaters, specially formulated feeds can be supplied, which can not only adapt to their natural feeding habits, but also supplement the necessary nutrients and trace elements.
Table 1 Honeyeater summer and winter diet recipes
Feeding is carried out daily at 10:00 and 16:00. The remaining feed should be cleaned up first, followed by fresh feed to provide adequate, fresh and clean drinking water. When honeyeaters enter the breeding period, they should be supplied with food high in animal protein in an appropriate amount to increase their body's demand for calcium.
1.4 Prevention and control of common diseases
In addition to daily cleaning, staff can also use poison killing to disinfect animal cages, nest boxes, perches and pools. Disinfection is usually required once a week, but in the summer it is necessary to disinfect twice a week.
In addition, during special periods such as the high incidence of avian influenza, it is necessary to strengthen disinfection once, and disinfectants such as peracetic acid or bleach can be used. In the spring and autumn, drugs should also be used to regularly deworm and inject avian influenza vaccines. The vegetables used for feeding need to be fully soaked in water and washed before use to further ensure their health. In addition, it is also necessary to conscientiously and strictly implement the feeding system, do a good job in relevant epidemic prevention work, regularly replace the green leafy plants and fine sand in the field, and regularly feed Calci, Shirkang and some antibacterial drugs to improve the disease resistance and epidemic prevention ability of honeyeaters.
In the daily feeding management process, when there is a honeyeater that is sick or weak, it should first be isolated and cared for, and the whole cage should be fully disinfected, and the sick honeyeater should be actively diagnosed and treated.
Parrots are most susceptible to salmonellosis, etc., but can be reasonably prevented by cleaning every day and ensuring that food is fresh enough. The loss of a large number of trace elements in the body and unreasonable dietary rules will cause honey-sucking parrots to appear anemic, which can be appropriately supplemented with V B12 to improve the body's immunity. The beak of the honeyeater is particularly susceptible to candida infection, and candida is a pathogen that can easily cause the mouth inflammation of the honeyeater. The general conservative approach is to reduce the use of antibiotics and increase the use of V A, and to reduce the intake of sugar in the food fed, which can reduce the incidence to some extent.
With the increase of age, honey-sucking parrots will also have physical deterioration, and even a series of diseases such as tumors and their hearts, livers and circulatory systems will appear, so in the process of feeding management, reasonable prevention and treatment of these possible diseases should be carried out in advance, thereby reducing the risk to the minimum and ensuring the survival and welfare of honeyeaters.
2 Natural breeding techniques
2.1 Breeding preparation phase
Every year from January to April, the breeding preparation period of honey-sucking parrots is prepared. Under captive conditions, breeding is possible for one year except for the moulting period. When the mating season comes, the female of the honeyeater increases the calcium content in her body by 20%, and the eggshell is mainly derived from the mother's calcium deposition. At the same time, the energy consumption of honeyeaters in this period is also very large, so it is very important to rationally allocate the nutritional structure in the feed of honeyeaters, and the corresponding content of feed additives and vitamins should also be increased.
2.2 Estrus mating period
The courtship of honey-sucking parrots generally includes behaviors such as drooping wings, bowing down, lifting feet, fluttering wings, grooming feathers, and biting mouths. Female and male honeyeaters will be intimate together all day long, snuggling and feeding each other. Honeyeaters generally mate in the morning and evening, and male honeyeaters continue to make a long call after mating.
2.3 Spawning and incubation periods
Honeyeaters have smaller eggs and are generally pure white. It can breed 1 to 2 nests per year, lay 1 to 2 eggs, and the incubation period is 28 to 30 days. The Shanghai Zoo laid its first nest of eggs in May 2017 and incubated them themselves. The chicks leave the nest 30 to 40 d after they emerge from the shell, and the incubation work is mainly done by the female. Under suitable temperature conditions, female honeyeaters leave the nest 1 to 2 times a day, after defecating from the nest will be feeding and drinking water, the time is generally 2 to 3 minutes, while male honey-sucking parrots are more guarded at the edge of the nest box, occasionally female honey-sucking parrots leave the nest, male honey-sucking parrots will also enter the nest box for a period of time, when the female honey-sucking parrot leaves the nest again, the male honey-sucking parrot also leaves the nest quickly. It takes 7 to 8 weeks for the chicks to grow into feathers, and it is often the case that the parent birds no longer feed the chicks, so their breeding difficulties are high, but the Shanghai Zoo has achieved the first success of feeding the chicks by the parent birds under artificial captivity conditions.