At Risk:
– Captive juvenile carnivorous birds fed a skeletal meat diet (beef, chicken breast,
etc.)
– Birds receiving and all seed diets.
– Handfed altricial nestlings. This group grows at 5x the rate of similar sized
mammals. Need to increase dietary calcium accordingly.
• Drowsiness, feather picking, regurgitation, increased drinking and loose stool.
• Skeletal deformities: Folding or complete pathological fractures, spinal fractures with
deviations, beak deviations, curves in the line of the sternum.
• Involuntary muscle contractions (tetany). Birds may sway and fall of their perch, flutter
their wings, or have complete seizures during which time limbs may fracture.