Nanday Conure Forum

Message #7490. This is a followup to #7472.

Name:	Margaret Madison
Date:	Saturday June 19, 2010 6:53:35 pm MDT
Subject:	Re: Can one discern age from leg band?
Message:	Younger nandays have more black on their feet. Their feet gradually turn more pink as they age. My nanday is 10 now and only has a little black up towards the nails. The rest of her feet are completely pink. Leg bands can offer clues to age. Can you read the band? If you can, you can try contacting Red Bird Leg Bands or L & M Leg Bands to see if they have those #s in their database as belonging to one of their customers. Those are the two most popular leg band manufacturers in the U.S. If they do, then you can ask the manufacturer your question and they may be willing to contact their customer on your behalf. I doubt they'll give you the customer's contact info directly though. The customer would have to approve beforehand. So then your next bit of luck would be whether or not the breeder kept their old breeding records. How many years back do their records go? Visually though, once birds hit maturity, telling the difference between a 5 yr old and a 15 yr old, for example, is hard. As they become elderly though, you can usually tell the bird is getting old. They might develop a little arthritis so their feet don't grip as well as they used to (that could also happen though if the bird had previous injuries or if the feet didn't have ample opportunity for proper exercise - a variety of perches) and their feathers tend to look a little more shabby and "unkempt". For a nanday though, you're probably talking like 30 to 40 yrs down the road though. They can live a long time and will probably be your pet now for a good part of your life. Oh, and speaking of helping your parrots to live a good long healthy life, I would like to mention that they should be offered fresh foods daily too. Today mine received raw carrots, bits of green apple and some scrambled egg. Yesterday it was warmed peas (which were from frozen, never canned - too much salt) and warmed cooked brown rice, and some well washed green grapes for a treat. Tomorrow the plan is dark leafy greens shredded up using scissors and some warm cooked whole grain pasta, with fresh strawberry bits and raspberries as treats. I basically share with them whatever healthy thing I'm eating. Whenever you're cooking anything to share with your birds, forego adding any additional salt or butter (to the water when cooking or after it is cooked). Never give your bird any junk food. But eating is a social event with birds and they'll want to eat when they see you eating, especially if they're bonding to you and see you as their companion. OK, sorry for the tangent. I hope some of this helps. Margaret

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