THOUGHTS ON FEEDING THE CAGED WHITE-RUMPED SHAMA

A basic understanding of nutrition, some research into the nutrient contents of the natural food of an insectivorous bird and information regarding the shama’s special needs in captivity, should form the basis of the novice hobbyist’s thoughts when it comes to what should be a suitable captive diet. The following are some of my thoughts related to the feeding of the captive shama.

1) Being an insectivore does not mean that the captive shama will thrive on a diet consisting of a limited variety of commercially farmed insects. The superficial summary from the journal of the occasional wild bird watcher of this species that it feeds on insects and small invertebrates, gives little indication of the wide variety of live food that is available in its wild habitat. The complexity of its natural instinct to pick out the suitable food from the wide variety available in the wild, for its nutritional needs at various stages of its life, must be far greater than can be catered for by simply supplying the captive shama with a limited variety of commercially farmed insects. Each of the different types of live food that it consumes in the wild will provide certain nutrients to make up for the total supply to cater for its overall nutritional needs. These cannot be replaced by merely providing commercially farmed crickets and mealworms as its main diet in captivity.

2) It is impossible to emulate the wild diet of the shama in captivity due to the lack of variety of live food available to the hobbyist and due to the lack of a complete understanding of its dietary habits. It is also incorrect to assume that the needs of the captive shama are the same as those of its wild cousins.

3) Avian literatures may sometimes refer to captive birds that are able to come into breeding condition as being in the best of condition. Apparently, inducing some species of insectivorous birds into breeding condition can be easily achieved by providing an all live food feeding regime, even if the variety of live food provided is limited. However, this does not necessarily indicate that the caged shama will be at its best in terms of health or performance when fed this way on a long termed basis.

4) A dry food formulated close to the nutritional needs of an insectivorous bird to be used as the main part of the diet, would be the best way to cater to its nutritional requirements in captivity. The ingredients that constitute the dry food will most probably be unnatural and foreign to the shama’s digestive system. Therefore, consideration has to be made as to whether the bird’s digestive system is able to accustom well to the dry food provided, so as to be able to break it down to assimilate the nutrients. A dry food that is made from ingredients that contain all the needed nutrients is useless if these ingredients are incompatible with the digestive system of the bird. Also, uneaten food cannot serve its purpose, hence the dry food has to be palatable to the bird as well. A suitable dry food in combination with some live food has been shown to be a good method of feeding our caged shamas.

5) There will always be some birds that can do extremely well on a particular diet while a few others just simply will not be able to thrive on this same diet. Being observant to how well the bird responds to its diet in order to make the right adjustments, may just be the key for success to bring out its best.