Development of young toco toucas fed with dry dog food and toucan pellets

Abstract

The proposal of this study was to compare the effects of two commercial diets, one consisting of dry dog food and another one of pelletized feed for toucans, in the growth of young toco toucans. The development of 14 specimens was observed, being four and five months of age, and divided randomly into two groups. Once a week, the fasted birds were weighted and evaluated in relation to the following biometrics parameters, with the help of a caliper: wings (right and left); head and beak (length, width and height), wingspan and total body length. To evaluate the presence of difference in body gain between the two groups, the U test of Mann-Whitney was used as statistical analysis, with significance level of 0.05 in a bilateral test. Birds of both groups showed no changes in behavior such as depression or aggression. The diets were well accepted, no waste was observed and all the animals remained healthy during the research. In respect to biometrics, toucans fed with dog food had a better development for the length of right and left wings, head width, height and length of the beak and weight gain, when compared with those treated with feed for toucans. This fact enables the use of dry dog food with 23% of crude protein and 71,15mg/Kg of iron for feeding of toco toucans in captivity.