Importance of sunning the bird
Direct sunlight on the skin of bird stimulates the oil glands found in their skin. This gland will produce what we call "preening oil". Birds preen themselves by using their beaks to smear this oil from the glands onto their feathers and skin.
This oil water proofs the feathers even further and provide a shine. Some of this oil is smeared onto the skin as well when the bird preens itself.
This preening oil when produced by the oil glands has a bio-chemical which synethizes in minutes into Vitamin D3 and the skin absorbs this vitamin.
Vitamin D3 is about 20-100 times more potent and effective than D1 and D2. The downside of Vitamin D3 is....it's not stable and it will break down quickly in 15 mins if it is not used by the animal's body.
It's very difficult to store pure Vitamin D3 because of its short term stability.
What's so important about sunning the bird and Vitamin D3 then?
Vitamin D3 is the next most common problem. Vitamin D3 is essential for healthy bones, feathers, and egg laying. Without this vitamin, calcium cannot be properly used by the body. Natural sunlight will allow the body to produce normal amounts of this vitamin so will using vita lights or other full spectrum lighting if indoors. Windows absorb too much of the UV light necessary for vitamin D3 so placing your bird by a window will not work. Vitamin supplementation is an easy and inexpensive way to ensure your bird receives proper amounts of all vitamins. It is important to use vitamins made for birds as they will contain vitamin D3. Other forms of vitamin D will not be properly utilized by your bird; they need to have D3.
Here's the equation:
Calcium + Phorphorous + Vitamin D3 = Growth/Repair/Maintenance of bones, muscles, muscle sinews, nerve cablings etc.
Without sunning the bird, you are denying the bird Vitamin D3 and you have to find this unstable vitamin in different types of food, feed it to the bird and make sure the bird can eat/absorb/use the Vitamin D3.
Without Vitamin D3, the above equation will not happen, your bird goes down in form as time goes by.
You will wonder - after buying a good bird and rearing him, why is it that its form never returns?
This IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY BIRDS GO DOWN IN FORM, FITNESS AND HEALTH.
Clickable Links:
1) How birds produce Vitamin D3 - downloadable PDF document.
2) The gland on the bird's skin that produces the preening oil.
Roadfai
Champion Bloodline Crossbreeds