Surgery Guidance

Bird Selection

Birds come from the aviary, and cages are designated with bird availability information. Many racks belong to specific lab members to hold their birds. Always consult the one responsible for the cage/rack before taking or moving birds.

Entering the aviary: To enter the aviary, one should wear foot coverings (found just inside the door) to minimize the risk of disease spread.

Catching a bird: A bird can be caught directly in the big cage on the shelf, or the cage can be moved on to a cart and a separator lowered to isolate one bird, simplifying the catching process. It also helps if you take out perches and seed dispensers (the hooks will break off if you push down on it). The bird name, found by looking at the bands on the ankles of the bird, should be crossed off the corresponding cage and written down for your records. Bird names are a combination of the color bands and the number written on the bands, and always start with the left leg. For example, “LNO83RLG” stands for “Left Neon Orange #83 Right Light Green.”

Transporting the bird: The bird should be placed in a cage, and the cage should be covered, either with a bag or cloth. This minimizes stress for the bird and avoids the potential for spreading allergens or disease.

Post Surgery Care

After surgery has been completed, birds should be placed in a cage with a surgery card on the cage. Surgery cards and magnetic holders are generally found on the cart in the small operating room. They should be signed off twice daily with initials (not check marks). The cage should contain seed, soft food with oral meloxicam (anti-inflammatory), water, a perch, grit, cuttle bone in a holder with the porous side accessible to the bird), and a clean underpad on the bottom.

Soft food is found in a large trash can in the cold room down the hall. A porcelain container should be filled to about a third. The food should be mixed with a little room temperature water and 1mL of oral meloxicam. If you are making this for the first time, have somebody check the consistency. Birds won't eat it if it is too wet.

It is your responsibility to check on the bird twice a day for three days (including the day of the surgery), replacing the soft food each day (adding meloxicam each time) and ensuring other supplies are fully stocked, also if this falls in the weekend.

General Tips

Water bottles: Water bottles should be filled all the way, to ensure a proper seal. Some water bottles include plastic floaters to make water level more visible.

Seed: Zebra finches de-husk their seeds, and the husk often fall back in the seed cup. Therefore, a cup might look full to you, but there might be nothing to eat for the bird and it might starve. Therefore, once every ~1-3 days (depending on the seed cup size & number of birds in the cage) blow over the cup above a trash can to remove husks, or throw away the top ~1 cm of seeds.

Signs of Illness:

General signs to look for are puffed-up feathers, closed eyes or eyes are pinched, lethargic, not paying attention to your presence, moving slowly (very easy to catch). First things to check when you see this are air flow (cold in cage?), water bottle (sipper not clogged?), food available.

Also, always pay attention to:

The beak: normal shape and color, clean? Legs/feet: distributing weight well over both feet, no discolouring or blood (if there's blood, it's usually also on the perch), leg ring is not too tight, thumb-toe is not caught in leg ring Feces: not too wet, normal amount (no feces means obstipation, a lot is often one of the signs of diarrhoea)

If you have any doubts: ask Dawit or an experienced lab member for advice.

Bird Care in the lab

As long as you have bird(s) in the lab or recording room, you are the one responsible for their care. This includes checking on your birds twice daily for general signs of good health, and making sure the birds have ad libitum access to food, water, grit, cuttle bone and the cage is clean and has a perch. Also check the temperature, humidity and lights (try to notice if the lights are on or off at a weird hour; they should be on between 7.30 am and 9.30 pm). If the birds don't need any specific care (such as post-operative), you can ask Dawit if he and/or the aviary personnel can check on your birds in the weekends and holidays. Upon your return to the lab, always double-check what they wrote when they signed off your health charts, and communicate well about when you need them to take over your bird care.