Six Unsolved Avicultural Mysteries   By: Founding Member Dr. Mel Levine Reprinted Wingtips Volume 14  - Issue 3   I believe that one of the reasons we persist with this totally impractical money-loosing, time-consuming, stress-Inducing so-called hobby of outdoor big-time bird raising is that we are so fascinated with all the mysteries, the inscrutable phenomena that we encounter whenever we encounter our puzzling avian friends, We never come close to understanding them and the unpredictable lives they lead. I would like to elucidate six of these highly compelling mysterious phenomena that await our unraveling.   The Mysteries of Fickle Fertility - Why is it that a pair of birds will produce a wellspring of fertile eggs one year only to disappoint us with their sterility the following spring? Is this intentional? The latest scientific evidence suggests that this is one of the few ways that rebellious birds gain control over their human masters. They believe that somehow they will gain our respect and intensify their relationships with us through their reproductive unpredictability.   The Mystery of the Crooked Toe -  Although everyone has theories, no one knows for sure why some birds develop crooked toes and then spend a lifetime tolerating the ridicule of their straight toed peer birds, enduring the low-esteem that comes with being worth less at auctions and tailgate sales. When humans have crooked toes they can conceal their humiliating deformities within shoes and socks; birds have no such privacy! Incidentally, I have started to charge extra for birds with crooked toes, marketing them as relative rarities of selective breeding, I haven't been able to sell any of these oddities, but I've aroused considerable interest among fledgling bird raisers. Some "authorities" believe the crooked toe problem is genetic. Others have nutritional explanations. Still others blame it on the floors of brooders. While there are those who believe God is punishing the breeder! But no one has the answer to this mysterious phenomenon and its equally mysterious occurrence, the angel wing in waterfowl and poultry.   The Mystery of Hidden Feed Content - We aviculturists place great faith in the makers of our bird feed. We hope it is fresh; we hope truly contains what the label says it contains - all those vitamins, minerals, and protein-laden ingredients. Yet every time we go to nourish our avian dependents, we have little idea of what we are actually feeding them. This leap of faith is truly disconcerting. We can have feed tested from time to time, but for the most part, we place complete reliance, blind faith, on the day to day integrity, worker competency, and quality control of the commercial feed producers. When we feed ourselves a meal we can mostly see the meat and the veggies, the tangible contents of our diet&emdash;there's not a lot to visualize in a pellet!   The Mystery of the Sporadic Predator - Everything is just fine down at the bird pens, and then one day the sporadic predator arrives incognito to create tragic devastation. Often the offender is a discriminating consumer with expensive taste, seeming to know the prices of individual birds. This dreaded shadow looms over all of us all of the time; it remains our most universal, threatening and mysterious mystery. How do the raccoons, foxes, feral (or not so feral) dogs decide it's time for some gourmet game birds? Why today? What has changed?   The Mystery of Multiple Personalities - I am always fascinated by the diversity of personalities within my bird collection. There can be four birds, all hatched out from the same mama and pop, each of whom has a unique personality and way of relating to the others (and to me, for that matter). One bird may be very tame and outgoing. Another is outwardly hostile and defiant. Another is nothing but a womanizer. While the fourth is pathetically shy, apprehensive, and withdrawn.   The Mystery (and misery) of Illness - How does a healthy bird suddenly die? How does a sickly old weight-loosing bird live on and on? We know so little about the everyday health status of our birds. Moreover, veterinary care for birds is still rather primitive in its development and distribution. It is not always practical to get cultures on sick birds, to provide intravenous fluids for dehydrated ducks, or to get sinus x-rays on a pheasant with head swelling. Most of the time, when a bird is ailing we have little or no idea which bacterium, virus, parasite, or fungus is causing the condition. Illnesses in birds remain a frustrating mystery to us all.     As a reader can tell, the above enumerated mysteries greatly complicate and add heavy stress to our lives as they frustrate and fascinate us. How then are we to solve them? We probably never will but at least we bird people have each other (does ignorance like company?)? We must continue to observe and to share our observations with each other, so that the mysteries will become a bit less mysterious? But, of course we would not want to solve them all, since they provide so much of the stimulation and challenge of this old hobby. My wife keeps asking me why I don't collect stamps!     Dr. Mel Levine Known to have never owned a duck