Onagadori - Long Tail Fowl and Long Crowing Fowl Discussion Forums

Hi Onagadori FF.

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. Seems like there is too much going on these days.

Regarding diet of cultural monuments, there are a few time-honoured secrets the Japanese keep beneath resplendent folds of sleeves.
The Japanese culture is the result of a peoples dependent, for a large part, on fish. Fish makes up a great deal of the modern Japanese diet and was likely even more significant a source of nutrition in ancient days. Fish is also highly perishable. Before the days of refrigeration, a goodly percentage of fish was discarded after a few hours rather than days. Due to the constant source of fresh fish, there was little impetus to utilize less palatable parts of the fish. Dead fish attract rodents and breeds filth flies. Subsequently, the fish gleaning domestic fowl proved to be invaluable companions to many kitchens across all classes and regions of Japan.

This DIGESTIBLE protein is required throughout the birds' lifetimes. Fish/sea life is the best and only route to go because it is almost completely digestible for the birds.I've observed everything from squid and dried shrimp to diced fish heads, tail fins and eel roe to mollusc guts/feet fed to Cultural Monument breeds. These animal protein feedstuffs are fed once or twice a week during most of the year and every other day during the breeding and growing periods, which coincide with the moulting season of Koeyoshi, Shamo and Japanese Bantams.





In Japan, certain feedstuffs are/were available during certain seasons and not others. For example, a large part of any summer diet would be the suika melon and the next season's diet would be supplemented with generous servings of Japanese Persimmon. This diversity of feed is critical in keeping wild Junglefowl and very important in the diet of Cultural Monument breeds. Utilizing the plant species closest to those utilized in traditional Japanese cuisine is of vital importance. A melon is a melon but an apple is not a persimmon. Fatty acids and antioxidants found in generous amounts in the persimmon are not even present in the apple. Another issue that comes to mind is digestible dietary fiber. Fish scales and fish offal; all the parts of the squid and shrimp not palatable to humans and thus discarded into the livestock pot are mainstays in the diet of these old breeds.

One frequently sees tiny crabs called akategani in the gardens and pathways of many parts of Japan. These akategani are favorite foods for the hens and young of free ranging stock. Small children sell akategani to Onagadori stewards on one island we visited. Digestible dietary fiber is converted to sugar(energy) by the birds. Green and Ceylon Junglefowl differ from Red and Grey Junglefowl in their capacity to digest/utilize tougher chitin, fish scales and the like. This is because these two wild Junglefowl species depend on hard shelled crustaceans and mollusks in their regular diet. In Japan, populations of heirloom fowl were being raised on these feedstuffs and it is likely that the capacity to utilize these foods is hard wired into their chemical makeup. Where a typical western domestic fowl would like nothing better than a crop full of nutrient deficient corn and wheat to get through the day ( capable of surviving on this fare only because of the ready access to unlimited amounts of the feed eaten at will all day); old breeds like these Japanese treasure would prefer fish offal, squid scrapings,crustacean chitin, baked barley, cooked rice and bamboo shoots/seeds to fill their crops.







Bi products of a seafood based diet include those part of the aquatic creature not palatable to humans.
When one really investigates the nutritional value of something seemingly insignificant as fish scales for wild Junglefowl, their value in maintaining these old Japanese breeds becomes more obvious. Imagine how many shrimp are eaten a day in one village. How much chitin ( hard shell covering) including fleshy heads and legs would be readily accessible for local fowl? How much fat is in the head and hard oily skin of a shrimp? These birds benefit from regular supplementation of feed with animal fat. Peanuts and tree nuts would make ideal snacks provided it is within reason. One bird doesn't naturally consume an entire crop of nuts in one fell swoop. A great deal of energy is required for the bird to pound the meat out of its shell and this is risky business in the survival of those paying attention sweepstakes. So when you give treats of nuts only give each bird one or two per visit. If you visit five times a day you might want to cut down on the number of nuts- or not. It isn't going to kill them to have all the peanuts they will eat but it isn't economical or necessary.
Irregardless of whether you treat with nuts you should make certain the birds have adequate oil in their diet. A can of sardines every few weeks is a clean and convenient way to go. I use the cheapest ones on the shelf-and prefer those with bones and skin. The sardines and all the olive oil that is smothering them are placed out on a bowl of granola or dollar store breakfast cereal. The birds inhale the sardines in no time and cereal soaks up the oils left over from the can. Leave the bowl until the cereal is gone and don't feed them anything else until they do.

It is important to recall that these old Japanese breeds have one or more of the four wild junglefowl as male ancestors.
This means that their diets should more closely resemble the Green or Ceylon Junglefowls' than the Red or Grey Junglefowls'. The Green, Ceylon and to a lesser extent the Grey Junglefowl, are ecological specialists. They have extended breeding seasons -possibly breeding all year round ( Green and Ceylon Junglefowl). The Red and again, to a lesser extent, the Grey Junglefowl are ecological generalists, they have a shorter breeding season and can forage on a wide variety of foods with varying nutritional values. Conversely, Green and Ceylon Junglefowl nutritional requirements are much more conservative. They subsist on very specific foods and shift their diets according to availability of specific items like ant/termite swarms, sea shore offal and fruiting trees.
In other words, these two species may subsist almost entirely on a fruit diet for a month at a time when certain fruiting trees are in season,only to switch over to a sea life based diet ( Green Junglefowl) after a typhoon or mollusks like snails and slugs (Ceylon Junglefowl) during the wet monsoon. The Grey Junglefowl is an interesting case because it is a specialist during the dry season and a generalist during the wet season.




Green Junglefowl; Ceylon Junglefowl and Grey Junglefowl males.

What does this information signify about the dietary requirements of long domesticated Cultural Monument Breeds?
The fact that Green Junglefowl sires contributed considerably to the ancestry Long Tail and Long Crowing breeds and Ceylon Junglefowl contributed a great deal to the ancestry of the Minohiki and Bantam breeds has its consequences. The novel demes of these two unusual Junglefowl species were only amplified during the long self-imposed isolation of Japan, when no new genetics from additional fowl were introduced. This meant that each lineage would eventually become genetically homogeneous (closely related). This prolonged; close inbreeding was only amplified during periods of rampant feudalism. This is because different houses ceased exchanging the cultural treasure breed stock with one another. Yet another integral factor that came into place during the creation and refinement of these important breeds was the unique food basket available to the Japanese people. Early Japanese poultry stewards would have learned, very soon into the experiment, that this invaluable stock thrived on fish protein/dried shrimp and were kept satiated and content on bulky grains like Barley and Millet with generous helpings of cooked rice. It is my understanding that soy was too rare a commodity in ancient times to be fed to poultry except the occasional fire blackened soy beans and their hulls. Daikon Radish shavings and greens were often fed when in season as were sesame, cooked buckwheat, kelp, and mustard greens.

In my opinion, the notion that Japanese Monument breeds can't digest grain tends to get overstated. The knowledgeable stewards on this forum know the facts about optimal nutrition of these birds. Nevertheless, the actual factual information has a way of devolving the greater the generation of discourse.
Its like a game of telephone. The end result is misunderstandings passed on from party to party as fact.
Traditional grains fed to domestic fowl in Japan were Millet, Barley, Buckwheat, Cooked Brown Rice and Sesame Seed. The majority of the bulk diet consisted of a mixture of any of the above but generally the majority of the diet would be generous amounts of Japanese (white) Millet, roasted Barley and or Buckwheat with frequent helpings of cooked rice and sesame seed, especially for females and chicks. Compared with the high carbohydrate diets of modern commercial poultry models-that being primarily corn based- the Japanese diets were substantially less giving in terms of energy. Consequently, the Japanese breeds tend be a bit less energetic than say leghorns or fayoumi- breeds whose diets have always been wheat based; Araucanian and American breeds like the Rhode Island Red have been developed almost exclusively ,since the day of their inception, nurtured primarily on corn. Corn is instant energy but tends to leave fowl hungry. Wheat is quite a bit more filling but is nevertheless, inferior to animal protein.


During mentorship under Japanese conservation aviculturists, I learned that the traditional diets of traditional old breeds like the Onagadori, Minohiki and Koeyoshi, the Shamo and Ohiki were Roasted Barley ( a bi product of traditional Japanese teas) and Millet based diets, and in that order.



Japanese Barley


Japanese Buckwheat



Japanese (white) Millet



Japanese Sesame
Bi products of Buckwheat noodles -that is ground and or cooked Buckwheat and Rice ( white or brown) topped with dried fish, fish scales and other bi products of the traditional (Japanese people's) fish based diet featured prominently.


















So how do you feed your heirloom lineages of these cultural treasure stocks?
My suggestion is to go the White Millet, Barley and Cooked Rice route. This is the bulk dry feed put out daily.
Every time you and your family have shrimp, lobster, crayfish- SAVE the chitin and all the parts you don't find appetizing.
Use a sturdy pruning tool to dice the shells into peck sized pieces and mix into White Millet and a bit of granola.
Freeze this material in small yogurt containers for ready use.

I fully realize a few of you will find this distasteful, but here is where I encourage people to utilize my Farmer's Helper product line of feeds.
The main ingredient most important for your management will prove to be our "hunter formula" kibble. This was formulated specifically for birds like sandpipers, plovers, green junglefowl, peacock pheasants and peafowl. It is made of most of the ingredients you have seen in your average feed but our feed is extruded- baked like dry pet food. This makes it more digestible, more palatable and with no waste. It is made with generous percentages of both catfish meal and crustacean meal as well as the best vitamin and mineral supplements available to the zoo community for the rarest and most delicate of birds.
One my favorite products is the Optimal Foragecake. This is chock full of dried cranberries, nut pieces and "Hunter Kibble" plus dried vegetables and spices like turmeric and cinnamon. I cut brownie sized pieces off the foragecake and- soak them in warm water on one side for a half hour or so. Then I put them out for the birds to eat. This supplement can be used together with whatever you are feeding and this will dramatically improve upon your maintenance diet. After eating on the Foragecake for a few days droppings will be smaller, firmer and drier. The plumage and bare skin and leg scales will grow in more vivid in pigmentation and the readily digestible proteins and fibers produce superior feathers- as it requires optimal nutrition to produce optimal plumage.
Zoos that use our Hunter Kibble claim that their birds fed on our diets end up looking like wild caught birds thanks to our custom formulation. Carotenids and a healthy dose of Vitamin E are largely responsible for the dramatic change in physical appearance of the birds.
.
One optimal foragecake should last a flock of a dozen about two weeks if you cut it into smaller pieces and put out every two days or so.
Cut back on whatever else you are feeding by 25% when feeding the supplement as the kibble embedded in the foragecake is a complete meal in itself.
There is cracked corn and wheat and other grains in the foragecake as well - white millet too- I realize there is an opinion that corn and wheat should never be fed to these birds but in my experience, they are fine provided that adequate amounts of digestible dietary fiber and animal protein, antioxidant rich fruit and ready access to clean grit are provided on a consistent basis.
These supplements put all the goodies we've just been discussing in a single product that convenient to use with no mess.

That was my big sales pitch. You can find Optimal Foragecakes online by google searching " Farmer's Helper Optimal Foragecakes" this will help you locate at some store near you- or order them online.

For the most part I wholeheartedly agree. I wonder how their grains differ from ours here though. The main point of yours that caught my attention is that they do feed some of the grains roasted and, as in the case of tea production, perhaps already boiled/steeped as well. I believe this may go a long way with making those grains more digestible due to already being partially broken down by those practices?

The heavier antioxidant rich fruits seem as though they would also help eliminate the potential toxins produced by digesting the grains?

Good post!


David

Hi, Great post. It seems coastal habitats have more long tail type birds that mutate. My friend Ping from China says after a big storm on the coast where she lived they would go out and gather all the sea weed,fish, dead crabs ect that washes up to feed to chickens, pigs ect. Very interesting post.I believe that the diet increases mutation in some types of Galiforms. There are long tail fowl that live in the erea where she is from. Does any one think there is a link? TMA

In the wild junglefowl it isn't the grain itself that is at issue, it is actually the lack of digestible dietary fibers, clean grit and ready access to animal protein sources that do them in. They can glean all their nutrition from animal proteins but need additional sugars, carbohydrates and fats to digest that animal protein completely. Whole grains help slow down the rate of digestion as do largely non digestible vegetable fibers the birds eat in quantity. With adequate sources of clean grit and oystershell, even wild Junglefowl like the Green and Ceylon, which do not take grain in the wild, can utilize the nutrients in this readily available food source. To be clear though, wild Junglefowl absolutely require animal protein, especially as chicks and juveniles; moulting males and elderly specimens that can no longer digest vegetable proteins easily.
As for the cooking process-the birds were fed what was left after the creation of teas and noodles. In regions where Barley and Buckwheat are/were grown and prepared for processing, the fowl have plenty of access to uncooked grains and are fed accordingly. Nevertheless, cooking any grain or legume past a specific temperature does make the material ~ 10-30% more digestible, even fish, cats and dogs. Heating the grains to a specific temperature makes it possible to feed these very different species relatively cheaply and efficiently on grains. Notice that domestic dogs and cats are never fed a typical pellet- the sort we feed to rabbits, horses and poultry. As unlikely as it may seem, we are able to feed extruded pellets or 'kibble' made largely of corn and wheat middlings to carnivorous pets and in fish farming. I think what I'm attempting to impart here is this: No Junglefowl is granivorous. Some species are largely predatory. Those species' diets are upwards of 35% animal protein. Other Junglefowl species subsist on diets that are only ~ 25% animal protein. Most domestic chickens are descended of that Junglefowl that requires the least animal protein to survive.
Because corn and wheat were never grown in Japan in ancient times, the domestic fowl, which were exceedingly rare for the first several centuries after its introduction, subsisted on the grains, fruits and seeds of their traditional plant species. They would never have been able to survive without consistent access to sources of optimal animal protein and to antioxidants that prevented infectious diseases like Mareks and choriza, which have long been common in India and China.

Each cultural heritage breed is a product of the environment where it was generated. The Araucanians were bred to subsist on Indian Corn, Quinoa, Sweet Potato, fish and meat scraps. Consequently, we notice an increase in blue pigmentation of the egg shell and hatchability of tufted individuals when the birds are maintained on a diet that includes Quinoa, Sweet Potato and Adequate and Consistent sources of animal protein.

In Long Tailed fowl it would appear that the birds experience enormous energy drains in the constant growing and maintenance of these elongated remiges.
Peafowl require a surprising amount of animal protein in their diets to grow substantial trains. Feral, free ranging birds and wild specimens grow consistently longer trains than their domestic, confined cousins and live longer. Feral peafowl forage for most of their own feed. The preferred food of Peafowl is live prey- everything from frogs ( their favorite) to small snakes, lizards and rodents. The amino acids in animal tissue- the fat and oil of these prey species provide the building blocks to build, repair and regenerate integument.

That is very interesting-that long tailed birds are more common in coastal regions. It makes me wonder if there might be some ecological advantage the long tailed fowl over typical domestics. Perhaps they can utilize more of the chitin and shore detritus than typical domestic fowl and consequently have more building blocks to generate endless cellular growth in the creation of feathers?

Very informative and love the pictures. Kermit, being an araucana breeder myself, can you tell me what you mean by diet increases the blue pigment of egg color and especially the "hatchability" of tufted individuals? This is a lethal gene when both parents possess it........Thanks............

In my opinion, (one that I adopted from Japanese conservationists in Peru) the central issue of fatality in tufted birds has less to do with the potentially deadly genes and more to do with the shape of the egg and the process of linebreeding of birds -father to daughter; and of course the dietary component.
What has happened, probably since the arrival of the first Europeans, is the gradual introduction of foreign genes ( and diseases) via female European chickens.
Theoretically speaking, fewer native female fowl interbred with European roosters than South American males onto European hens.
This phenomenon is familiar in the natural ranges of wild Junglefowl and on islands as well. Wild male Junglefowl find female domestic fowl more attractive than female wild Junglefowl find domestic roosters. This is likely an issue of territory. Wild female Junglefowl have very specific requirements for nesting and foraging with chicks. They have a justifiable fear of human settlement with all its potential dangers- dogs, rats and people themselves. The situation in South America was probably analagous with what we observe in wild Junglefowl X domestic gene introgression. -
With the eventual applied process of conserving native lines, male South American stock with idealized phenotypes were consistently selected and then line bred to their own daughters and sisters- selecting for the prominent earrings characteristic of the Quetero , Colloncas de aretes and much later, the North American (standard of perfection) Araucana. Backcrossing where sons are bred with their mothers is preferable for reasons I will touch on later.
At any rate, founder phenotypes for each successive generation of imported South American stocks were selected for phenotype and to the exclusion of egg shape.
Native South American breed females tend to lay very round eggs and contrary to popular opinion, not all South American domestic fowl lay bleu eggs.

At any rate. embryos develop within the egg shell, nurtured on egg yolks. Females fed on optimal diets that reflect the unique ethnozoological foundations of the breed, tend to produce more ideal egg yolks. A greater number of chicks end up hatching just by virtue of the optimal nutrition they have been nurtured on within the egg prior to hatching. This alone accounts for an increased hatchability rate. With this increase of hatches, we would expect to see a higher percentage of individuals with the desired characteristic phenotypes of the aforementioned sub-breeds. Quinoa, fish protein and cooked sweet potato seem to be integral factors in an increase of hatchability as well as an increase in egg shell pigmentation in SA breed stock.
I find that rare heirloom lineages of every breed of domestic fowl, worked with in our facilities, has benefited greatly from being managed and maintained like one of the rarer wild Junglefowl species. An increase of hatchability and survivability is realized with the utilization of optimal nutrition. Some will assert that there is no such thing as "optimal diet". Personally, I disagree with this assumption as many incredibly rare and unusual species are maintained in zoos. Their nutritional requirements are often little more than a crap shoot. With the advent of zoo nutrition, we can make much more educated decisions based on an ever growing database. Getting back to rare breeds of cultural treasure fowl, it seems pragmatic to me to afford them the best and most conservative approach with regards to nutrition and general management. In other words, don't treat them like chickens and you will experience an increase of quality in any number areas.

I agree. I've been telling people that for yrs. They are chickens, but at the same time one must forget nearly all we associate with how to care for chickens.


David

But are they chickens or are they fowl?

Perhaps there is a chronology of stages or developmental phases.

Junglefowl

Native Fowl ( Islands and far flung reaches where Feral fowl have become naturalized)

Cultural Treasure Fowl ( Ancient breeds, ie, Japanese; Fayoumi, Araucanians)

Game Fowl Chickens ( Austronesian domesticated game fighter stock)

Bantam Chickens

Domestic Chickens ( highly cultivated utility breeds)

I had to do some research before weighing in on Toni-Marie's thoughts on mutation.
Small founder populations tend to see the expression of certain mutations more than robust -genetically diverse- populations.
That said, hybrid founders ,even a very few in the antiquity of a population will probably produce the greatest potential for accelerated mutation rates-
especially in those instances where reduced fertility of female hybrid progeny is the rule. This generally leads to some degree of backcrossing, where fully fertile hybrid males breed with fully fertile females that tend to be closely related to their own matriarchs. To be clear, the matriarch is generally speaking, a thoroughly domesticated village hen with no 'exotic' genes accrued from other junglefowl species. The hybrid males are thusly breeding back to a stable genotype and one that produces consistently. Eventually, the majority of one of these small, isolated population- especially coastal ports and fishing villages-
will be admixtures with the hybrid demes becoming increasingly dominant= via backcrossing. This happens because after a specific generation of backcrossing between fertile domestic hens and successively genetically diluted hybrid males, fully fertile females are produced. These females will then produce offspring with an increased incidence of unusual mutations, long tailed females for example.

>But are they chickens or are they fowl?>

You have a point there. They certainly behave in a domestic manner. Yet their internal workings; food processing, egg production, etc. is certainly more wild-like.

About Toni-Marie's note on coastal occurrences of long-tails - There does seem to be something to it. Everything from the blending of fowls at ports to the unique diet and being forced to subsist on sea refuse. It all goes hand in hand and has aided in the development of some very unusual birds.

I'd like to note something about your earlier comment regarding the Japanese birds being lazy. Speaking of my own birds, they are extremely lazy. They just lie around most of the day. This docile nature lends itself to the traditional Japanese housing method of males. Housed in tomebako or housed where they have a choice to roost or not to roost, they still spend the day on the roost and seldom move around.


David

It seems as though, since they have been conditioned to eat these diets for so long, so their bodies have evovled to suit it. Has anyone had any success being able to breed or change these triats of these birds? or is it something that cant be changed?