If you are interested in what vitamins and minerals do in your bird's body here are a couple of tables which give the basics. This page also explains why vitamin supplements should be given daily and how tiny is the risk of overdosing on vitamins.

Note : Birds produce plenty of vitamin C for themselves and do not need it as a supplement. Humans and guinea pigs are very rare in the animal world for their high requirement of dietary vitamin C.

Why give vitamins daily
Vitamins can be divided into two groups - fat soluble and water soluble. A,D,E and K are all fat soluble. Fat soluble vitamins can be stored in the liver and released slowly when required so they do not need to be given daily.

Water soluble vitamins (C and the B group) on the other hand are rapidly removed from the bloodstream by the kidneys and passed out in the urine. So the amount of water soluble vitamins drops quickly after ingestion. So to get the key energy benefits of these vitamins they should be available regularly throughout the day. This is why all the Essentials products are designed for daily use.

Can I over-do vitamins?
Most vitamins are soluble in water. Any excess of these taken in through the diet are flushed through the system and excreted in the urine. So these vitamins are safe at almost any dose. Four vitamins however (A, D, E and K) are fat soluble. These are stored in the liver and if given in huge amounts over a very extended period will overfill the liver and cause damage. Too much vitamin D may also cause calcium problems in the bones.

For these vitamins to be dangerous, however, the levels have to be very high. None of our recommended diets get anywhere near these levels. However one word of warning is worthwhile. Don't feed lots of different unbalanced vitamin supplements all together. Cod liver oil, wheatgerm oil, carrots and a few "continental eggfoods" contain very high levels of fat soluble vitamins without a good balance of other vital water solubles.

In six years talking to thousands of British bird keepers we have only come across three people who just may have stepped over the line. Even these people are unlikely to have done so.

We have addressed the issue of vitamins first for three reasons. Firstly all birds, whether pets or breeders, should get a daily vitamin supplement just for their daily health and vitality. Secondly without vitamins all the other types of supplements that we may give our birds are likely to produce only limited results. And finally vitamins, with calcium, are the biggest deficiency problem in seed and seed and fruit based diets.

Strangely there is considerable resistance from British bird keepers to using vitamin supplements. The reason for this appears to be the bewildering number of products available. Many of them contain a few vitamins but are not complete multivitamins.

There are probiotics, electrolytes and mineral supplements. Some of these contain no vitamins while others contain just small amounts designed to complement the major component of the product. Unfortunately many British bird keepers have used a supplement in the past, assumed that it was a proper vitamin supplement and been disappointed with the results. Many of these people have been put off "vitamins" forever.

There is only one way to be sure that you have got the vitamins right and that is to use an expertly formulated avian multivitamin supplement like our Essentials products.

The role of various minerals
(A brief and incomplete summary)

The most important issue when considering minerals is their bio-availability. All our nutrition products contain ingredients that enhance absorption of minerals. To find out how we do this with Rapisorb and in Calcivet (CalciBoost) take this link to our products section.