This web site contains a very large amount of information of use to people who keep birds. We have split the article and information pages into a number of groups that are listed in the navigation bar to the left. You will almost certainly wish to read from more than one section. For example you will find an article on feather plucking in the health section when you may be thinking about this as a pet problem. Have a quick browse of the topics in each section.

For those of you who want some background on nutrition issues try the '2003 article series'. This contains many articles on key nutrients such as amino acids, calcium etc. Each article is titled 'Understanding ........................'.

Before you move to your area of interest we strongly recommend you read the article that appears below on this page. 'Diets as good as the wild' helps to explain the theory and philosphy behind our products and why they work so well.

Diets as good as the wild?

Australia is the dryest continent in the world. So we all know that the wildlife there exists on very dry feed all year round don't we? Wrong!

Certainly this is true of the dry season. This is why many Australian and African species can tolerate poor quality diets for extended periods of time. Our dry seed diets reflect dry season diets and are not adequate for either the long-term health of pet birds or good breeding performance.

They are even less adequate for forest dwelling birds like conures, amazons and macaws.

In the Australian wet season even the deserts come to life and bloom. The dried up creeks flow into the salt pans and turn them back into real lakes again. Plant growth is spectacular; the landscape turns bright green, insect numbers increase and feed quality improves dramatically. In the wet season wild birds breed! In temperate climates it is the summer that provides the best nutritional conditions for breeding.

Dry seed compared with ideal diets for "seed-eating" and insectivorous birds

Let us start by looking at the vitamin levels your birds should get every day. Chart 1 shows 13 vitamins all set at 100% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) which applies for all non-breeding birds. This is the level of vitamins that your birds will get from all Birdcare Company vitamin/mineral supplements (The Essentials range or Feather-Up) when given as directed. This closely matches the levels available from a very high quality natural diet, such as green seeds in the wild.

Compare this with Chart 2, which shows the vitamin content of dry millet seed. It is clear that a seed only diet is severely deficient in at least eleven vitamins (well below the 100% mark).

So Chart 3 shows our recommended "non-breeding diet" which is seed plus any one of the Essentials supplements. Whatever the quality of the seed this diet guarantees that the birds get plenty of vitamins.

Breeding birds however will benefit from even more vitamins than are provided by the diet in Chart 3. For best breeding performance levels need to be higher than the RDA. Adding a good quality eggfood, like Feast , to the diet boosts some vitamins considerably which mimics the feed improvement that occurs in the wild and helps to trigger breeding condition.

Dry seed versus ideal diets for "fruit-eating" birds

Birds that naturally eat lots of fruit and other vegetable matter come from much more stable environments than dry land species. The tropical rain forests are always moist and, although feed quality does vary seasonally, the ups and downs are much less dramatic.

So where a budgerigar, cockatoo or zebra finch is adapted to survive periods of low vitamin intake this is not true of macaws, amazons, conures, pekin robins, parrot finches and other forest birds. Yet we still feed these birds on diets that are largely seed supplemented with fruits etc.
 

Chart 4 shows the vitamin levels of a diet made up of seed, carrots, broccoli, corn-on-the cob, apple, grapes and bananas. As you can see this diet is still deficient in 8 vitamins!!!

So it is not surprising that when breeders like Steve Beaver of Yorkshire added Daily Essentials to this type of diet his parrot chick numbers increased substantially (Chart 5).

Mineral deficiencies

During the ripening process many minerals flow down the sap and into the soil. There they are available for the next generation of plants to use. This means that dry seeds are often mineral deficient. Fortunately Daily Essentials also contains a broad range of different minerals. But the form of minerals that we use is totally unique.

In active, living plants and animals many minerals are tied up with complex molecules like proteins. Probably the most well known example is the iron in the haemoglobin in your blood but magnesium linked to the chlorophyll in plants is just as good an example.

When your bird eats these living nutrients these molecular connections remain intact and this makes it much easier for the gut wall to grab hold of the mineral and absorb it. In effect little "molecular pumps" in the gut wall hurl the minerals into the bloodstream.

Unfortunately during the ripening process in seeds many of these protein/mineral bonds are broken (the chlorophyll breaks down which is why a green leaf turns brown). A lot of the minerals are lost down the sap to the soil and many that remain are difficult for the bird to absorb.

The "Rapisorb" minerals that we use in Daily Essentials mimic the quality of the minerals that wild birds get from lush, green foods. So this unique technology ensures that the minerals you provide your birds get into the bloodstream instead of being wasted by passing out in the droppings!

Calcium

So your birds are now getting a daily vitamin/mineral supplement. What else do they need? Well some of them (hens and chicks) will require a calcium supplement too. Calcium deficiency is probably an even bigger problem for world bird keeping than vitamin A deficiency. And this despite the tonnes of cuttlefish bone fed every year!

Most of the cuttlefish eaten goes straight out in the droppings. The difficulty with calcium is getting it to dissolve inside the gut. So we have developed a super-saturated calcium solution called Calcivet (CalciBoost) . More than that Calcivet (CalciBoost) uses a chelated mineral technology similar to the Rapisorb minerals. So it is easily absorbed and quickly gets to the bones, nerves and muscles where it is needed. It is such an effective calcium source that most of the year you will only need it once a week (twice for African greys and eclectus).

By now you probably understand why Daily Essentials (powder) and Calcivet (CalciBoost) (liquid) are the two products that make up the supplements system for non-breeding birds. Daily Essentials comes in a selection of grades for different birds. For information on exactly the right "Essentials" product for you click here .

Calcium for breeding

When egg laying commences increase Calcivet (CalciBoost) to three to five times a week. You will get more eggs, fitter hens that don't struggle with egg-laying and strong boned chicks.

Hens require extra calcium to make good quality egg shells. As most birds only carry enough calcium stored in their bones to make about three eggs Calcivet (CalciBoost) normally increases clutch sizes, ensures good shell quality and minimises stress on your hens.

Young birds require plenty of calcium for strong bone formation and efficient nerve and muscle function. Insufficient calcium can lead to young birds having trouble flying and perching properly. Calcivet (CalciBoost) should be continued through the breeding season at the five times a week rate to maintain their natural reserves of this precious mineral.

In very hard water areas it may be possible to use Calcivet (CalciBoost) at lower application rates or less frequently

Protein, protein, protein - critical for top breeding results

No where in the world has a climate that is totally stable. Whether it is summers and winters, or wet seasons and dry seasons, everywhere has some sort of seasonal variation.

This has an impact on the growth of plants. Most animals and birds respond to these seasons by breeding in the good times (summers and wet seasons). "Good" in this sense involves both quantity and quality of food.

During dry seasons and winter most plants are relatively dormant. As food sources they are poor - low in protein, minerals and vitamins. When the season improves they start to grow and the level of nutrients in them rises. This makes them much better food. The most important change is the protein level.

Rapidly growing young birds require a lot of protein for good growth. 20% is a fair rule of thumb. So, as the protein level of the diet increases, this sends a message to the adult birds that raising chicks is likely to be a good prospect.

Traditional captive bird diets have protein levels between 8% and 12%. These are too low for either good adult breeding stimulation or maximum chick growth.

There are two ways to improve dietary protein. The first is to add limiting amino acids to the diet. This guarantees (if you add enough) that the bird can utilise all of the protein in the seed, fruit or pulses that you are feeding it. To achieve this simply feed Daily Essentials3 in a good quality eggfood like Feast or on fruit and vegetables or on pulses. For a fuller explanation of how amino acids affect the amount of protein your bird can use from its diet click here.

One of the benefits of this system is too help maintain your birds at the correct bodyweight - not too fat! (See article on weight control ). But it does not provide enough protein for maximum stimulation of breeders.

To stimulate breeding the second method is to add ProBoost SuperMax to the same foods. ProBoost SuperMax is a very high (84+%) protein supplement that works wonders for fertility, chick growth and feather quality.

Our objective is to allow the birds to control their own dietary protein by offering them both high and low protein foods simultaneously. So we feed the Feast/ProBoost SuperMax mixture or fruit/ProBoost SuperMax in one container and the "low protein" seed in another.

The fertility and feather quality benefits of these additives are very significant. And, as the birds eat less when the protein levels are higher, your seed bill drops as well!

The chart gives an indication of the increases in useable protein achieved by using thes supplements.

A is seed alone
B is seed plus Feast and Daily Essentials3
C is seed, Feast, Daily Essentials3 and ProBoost SuperMax

Peak digestive performance

The digestive system of birds is very easily upset. Any slight stress causes a reduction in the blood supply to the gut. The biochemical conditions then change reducing the effectiveness of the gut and increasing the risk of infection by harmful bacteria. Keeping the gut topped up with beneficial digestive bacteria keeps the bad bugs under control and ensures that as much of the food as possible is actually absorbed into the bloodstream. This is the job of a probiotic.

Many breeders and vets have now demonstrated to themselves the superiority of Potent Brew over the traditional, freeze dried probiotics. Potent Brew works so well because it contains bacteria that act immediately they get into the gut (they don't have to rehydrate themselves like dried probiotics do) and it also contains enzyme components for active food digestion. However only buy Potent Brew in small quantities, as it is a live product with a short shelf life.

Because Potent Brew stimulates efficient gut function and so improves the bird's ability to absorb nutrition it contributes to bringing adult birds into breeding condition.

When young chicks hatch they should have no bacteria in the gut. They rely on their parents to supply them with their food. Potent Brew in the food starts the chicks digestive system off very quickly ensuring rapid early growth and excellent resistance to otherwise dangerous digestive diseases.

During the breeding season we now give the gut flora even more support in our new product ProBoost SuperMax. Amongst many other things ProBoost SuperMax contains herbal extracts designed to help the good bacteria in the gut and to help the young birds' poorly developed natural immune system work to the best possible effect. ProBoost SuperMax is a combination of the active ingredients in ProBoost and Maxima (which itself has been recently upgraded further) and these new herbal extracts.

So ProBoost SuperMax and Potent Brew are the two supplements that stimulate breeding condition, improve fertility and give chicks a fabulous start in life

Self medication

Wild birds and animals consume a broad range of different medicinal herbs and minerals thet help to both treat and prevent various illnesses. We incorporate a number of specially selected ingredients of this nauture into certain of these products. They have been chosen for their safety and effectiveness.

These ingredients provide three main benefits. Firstly they stimulate the immune system so increase the birds resistance to disease. Secondly they create an attractive environment for beneficial bacteria in the gut so encouraging the 'natural' flora to flourish. And finally they attack selected disease causing germs such as coccidia.

You will find these exciting herbs in Feast, Flourish, BioPlus, Guardian Angel and ProBoost SuperMax. To read more about them study the article on nutricines.

Return to top of page