If supplements are going to work it is important that you deliver them to your birds in the most effective way. Incorrect supplementation can give a false sense
of security to owners who often think they are doing the right thing. This page is designed to explain why we prefer on-food supplements over those that go in the drinking water. It also explains what we
have done to overcome the limitations of in-water supplements with our unique product Fussy Feeder Essentials for those circumstances where conventional in-water supplements are simply not
enough.There are three key problems with supplementing birds through their drinking water. Firstly, because most people are quite wasteful with water, it is generally the most expensive method.
Often more supplement is thrown away than consumed!
Secondly there are some key ingredients that cannot be added to water for technical reasons. For example the amino acid methionine is very smelly
in drinking water, good quality complete proteins will not dissolve (though we have solved this problem with Fussy Feeder Essentials) and many herbal extracts are not soluble. So we simply
cannot put the all the ingredients we would like into water-bourne supplements. In particluar the nutrients required for quick moults, good feather quality and improved breeding performance are all difficult
to supply in the water.
Thirdly supplements in water provide nutritional benefits for germs as well as for your birds so can actually cause illness. This last issue is easy to solve with the addition of a
water sanitiser such as Aviclens (Saniclens).
To turn the arguement around, on-food supplements (at least the ones we make) are cheaper to use, contain more ingredients and do not encourage the
growth of dangerous organisms.
So from a purely nutritional point of view we support the use of on-food supplements. Having said that there are often good management reasons for using supplements in
water. It is often quicker for busy bird keepers to mix a water bottle than to prepare an eggfood or chop up lots of fruit and vegetables. And of course many birds will not eat anything but a plain
seed diet. For these birds supplementing in the water as far far better than no supplement at all.
To see how to supplement your birds on-food click
