More fertile eggs and more live chicks are all being achieved with simple supplementation of breeding diets

As with moulting the major nutritional stimulus to encourage birds of prey to breed is increasing the amount of food fed to the birds. This largely mimics the situation the birds would experience in the wild where the prey population and availability increases during spring. Most people will also improve the quality of the food fed by using fewer chicks and more quail, rats, mice and rabbits.

Try to avoid food that has been so well fed that it is fat. In the wild the early breeding season prey will still be quite lean from the trials of surviving winter. Their early energies would have been put into raising young and not putting fat onto their bodies. Your feeding should reflect this.

As the quantity of food is increased so the quantity of supplement should go up as well. An increase in Raptor Essentials (Breeder) will provide most of the extra vitamins and minerals that your bird requires for breeding. However, there are two things that we can do to improve the situation even further.

The first is to add a liquid probiotic to the diet. This powerful modern technology has been widely used in farm livestock applications as well as in cage birds. It greatly enhances gut function and improves the availability of nutrients from the food. This can make a substantial contribution to bringing the birds into breeding condition. Most importantly it should enhance fertility.

We would also strongly recommend the use of a pre-dissolved calcium supplement to provide the very best possible source of this precious mineral. This approach will increase clutch sizes, improve eggshell quality, see hen birds through the breeding season with minimal stress and, finally, ensure that young birds have strong bone growth.

The major problem with traditional calcium supplements is that they are very difficult for the bird to dissolve in the gut and therefore difficult to absorb. Pre-dissolved calcium supplements overcome this problem. In addition, by tying the calcium to a sugar molecule we more closely mimic the natural forms of calcium and help it to be carried across the gut wall. Supplementing once a week with Calcivet (CalciBoost) prior to egg laying will ensure that bones (the major storage organ for calcium) are full with this essential mineral. When egg-laying commences increase supplementation to five days a week.

Raptor Essentials (Breeder) (vitamins and minerals), Potent Brew (liquid probiotic) and Calcivet (CalciBoost) (liquid calcium supplement) comprise The Birdcare Company's raptor breeding supplementation system.

For information on all products for use with owls, raptors and other meat eating birds go to our owl and raptor product page.

For further information on supplementing your breeding birds please feel free to contact us.