Michael Sesterhenn is a good case study in how The Birdcare Company system works. He has kept records of what products he has used and the benefits they
have given him. He points out that, before he started with these new products, he was perfectly happy with his breeding and showing using products from his existing suppliers.
1999/2000
He first used Birdcare products in 2000. He started a couple of months into his breeding season which had begun late the year before. For this first season he
used Calcivet (known as CalciBoost outside Europe) and ProBoost SuperMax
in conjunction with competitors' vitamin supplements and eggfoods. He was using both products at less than our recommended levels yet he still reported the following benefits:
* Improved adult and chick vitality
* Much fitter hens
* No more egg laying problems
* Fewer double yolked eggs and eggs more even in size
* Similar breeding results
2000/2001
The first round of the 2000/2001 season was good using Calcivet, ProBoost SuperMax and Daily Essentials3
but then many birds in his flock became ill so he stopped feeding all supplements in an attempt to identify the cause of the problem. A month of veterinary treatment returned the birds to health and they concluded that the illness had almost certainly been introduced from a show.
Having lost a month, he re-introduced the supplements and added Potent Brew
to help overcome the side effects of the drugs. He had another good round despite the vet warning of fertility problems following the drug treatment.
2001/2002
Michael has made two major changes for this breeding season. Firstly this is the first year he is using the complete system: Feast, Daily Essentials3
, Calcivet, ProBoost SuperMax and Potent Brew. Secondly this is the first year he is using all products in the quantities we recommend and at the frequencies we
advise.
His early observations (March 2002) on the improvements over the previous year were these:
* Substantially increased vitality especially of fledgling chicks
* Improved vitality of chicks
after separation from their parents
* Much more evenly sized birds (no runts) and they are generally bigger for their age
* Ringing chicks two days earlier
* All birds in excellent condition
*
Much cleaner nests (Michael used to change the nests of some pairs 2-3 times while chicks in the nest). Now he is not changing any nests
* Improved hatchability
* First day feeding problems drastically
reduced (Michael used to find up to 50% of pairs failed to feed some one day old chicks now this is reduced to 10%)
* Breeding season will finish two months earlier (stop when 300 chicks rung)
The best laid plans
Unfortunately everything doesn't always go according to plan. By mid April Michael found that breeding performance was so
exceptional that he was easily going to exceed his 300 chick target. And it was too late to do anything about it by stopping pairs he already had under way. So he has had to order more rings. What a shame!
American retailers
Due to Carol Heesen's excellent hard work we now have close to 50 retailers in the USA and Canada
. Our growth in this market has forced Birds2Grow to move into new larger premises. It is also enabling us to market our bulky products like Feast and Hand Rearing Foods over there
too. Any businesses wanting to retail our products in America should cantact Carol. Her details and those of all our current retailers are available by clicking on
the blue link above. Endangered Bali starling success We are always delighted to get involved in anything that
helps to increase the number of any endangered species. Unfortunately many of these birds are kept by zoos and bird parks and we find them very closed minded when it comes to changing their birds' diets.
So we were delighted when UK softbill breeder Mr Blackler approached us for a softfood for his Rothschild's Mynahs (Bali starlings). It so happened that we had just sent our first
shipment of Insectivorous Feast to America and, although we had not commercialised the product in the UK we made a batch for him. Mr Blackler had never managed to
raise any chicks to independence. But with Insectivorous Feast one pair hatched two chicks. Sadly the cock attacked them both three days before weaning. One died but the other one has been successfully
raised and is now registered on the stud book.Bouyed by this success the next round will be more comprehensively supplemented and we look forward to even better results before the summer is over.
Eclectus study Most of you will be aware of our passion for constantly upgrading our products. Late last year it came to
our attention that some eclectus parrots seem to have rather special needs. Especially with regards to magnesium and calcium. Others seem to show extreme reactions to artificial colourings and some of the
preservatives in pellets.So late last year we modified Daily Essentials3 to increase its magnesium content. Initial reports suggest this is now working exceedingly well with those birds that had
previously been having problems. With the help of a small group of mostly Canadian eclectus owners we are hoping to demonstrate this across a larger number of birds. It is co-operation like this with our
customers that ensures that our products get better and better over time. New products Due to demand from our
customers we have recently developed two new feed products for the USA. These will be available in the UK later in the year (August or September). The first is Insectivorous Feast. This is a
high protein food designed for softbills and small seedeaters containing large quantities or waterflies, daphnia, larvae, conches and gammarus. It is pre-moistened and doesn't spoil in the cage See story above for our first success - even before we have launched this product in the UK! Also for America we have produced our first pre-moistened
softfood for seedeaters from finches through to parrots. This is called Gold Label Feast and it is aniseed flavoured. Both of these products have been very well received by
our American and Canadian customers.New pack sizes Due to rapidly increasing demand we are now packing both of our hand rearing food
grades [Gold Label Lo Energy (Hi Protein HRF and Gold Label Hi Energy (Low protein) HRF] and Golden Tropic Lori Nectar
in 6 kg plastic sacks. These are available in the UK right now and will be available in the USA sometime in the next few months.Small orders to individuals in other countries may not be possible as we
suffer a maximum parcel size of 2 kgs with the Royal Mail and export courier company rates are prohibitive for small orders.
Contact us for more information about your circumstances. Improving bird happiness and behaviour (long)Many years ago we had a telephone call from a zebra finch breeder who was using our vitamin supplements - but only on his show team. His other birds were going without. He rang to
'complain' that the supplement was making his birds go crazy. Every time he entered the bird room his show team flew about madly. The rest of his birds were quite subdued. Not surprisingly he thought our
product was to blame. As usual we quizzed him about the rest of his birds' diet and it became quite clear that they were not getting enough calcium. Addition of a high quality calcium supplement to their
diet enabled these birds to get the right amount of calcium into their nerves and the problem went away. Of course this story illustrates just how many birds are malnourished but for years we have failed
to see the signs. His quiet birds were actually listless and lacking in energy due to vitamin deficiency! We believe that the vast majority of bird behavioural problems are caused by calcium deficiency.
Biting parrots, plucking and other self mutilation, aggressive cocks attacking chicks and hens, nervousness and fear all come into this category. Physical problems like fits, twirling and star gazing are
mostly caused by the same problem. In eclectus parrots wing flapping and toe tapping seem to be symptoms of magnesium deficiency which often goes hand in hand with calcium problems. Calcium is certainly
not the only nutrient to affect behaviour. Inadequate vitamins and minerals will cause lethargy that can easily be corrected. Hans Monsma from South Africa wrote "I am more than enthusiastic about your
products, and to be frank I can already see the difference in some of my birds . A lot of my birds never really looked 'proud' to be a gouldian, they sort of looked healthy, but to a lesser or larger extent
a little fluffed most of the time.... Now, ten days later, there is real life and a type of arrogance to be seen, almost telling me... 'well, we are Gouldians you know..!!' really nice and proud." Even
birds that have been very badly treated benefit considerably from better nutrition. Holly, an abused Umbrella cockatoo, was almost impossible for experienced rescuer Carole Stevens to handle. Almost
immediately she received top quality supplementation her behaviour improved and now she plays happily and can be handled easily. Holly's story is an extreme one. But many 'perfectly healthy' birds can
improve too. Jasper is also an Umbrella 'too owned by Canadian bird behaviourist Jesse James. Jasper was on a diet of pellets and fresh foods until Jesse tried Birdcare supplements in November 2001.
" I
have just started Jasper on the supplements - in only nine days I have seen a tremendous difference in his well being - not that he was ill before, but now he is much more 'happy'. " You can see Jasper at
www.birdwhisperer.com.
World show It
seems a long time ago now but the World Show in Ieper (Ypres), Belgium, back in January was a great opportunity for us to meet many of our Continental customers.What was even nicer was to discover that we
have already recruited some of Europe's finest exhibitors. So our congratulations go to Seigbert Schrader (Germany), Johann Lichtendonk (Holland and Germany) and Medard Ongenae (Belgium) for their gold medal
wins with onyx coloured canaries, gloster canaries and spangle budgerigars respectively. Loro Parque parrot convention We know that all our readers will sympathise with us for the amount of sheer hard slog we put into marketing our products. You will especially understand the hardship
involved in visiting the Spanish holiday island of Teneriffe for the World Parrot Convention (Sept 18-21).If you want to hear some of the world's top parrot experts speak, visit the beautiful Loro Parque
and visit us on our little trade stand find out more by e-mailing the organisers.New premises and equipment
Our sales growth in the past year has stretched our manufacturing resources to their limits. So we are delighted to have moved into much larger premises (double
the size) on the same industrial estate. This has given us the room to install much bigger manufacturing and labelling equipment. So with the same top quality labour force we are now able to handle much
larger volumes of products. Not many UK manufacturers are investing in expanded capacity in the current economic environment so it is very nice to be a positive exception to this rule.Our new stainless
steel mixer is also giving us much better mixes in much shorter periods of time and with less stress on the products. This is particularly important for our Feast range as it has been very easy in the past
to break down the granular structure and create a large amount of fine powders - such production has to be rejected. Another key benefit of this new mixer is that it reduces our paperwork dramatically. The
feedingstuffs regulations require us to have full traceability on every batch or raw material and every batch of product. By reducing the number of batches we save a lot of administrative hassle.
Sales growth UK, Germany and North America UK bird keeping continues to decline. Yet The Birdcare Company is still growing in
this market albeit at a modest 6% over last year. To achieve this we have continued to take market share from our competitors despite the fact that we have not advertised in the main bird newspaper, Cage
& Aviary Birds, since last September. Customers who had left us to try other tempting offers are steadily returning to the products they have learned to trust from the market leader.
Sales in North America are running at nearly
three times those of last year. The huge efforts of Carol Heesen and her team and the nearly fifty retailers around the USA and Canada have been very successful. Carol has in fact had to move into larger premises too!
Our German marketing has developed excellent momentum. A just reward for all the long trips Sally has made there in the past two years. This year's sales are running
at nearly four times last year and our retailer list continues to grow steadily. |
