Here we are folks, almost into December 2003 and we figure it's high time Jo gave you an update on our eating habits. As with anything, the more you read, learn, study and observe, your routine always has room for improvements. As has ours here at Tiny Rascals Aviary. Number 1, all us adult lovebirds are still eating our pellets, just a lot less of them and a different brand. Same goes for babies as well. They are now being weaned onto the Zupreem handfeeding formula and the Zupreem pellet and boys do they LOVE them. The pellet issue is and will always be a controversial topic but as Jo has made her changes and seen vast improvements in overall health, breeding habits, babies, molting she is very happy. The pellet now only makes up maybe 1/4 percent of our diet here. We have our soaked seed daily, and regular seed more often. We still get our millet treats and of course all our other treats.
We are now all getting (and have been for quite some time now I might add) oh yes, all our veggies and softfood but they are now supplemented with Healthy Bird supplements. We get our vitamins daily (Daily Essentials 3), we get Bio Plus weekly. We get Flourish weekly. If we are molting we get stuff called Feather Up daily instead of our vitamins. We get Calciboost once a week (unless we are nesting, then we get it five days a week). We now get a new eggfood called Feast, which is just OH SO GOOD. When we go to nest we get Proboost Supermax and Potent Brew daily. To top it all off, the babies get stuff called Formula Plus in their formula as well as they get the Potent Brew stuff. Jo has seen such a vast improvement in our breeding habits, no more soft shelled eggs, we feed our babies much much better she says, lovebirds well they are hatching 6 out of 6. Our molts take not even half the amount of time they used to and our feathering is beautiful.
Our babies are growing up and weaning, in Jo's mind, far healthier. She has babies up there now that have not gone under 54 grams during the weaning process. She's almost begging them to take formula as they are only 61/2 weeks and she is so used to them begging for food for much longer than that! Of course the babies are getting more pellets than soaked seed and they love the Zupreem pellet. The soaked seed mix Jo uses cannot be just "picked up" at the local Pet Store, nor can the supplements she uses. A seed and veggie only diet, without the vitamins and supplements, in Jo's mind is just not good enough, hence they are weaned onto a good pellet as well.
If you wish to continue with the supplements Jo is now the distributor for Canada for these products and will be more than happy to supply you. Soaked seed is also not a problem to supply. Feel free to visit the Healthy Bird website at www.healthybird.net to learn more about these products. Jo will be doing a major overhaul on that site very soon to provide much more information for you.