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Testimonies on the breeding and feeding of birds
Dirk Van den Abeele: my experience with NutriBird
As editor of the club journal of the Belgian Lovebird Society, I was invited about eight years ago along with the rest of the international bird press, by Versele-Laga to the presentation of the NutriBird pellets. I assure you that I watched it with a sceptical eye and had my own thoughts on the matter. For us the standard way offeeding still seemed the best.
Wessel van der Veen, an old stager in the matter, told me a few months later that he had been feeding his A. Lilianae with NutiBird. He was in fact really satisfied with the change. At the time I had just had a pretty bad breeding season. Hesitatingly, I then bought my first bag of NutriBird G14 for large parakeets. These pellets were mixed with the standard food and we would wait to see what would happen. Of course these 'unknown' pellets were promptly thrown out of the feeding trays. The birds clearly refused to eat them. I then contacted the company Versele-Laga and they advised me to use their conversion method. 'Hope it will work!' were my thoughts.
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The birds received just enough seeds for one day. We had added about 10 % NutriBird to the normal seed diet. Naturally these pellets remained uneaten. The next day the birds received about 80 % of the quantity of seeds and the rest in pellets. Now they did nibble on some pellets. The following day, 70 % seed and the rest in pellets. A few Fischeri's began to eat the pellets. Gradually the quantity NutriBird pellets was raised until the proportion reached 20 % seeds and 80 % pellets. Still I found that the birds were inclined to dehull these large pellets creating too much waste. Wessel recommended me to change to the smaller NutriBird B18. After a few days, the smaller pellets were accepted without further problems. They went in without further 'dehulling'.
The birds were now completely converted but I still had to wait for the breeding results. Pretty soon the first young were born. Would the parents indeed feed their young with these pellets? The day after their birth I quickly went to check and yes the youngsters did have a full crop.
Now some years have passed and I still serve 80 % pellets and 20 % seeds to my birds. This does not exclude the fact that I still give some greens, millet sprays and other 'snacks' to my birds. Eggfood has not been given for the last two years and this has had no influence on the breeding results. I grew more and more convinced that NutriBird is indeed a complete nutrition. I have fewer birds that die in the first months of their life and I have the impression that the birds get through the moult more easily.
I regularly give lectures on lovebirds and the topic of feeding is of course a frequent subject of discussion. When I start talking about pellets, I often get negative reactions. When I then ask who has actually tried it, I see a small number of positive answers. Most have heard about it. The same is true on the subject of cost price: here also you hear the wildest stories. NutriBird costs per kg more than seeds, but because there is little wastage of food and because I no longer buy eggfoods and vitamins, I pay out about the same amount of money per year as I did before.
And the birds? Well these are definitely in top shape.
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