When breeding, the best way to achieve healthy young birds on the perch rather than egg bound hens and clear eggs, is to plan ahead and bolster your birds diets. “Raw” seed diets are simply not enough to get your birds through the demands of breeding without issues and don’t be fooled into thinking that some veggies and the odd cuttlefish bone is going to get them across the line.

Calcium: This is something that every bird breeder is seemingly aware of, but very few understand how much or why. Calcium is required in large quantities and is responsible for a range of different roles. Not only does calcium effect egg shell quality, development and the recovery of the hen bird after egg production, it is also crucial for muscle function. It is ultimately a bird’s muscles that are responsible for getting the job of laying an egg done. If muscles are weak from lack of calcium, the chances of egg binding increase, seed lacks any notable levels of calcium.

Vitamins: The roles played by vitamins are numerous and complex. But it is safe to say that balanced vitamins are crucial to almost every aspect of breeding. Even the absorption of calcium is largely reliant on the availability of certain vitamins. Again balance is the key and randomly adding just vitamin D for example is not the way to approach this complex need. Vitamin levels in seed are unpredictable at best and nearly nonexistent at worst.

Protein: Proteins (or amino acids) in particular are the building blocks for all living things, but again it is not as easy as just adding protein or just adding fat. Your birds need the correct amount of the correct types – that’s right, there are different types of fats and proteins. Getting just this seemingly simple part of a breeding birds diet right is a complicated job in itself. Seed diets lack essential acids such as Lysine and methion among many others.

Now the question has to be asked: If the nutrition of birds is so important,

why have people been breeding birds on plain seed diets for decades?

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The Low Down On Essential Dietary Elements

The answer is simple:Birds are amazingly resilient and their natural reproductive instincts are strong – even against all the odds. But that raises a new question – how well would they breed if we fed them a diet that met their actual nutritional requirements?

Pellets OR Seed & SupplementsWell, there are many breeders out there that have answered that question for themselves, and you won’t catch them looking back.....Birds need real, balanced, nutritional support in the form of either a complete diet - such as pellets, OR quality supplements in conjunction with quality seed.

It’s just that simple!