Breeding exhibition type Budgerigars has never been easy - all you have to do is read articles of 5, 10, 15 and 20 years ago and more, and you will find fanciers writing about their concerns associated with poor fertility. Some fanciers understood that seed and water alone was not a sufficiently complete diet to ensure total fitness in their birds. To combat this, human vitamin supplements were added to their bird's drinking water and fish oil to the seed, very little mineral supplementation took place and probiotics were virtually unheard of. Conversely, other breeders refused to accept that there was nothing further required other than the seed and water they already fed.
Yes, there were various products around that were designated for cage birds but such was their range, there was just not enough days in a week to complete a weekly course of supplementation without creating 'supplement cocktails' whose effect on each other was certainly unknown to the layman.
Our story is not dissimilar to many other fanciers. We had tried the human vitamin route - trying to gauge how many drops of this and teaspoons of that was required in a litre of water. We had also tried many of the supplements available for cage birds, and with the exception of one, could not claim to have experienced any sort of improvement. Coupled with this our breeding seasons were going from bad to worse. From a stud that regularly produced 200+ chicks per season and finished by Easter, we were now struggling to get 50 youngsters on the perch over a 9 months period. Added to the problem of low numbers was a drop in quality because the better birds were not breeding at all and these individuals were getting older and really past their 'sell by date'.
It was at the BS Club Show in November 1997 that we approached Mervyn John of Vydex Avian Direct. Like all the other companies, Vydex had all sorts of claims that their products did this or improved that - an ad mans pipe dream we thought. Anyway, with nothing to lose an investment was made and a chance was taken. Anyone who has kept livestock for a few years will know what we were contemplating was risky. To suddenly change the diet of the birds so close to the start of the breeding season could ruin our chances totally - but this was a chance we were prepared to take.
With just two weeks to go and armed with a heap of Vydex products we set about boosting our birds. For the most part cocks and hens are run together in communal flights. The first job was to separate cocks and hens into individual flights to break any pair bonds that may have been made. The seed mix that the birds were fed was 60% White Millet, 40% Canadian Canary, 5% Clipped Oats and 5% Budgie Tonic. It was planned that this should remain unaltered.
Now for the supplementation. What we wanted was an idiot-proof combination that did not vary from day to day so mistakes would not be made. So, with the help of Vydex and some creative thinking on our part we came up with the following daily dosage to be used throughout the breeding season.
To a litre of drinking water add:
Entrodex 1 teaspoon
Ascorbivite 1 teaspoon
Carbosol 2 dessertspoon (seems and awful lot but
does the trick)
Initially we established by weight how much was going to be needed per feed and then mixed at a proportion of the following ratios.
Growrite 1 pound
Dexol-E 1 teaspoon
MVS30 1 teaspoon
Cal-sure ¼ teaspoon
Added to the above softfood was grated carrot and unsweetened soya milk to give a sticky consistency. The birds took to this softfood straight away.
We started pairing up some two weeks later and as a trip to Florida was planned for over the New Year we put down just 12 pairs as not to over burden my partner Brian while Yvonne and I were away. All birds went straight to nest with no problems and from these 12 pairs we reared 47 youngsters in the first round.
We have the capacity for 40 breeding cages and after our return from America chose to use a further 12 cages making a total of just 24. From these, by the end of May we eventually reared just over 200 chicks, including taking three rounds from a 1994 cock and a 1995 hen who successfully raised 15 chicks. The remarkable thing about this pair was that they had never bred before.
Our hobby has turned around for us. We enter the 1998 breeding season with a rejuvenated stud of birds and plenty of enthusiasm. Would we recommend Vydex products - why shouldn't we as they certainly worked for us.
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