“You are what you eat” – this is a truism that many of us should pay more attention to, but at the end of the day, at least we have the ability to choose the food that goes into our bellies. A different truism is needed for pet birds - “you are what we decide to feed you......”

Pet birds get only what we choose to be good for them - Many people have different opinions and give their birds different diets. But the fact remains that at the end of the day, 70% (or higher) of bird illnesses can still be traced directly back to poor nutrition. This means a huge percentage of pet bird owners are getting it dead wrong!

One major topic that comes up time and time again at Vetafarm is the need (and potential danger) of vitamins in a bird’s diet. Getting the facts straight on this issue is all important for the future health and overall quality of life of captive birds in Australia.

Vitamin A is generally the most feared and questioned vitamin as being potentially dangerous to birds. At Vetafarm we are still not sure where the big scares about vitamin A have actually come from.

Seed and vegetable diets naturally lack vitamin A - In fact over the thirty years the Vetafarm avian research clinic has been in operation, we have not seen one case of Vitamin A overdose. In retrospect, vitamin A deficiencies have become almost a weekly occurrence.

Attention to doses do need to be paid if injecting vitamin A directly, but if asking yourself the question of whether to supplement your birds seed diet with vitamins or to change a bird to pellets to prevent conditions like the one shown here – say yes to vitamins, you might just be surprised how much better your birds are for it.

* Featured in Vetafarm Newsletter V13 Jun/July 2010