Eire Budgerigar Society

BREEDING PROBLEMS AND A POSITIVE OUTCOME

 As Jos reports in his article, he came across Re-Scha through a German breeder friend , and that contact led to another and eventually to mails between Jos and Ulrich Schafer, the man behind the Re-Scha products.

 For me, I had my own problems, similar to Jos, and similar to the rest of the country, perhaps even the whole of continental Europe .  Everybody was having a bad breeding season and I was no exception.  So on hearing what Jos had said , I decided to give it a go, as my thoughts were "You have just thrown out 118 eggs over the last two months, most of them addled, so what have you got to loose"??. In all the conversations which, I had with people I knew, that none of their suggestions had anything to do with my breeding problems. Cats,Mice Noise, Night Fright, Lights at night, change of diet, all of these were suggested, but none were the problem.

I had changed to all wire cages, but I knew that this was not the problem as the birds were straight down to nest and as I said , they laid 118 eggs in the first two rounds, from ten pairs.  What I did notice was that the embryos addled soon after they were fertilized. This was naturally more evident on round two, where I paid more attention to the particular time when the eggs turned.  From the 118 eggs 42 were clear and the balance of 76 were fertile, but not one of them hatched.  Most of the deaths were early in the development but some were close to fully formed

 I could come to only one conclusion, rather than an external problem, perhaps I had an internal one !!!.  While the birds were all together in the flights, or when they were paired up, had some pathogen wormed its self into my bird room? Was this a low level bacterial problem, whereby the birds looked fine and behaved fine but carried an elevated bug level or something.?  I was really grasping at straws, but I could not logically find another solution.

This led me, like Jos to try the Re-Scha products. I initially used the PT12 (Lactobacillus Salivarius) on its own mixed with the seed and soft food along with another product called Sintra. Both of these I fed everyday for10 days. I had also purchased a product called Panta 20. This is a vitamin and amino acid product, it is concentrated and I used it at a rate of 2ml to one liter of drinking water, initially three times a week. As I read more about the products and especially the Pt 12, I knew that I needed to step up its (Lactobacillus) growth rate ,and this would be achieved by the introduction of another product called "Frutin".  I was initially afraid of this product, because of all the Re-Scha products, this one had a sweet taste, and as we all know birds are funny about changes in routine and tastes.  But I need not have worried, I introduced the "Frutin"  coated seed to all the birds over a week, without the addition of the PT12, as per the manufactures instructions.  This gets the birds used to the sweet taste and you do not waste expensive PT12 in the  process. Now as I was so far behind in the breeding season I did not delay in the introduction of the complete range of Re-Scha products to breeding birds and non breeding birds........The transformation was simply startling !

Condition, Feather, Activity, Noise,went up a 100%, but the icing on the cake was the fertility went up and the addled eggs went down to a handful. I now have a very good '05  hen that I thought was past it  on her second round with five chicks in the nest, having already reared two chicks.  I use this hen as an example, because her first two rounds in March to May were all clear and addled...NO CHICKS !

I had a maiden hen which I bred last season,lay two clear rounds.....o.k was the cock to blame ??Maybe !  So I put her with a new cock from the flight who had been on the Re-Scha products for some two months.  Result ? six eggs, six full eggs. Another hen laid five eggs, the cock died after the third egg was laid. Result four full eggs four chicks, one transferred, and she raised three on her own.

This is a quote from an e-mail written by a visitor to my Bird Room recently:

"I met recently with Gerard Lanigan and having seen his birds, I am very impressed with their state of health and condition"

My Birds are healthy,my breeding season is saved, and I have some pretty good looking young ones to boot. I continue to administer PT12 once a week, and I now have a daily feeding regime which involves a mix of different Re-Scha products at a much more reduced rate than the first 14 day course.  For me it worked and I have the results to prove it. I now use PT12, Sintra, Panta 20, Frutin, and Frucht Mash on a daily and weekly basis in both the seed and soft food.

    I am placing my methods of feeding PT12 ,Sintra, Frutin, Frucht Mash and Panta 20 on the Download page

Gerard Lanigan 6th of August 2009....    NEW!                        Re-Scha Feeding Method Download

 Your Official Re-Scha Distributor for the UK and Ireland is:

Emerald Aviary Supplies Ballybay ,Co Monaghan...Tel 00-353-42-9741808

www.emeraldbudgerigars.4t.com.