Tag: Research

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The importance of good veterinary care

Sickness

It is common sense that birds can fall sick as every other living being. In that case, the intervention of a specialist, in our case an avian veterinarian, will be necessary.

Since all birds tend to camouflage disease until it is far advanced, the consulting veterinarian, preventive measures and constant monitoring an important role. By consistently keeping a record of this, one or more birds can be prevented from becoming incurable. Often it is not just about treating and saving one bird. If action is not taken in time, a disease can threaten the whole population.

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Medical research

We must be aware that there are thousands of bird species in the world, of which we know only a small proportion. As a result, there is a great lack of experience and knowledge. That is why ongoing research and preventive measures are so important. In addition to acute cases of disease being examined and treated by the veterinarian, it is important to perform regular checks such as periodic blood analyses, fecal checks, bacteriological and mycological samples (taken from the bird and its environment) and physical examination of the birds in order to learn more about the bird species and protect the population from disease.

Research

Besides the medical examinations needed to ensure the health of our birds, a lot of research is also required. This means that the veterinarian helps to formulate diets, plan breeding periods and develop hand rearing protocols and hygiene and quarantine protocols. The vet also trains our staff to recognize a sick bird and to observe and evaluate its behavior.

The housing of the birds is also crucial. Their environment should be adapted to the birds and not the other way around. The advice of the veterinarian with his experience and knowledge is therefore crucial for the welfare of our animals.

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Wisbroek R&D Center

Our advising veterinarian at the Wisbroek R&D Center, specialized in birds and reptiles, is Dr. med. Vet. Heiner Müller. Director and owner of the veterinary practice Exotengesundheitsteam in Germany.

He emphasizes that all the components described above are the best (preventive) medicine for a healthy collection. A healthy and well maintained population is a good basis to offer the animals a happy life and this will inevitably lead to breeding success!

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How can our pellets be used as a supplement?

Pellets

It’s a fact that some species of birds don’t like te eat pellets due to their feeding strategy. When this is the case, we need to use supplements to fulfill the gap of nutrients that the other foods present.

What if we could fulfill this gap with our pellets? I will give several examples:

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Inca Sternen

Shore birds, are fantastic flyers and basic fish eaters. At Wisbroek R&D Center, when we present them the fish we sprinkle Wisbroek Micro 22 over the fish. It’s a high quality extruded pellet that, when it gets in contact with the fish, will absorb some water of his body and gets glued to the fish! So when the sterns eat the fish, the pellets are also eaten! What’s really amazing is what we saw with our Incas at Wisbroek R&D Center: after some time the birds started to eat the Micro 22 dry that we offered in an extra dish! Probably because of the coating with fish oil, the taste pleases them. They are in a mixed aviary with Chilean Flamingos and we often see them eat the Wisbroek Ibis – Flamingo Floating as well, probably because it is also coated with fish oil. How awesome is this? Now we just present fish and pellets to them and they look perfect and are breeding as well!

Fruit eaters

Here the case is different. These birds should have pellets in their daily diet. The composition of the fruit present on the market is not even close to the ones they eat in the wild. However it is also known how difficult it is for some birds to feed them pellets. At Wisbroek R&D Center we also had some cases like that. So we thought in the possibility to use our Wisbroek Softbill Diet Small as a supplement over the fruit. It worked perfectly! Because it’s also a high quality extruded pellet, absorbs some water of the fruit and gets glued to the fruit.

Well, fruit they like, so when some pellets are glued to the fruit, they have no chance rather than eat everything! Because the pellets also taste like fruit, eventually they start to eat them dry as well. We just need to keep presenting them to the birds!

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Insectivores

Some insectivores like the Common Hoopoes or the Bee-eaters will for sure not eat pellets. But they love mealworms right? So what about just feeding the mealworms with the pellets? More information about this can be found in another blog, but to give an example this year we got a pair of Common Hoopoes with 9 babies. And they only eat the mealworms gut loaded with our Wisbroek Ibis-Flamingo Floating and Wisbroek Softbill Diet! Cool isn’t it?

(Blog: https://wisbroek.com/en/mealworm-nutrition-how-important-this-can-be-for-the-health-of-the-birds/

At the Wisbroek Research & Development Center, our most important task is keep researching the best ways to nourish a bird. Developing the highest quality feed is a precondition for success, but also brings a responsibility to research the best ways to feed those pellets. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this blog, because sharing knowledge is for sure one of the keys to success for the worldwide aviculture.

Do you have questions about this blog or our feed? Do not hesitate to ask your question via our website www.wisbroek.com or send a mail to info@wisbroek.com.