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FEEDING
There is a popular proverb that shows the importance that a good and
balanced feeding has in lovebirds, and it is the following one:
“Birds breed by the beak”
This
must be considered as the first rule in the breeding of any kind of bird.
There are several seeds that constitute the lovebirds diet, being given in
the adequate proportions to avoid deficiencies or excesses. There are a
lot of recipes of these mixtures of seeds, in which every breeder or
feeding trademark puts a bit more of “salt in his food”.
One of the most used
seed mixtures
in Portugal is the following one:
|
Yellow
millet |
20% |
The quality of the seeds
The quality of the seeds is very
important for the welfare of the birds.
Being the seeds the base of the
birds feeding, the quality of them must be our main worry.
Some of the bird diseases are
transmitted through existing micro toxins and mites in bad quality
seeds, sometimes produced by a deficient storage of them by the
seller. Regarding the seeds, the cleaner and brighter, the better.
Seeds with mould must not be given
to the birds.
How many of us has not feel his hand
or arm itches turning the seeds over? This is the proof of the
existence of mites in them.
Select properly packed seeds, and
buy them in places where you know they have a good renovation of
stock, not buying old seeds that have lost its food value. |
|
White millet
|
12,5% |
|
Japanese
millet |
3% |
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Striped
sunflower |
15% |
White sunflower
|
7,5% |
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Canary seed |
12% |
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Safflower |
7,5% |
|
Peeled oats |
7,5% |
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Buckheat |
5% |
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Paddy rice |
3% |
|
Hempseed
|
3% |
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Linseed |
3% |
|
Niger seeds |
1% |
Another seed mixtures
used in Europe with very positive results and characterized by the absence
of sunflower seeds is the following one:
|
Yellow
millet |
36% |
Sunflower seeds
The sunflower seed is rich in grass,
and given in excess make birds get fatter decreasing their sexual
ardour.
Lovebirds are very intelligent and
very selective in their feeding, eating the most adequate seeds
according to the breeding period.
When I used to breed lovebirds in
my apartment, I put the sunflower seeds in a different feeding-box and
I saw that when pairs were about to breed, they ate less sunflower
seeds, even they stopped eating them; eating them again when they
started to feed the chicks. This fact it worked for me as an excellent
indicator of the breeding phase where each pair was. This fact helped
me in the sense that I had not to look in the cages constantly to know
if the pair had started the egg-laying, decreasing the stress of the
birds produced by the manipulation of the cages
|
|
White millet |
14% |
|
Japanese
millet |
4,5% |
|
Canary seed |
18% |
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Peeled oats |
9% |
|
Safflower |
4% |
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Buckwheat |
4% |
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Paddy rice |
3,5% |
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Hempseed |
2% |
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Linseed |
2% |
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Niger seeds |
3% |
It is very difficult to calculate the quantity of seeds to be given daily,
since it depends on several factors. It is better to blow the husks off
than to increase the number of seeds.
        
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RLD®
