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Supplements for Birds

For specific information on supplements for your bird such as ingredient listings, nutritional benefits and availability, visit our Bird Supplements pages. To navigate the supplement faqs, click on the topic question.

Questions

    1. How much PRIME should I feed to my bird?
    2. How much PRIME should I feed to a large flock?
    3. Can we overdo supplementing PRIME?
    4. How to offer PRIME to a bird that doesn’t eat a lot of fruits and veggies (such as budgies or finches)?
    5. Grit for birds?
    6. Does PRIME have animal meat/poultry in the ingredients?
    7. Acidifier in PRIME for a quaker with gout?
    8. Can PRIME be administered to game birds?
    9. Do our companion birds need a “detox”?

How much PRIME should I feed to my bird?

Provided inside all packages of PRIME is a 1 cc scoop measurement.There is a bevel mark for a half dose: 0.5cc (0.275 g) or full dose: 1cc (0.55g)/1 scoop.

Dosage of PRIME

The correct dosage of PRIME is based on a bird’s overall diet and on the size/weight of the bird.* For all birds whether a budgie or macaw eating a predominantly seed diet (or less than our recommended 70% extruded (Tropican):

  • Large parrots (like a scarlet macaw, blue & gold macaw, or a cockatoo), give 1 and ½ cc measure (so 1 and ½ level scoops) to that bird each day sprinkled on his fruits and veggies.
  • Medium sized parrots (such as an African grey or most Amazon species), give 1 cc daily (so just one level scoop) sprinkled on their fruits or veggies.
  • Smaller birds (such as budgerigars, love birds, cockatiels, parrotlets, linoleates, and finches), only need half a scoop daily sprinkled on fruits and veggies or other moistened enrichments foods they will consume happily.

For birds that consume primarily extruded formulas, feed no more than 3 to 4 x per week. Feed daily when moulting. A veterinarian exam should be considered periodically to evaluate the bird’s assimilation of the supplements offered.

*A supplement may not be needed when feeding a primarily extruded diet (over a seed based/raw food diet) as a formulated diet can ensure complete nutrition. See the Tropican feeding guide for more information.

Before administering PRIME or any supplement you should speak with your Avian vet. DO NOT OVER DOSE.

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How much PRIME should I feed to a large flock?

It is difficult to make an exact recommendation for PRIME with multiple inhabitants in a flight due to unknown serving distribution. You must consider many factor: species of birds in the flight (bird size/weight), diet (primarily seed based or over 70% formulated extruded), season (moulting), age/ life stage, reproductive activity, etc.

For example, with a flight of 15 cockatiels on a seed-based diet, a suggested dose might be ¼ cc per bird. So, 4 level scoops (4 cc) 4 x per week. But this would change if the birds in the flight were scarlet macaws. The suggested dose would then be 12 cc.

For birds that consume primarily extruded formulas, feed no more than 3 to 4 x per week. Feed daily when moulting. A veterinarian exam should be considered periodically to evaluate the bird’s assimilation of the supplements offered.

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Can we overdo supplementing PRIME?

The answer is YES. More is not better, and you must take care not to over supplement your bird. If you bird is on a fortified extruded diet with very little to no enrichment foods, then care should be taken. Speak with your Avian vet before administering PRIME.

A supplement may not be needed when feeding a primarily extruded diet (over a seed based/raw food diet) as a formulated diet can ensure complete nutrition. See the Tropican feeding guide for more information.

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How to offer PRIME to a bird that doesn’t eat a lot of fruits and veggies (such as a budgie or finch)?

For smaller birds such as budgies, cockatiels, finches and canaries as well as birds that don’t eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, offering PRIME sprinkled on a wet piece of lettuce or kale, millet, or canned/dried mealworms are good methods to ensure your little companions receive their required dose. See blog post Foraging Enrichment: Using Prime Supplement Efficiently for fun and creative strategies for encouraging PRIME consumption.

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Grit for birds?

Q: Do I need to provide grit separately with seed mix foods? If so, does HARI offer grit?

A: The purpose of grit, for most cage or companion birds is to provide the bird that eats a primary seed based diet with a calcium source and a substance that benefits proper digestion. For years the avian community deemed this part of the bird as a necessary supplement as the grit aided in gut motility. However, grit is a supplement that can be a bit dangerous if the bird consumes too much in that too much grit will cause an impaction in the crop. Please see our post on that explains “pica”. We no longer recommend traditional grit and instead suggest Clay-Cal Enriched Clay Supplement. Clay-Cal supplements calcium and aids in digestion. Clay-Cal will help neutralize the digestive tract and provide better nutrient absorption. Clay-Cal can be offered 1 or 2x a week to most birds.

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Does PRIME have animal meat/poultry in the ingredients?

Q: I am allergic to meat and poultry products. I have an Indian Ringneck and I bought PRIME  for her health. I wanted to make sure it does not have any animal meat/poultry before I start using it.

A: Thank you for contacting us with your concerns and questions on PRIME Vitamins for your Indian Ringneck. If she’s on a seed based diet with less than 70% of pellets, PRIME will indeed be beneficial in supplying the necessary nutrients she requires. To answer your questions about poultry and meat ingredients, while we do not have those ingredients, the Vitamin D3, which is required by your bird, is a highly purified animal product derived from lanolin. And, PRIME is handled in a plant that has egg products.

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Acidifier in PRIME for a quaker with gout?

Q: Reading your PRIME Supplement for Birds brochure (second paragraph, first sentence), it states that the supplement with various acids slightly acidify the final mixture.

My concern is the amount of acidification. My 10 year old Quaker Parakeet is recovering from a severe attack of Gout. To had been on a diet for several years of 70% Zupreem Natural and fresh vegetables and fruits when he had the attack that lasted two months before being correctly diagnosed.  Since the diagnosis of Gout a month ago, I have taken him totally off pellets (source of constant protein), and placed him on a mixture of seeds, and more fresh & cooked vegetables, grains, and fresh fruits that are low in purines, lower in proteins, and more alkaline forming than acidifying. This is the diet I have ascertained to be the best for birds with gout. He now has an avian uvb light because he is not getting the balanced nutrition of pellets.

Since this change in diet, he has made a great recovery, no itching, pain, or plucking which was due to the gout attack, certified by (our) Avian Veterinarian, Dr. Teresa Lightfoot by blood test, radiographs discovering gout crystals, and examination. I have found your PRIME supplement for birds to be the best on the market. I know that being on a seed diet without pellets, my Quaker Parakeet needs a vitamin-mineral supplement. Can you tell me if the acidifying affect in your PRIME supplement would be safe for a Quaker Parakeet with a history of gout? I have read that I should stay away from giving him foods that have an acidifying effect on his body. Thank you for your time, and your wonderful product!

A: Thank you for reaching out to us with your concerns on the acidity levels in our PRIME. We are very happy to hear that your Quaker is doing better and that you are implementing our product with his diet and this appears to be successful! And, we do understand your concerns. We have a rather large flock of Quakers at HARI, spanning many generations, that are constantly monitored for conditions such as gout. And, yes, over the years, our research in psittacine nutrition studies has taught us to modify our feeding regime from High Performance Tropican(higher protein values) to our Lifetime Tropican. Health monitoring is constant with regular histopathology and lab work.
To answer your question on the acidity, the acidity level is less than 5% (having an impact of less than 1 ppm on ph factor) and it is primarily derived from the citric used in PRIME. This value has little effect on avian species as their gizzard is naturally acidic in comparison to other animal species. In addition, the acidifiers mentioned in the pamphlet also refer to the overall (not high/not low) condition of the bird’s digestive system. The beneficial bacteria in PRIME and if you should consider other probiotic products for that matter, prefers a slightly acidic environment to flourish and aid digestion. And, the easier a food is to digest, the more efficient the nutrient assimilation. This point is very important as your Quaker, while afflicted with gout, is obtaining his amino acids (for proper protein) from a seed based diet with supplement. We encourage your feedback and would really appreciate any updates. We’d like to recommend a fairly new supplement in our family of HARI Approved products for your Quaker, and that is our Clay-Cal. This product is based the absorption and adsorption properties of healing clay therapy with montmorillonite clay.  For more information, please read this blog post.

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Can PRIME be used for game birds?

Q. I want to know if we can use PRIME Supplement for a game bird, Black Francolin (partridge)? Is it useful for Single Bird or for Pair of Bird? What dosage/serving you recommend for bird(black francolin)? What temperature do you recommend for storing PRIME?

A. Our studies on the efficacy & benefits of PRIME are with psittacines for the companion bird industry and not on game birds. Therefore, it would be difficult for us to give advice on the use of PRIME for game birds. However, we have had a few poultry farmers or hobbyist ask us for advice on using PRIME with chickens. PRIME does provide an excellent source of calcium and the other ingredients seem to be beneficial for this use. PRIME can be and should be stored in a cool dry place to protect the nutrients and probiotics, flavor and composition-no colder than 1 C (34F) and no hotter than 26C (80F).

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