Dave Cottrell

Part 1

  Until a couple of years ago, I had a number of Pet shops in North Wales, plus a thriving mail-order business, supplying fancier’s requisites all over the world. However I have suffered from asthma for many years, and with my symptoms getting progressively worse, my specialists and doctors advised that I should reduce the stress in my life, and remove as many of the trigger symptoms from my day to day environment. As I react strongly to any type of animal fur, but not feathers, I decided to close down my shops, lease out the property and take things a little easier. I ensured this did not effect my own birds or the very many pleasurable weekends spent each year in friendly company judging shows around the country.

  What this did do, was to release a vast amount of time, not previously available, which now allows a much more thorough commitment to my birds.

  I have kept Budgerigars since the mid-1970’s, and looking back over the last 20 plus years, I now realise that I have been guilty of the “they bred despite my interventions, not because of my attention” syndrome affecting many more fanciers than those brave enough to admit their shortcomings.

  With time much less of a problem, my day to day routine is designed around my desire to spend much more time actually with my birds than was ever possible in the past. Being at home all day, I now check my birds twice daily, in the morning, from about 8.30 am until 10 am, and then in the early evening for an hour before my evening meal. This suits my needs as well as the birds, and also allows long periods of the day when they remain undisturbed.

  The morning is my time to change all of my drinkers. I do this daily, as I use water-based supplements on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and I feel much happier if these are offered in cleaned and disinfected water founts.

  Over the years, I have tried more additives than most chemist shops have on their shelves.  However, I am now using 3 water soluble Vydex supplements that have proven to be most suitable since I first introduced them to my birds. When I first heard about Vydex supplements, I was encountering severe problems with fertility and sickness, and decided to try the three supplements as a result of them being highly recommended by Brian Byles, a good friend and experienced Champion Breeder. I now offer my birds, Entrodex, Ascorbivite and Carbosol in the same drinking water, all three supplements being added to the drinking water 3 times a week. I add to each litre of tap water, one teaspoon (5gms) of Entrodex, one teaspoon of Ascorbivite and four teaspoons (20gms) of Carbosol, with plain untreated tap water offered on the remaining days of the week except for any birds being sent to shows.

  Entrodex is one of the modern Probiotics that are designed to correct an imbalance of the harmful bacteria found in the gut of the bird. A regular dosing helps prevent problems caused by stress or sickness. Stress is one of the worst enemies in aviculture, and will quickly cause problems with Budgerigars, especially the large sized birds required for exhibition.  I have been using a Probiotic since the early 1980’s when I had serious problems with green droppings in my show team. I found that by offering a probiotic the day before, and for two days after their return, this seemed to correct the problem, and my birds appeared fully recovered almost as soon as they were returned to their stock cages.

  Ascorbivite is a rich source of vitamin C which helps in boosting the birds immune system. It has been shown to improve the management of stress in birds, and will also help the birds absorb the benefits from the other supplements that much quicker.

  Carbosol is a soluble carbohydrate loading booster, something that is recognised in many different fields of achievement whether it be professional football or rugby players, racing greyhounds, horses or pigeons, or Olympic athletes, rowers or boxers. Increases of up to 33% in endurance capacity and almost 50% improvement in muscle glycogen levels were recorded in studies into high carbohydrate loading diets, and my birds became a lot more active and vocal within a few weeks of the addition of Carbosol to their diet. Being a slow release source of dietary energy it means that my birds are now bouncing fit and active in the flights all day long. 

  My first full year in semi-retirement has proved to be highly successful with my birds, both in terms of numbers bred, and quality produced. I have struggled to breed from the best of my Recessive Pieds since the start of the 1990’s, producing just the odd youngster from the odd pair, and as a result, came very close to loosing my 1990 Convention Winning line. 1998 and 1999 saw the problem corrected, with some of my best Pieds and Dark Eyed Clears producing good numbers of quality youngsters, especially hens. I have high hopes for the 2000 breeding season, and look forward to the new challenges in the breeding cage with anticipation.