ABOUT OPTIBIRD

What makes OptiBird® the better choice?

Nutritionally balanced

A complete mixture; fully covers the nutritional needs of the parrot. Insures your bird gets exactly the right nutrition to produce better feathering, brighter colors, and maintain excellent health. Will give a satirized feeling in time, so no chance of overeating out of boredom.

How to convert my bird to OptiBird?

The most important factor in determining whether your bird can switch to a balanced diet such as OptiBird™, is your conviction that it will eat a nutritious and balanced food. Buy OptiBird today and make sure your that your beloved bird gets the quality nutrition it deserves!

6 tips for a smooth conversion to OptiBird:

1. The slow “weaning” of seeds

At the evening remove the seeds from the bowl for only 1 hour and replace it by OptiBird™. The next day, give your bird seeds for only 30 minutes in the morning and evening. The third day, you reduce the time to just 15 minutes twice a day. And finally offer only OptiBird™ on the fourth day. Better yet to use the 33-day conversion schedule for a more gradual acclimatization to OptiBird™. Put this schedule next to the cage and start on Monday and the mark the consecutive days per day. Check your bird’s droppings for any detail during this period.

2. Change the environment of the bird

Try moving your bird into a new housing, such as a box or even a new cage. Remove all toys, perches and bowls and offer OptiBird™ on a flat surface on the floor / soil.

3. Use a mirror or white paper

The scattering of food on a mirror or a sheet of white paper placed on the bottom of the cage is especially useful for parakeets. A bird old enough to be socialized to eat wants to compete with the “rival” bird in the mirror. A white paper background will further highlight the OptiBird™ food particles.

4. Feed your bird during your own meals

Place food on a plate, stir with a finger or a spoon and pretend you eat it in front of your bird.

5. Use an already converted bird as a role model

If your bird houses near another bird already converted to a complete diet, you can use that bird as a “coaching” bird in the same cage as a role model for eating.

6. Moisten and/or warm food

Heat OptiBird™ and moisten it slightly with a small amount of juice.

If the above steps do not work, you can give the familiar food for a short period and then try again. The effort is well worth to the long-term health of your bird. Some birds recognize OptiBird ™ is not directly as food, and a gradually  and focused conversion will help your bird with a healthy transition.

Excellent taste

Unique taste of all the ingredients, the parrots just love it. Fruity flavor increases palatability, including a nice variety of components in the mixture.

Finest ingredients

With the use of the finest raw materials, such as Advanced Processed Cereals (APC) which are easily digestible.

With Crumlet™® Technology

Using our unique Crumlet™® Technology ensures a unique combination of structure and fibers. This leads to optimal digestion and gives the gizzard of the parrot enough work so it can retain its function.

Always fresh

Guaranteed fresh at all times due to high quality vacuum packaging with reclosable ZIP.

Stringent quality control standards

Manufactured in the Netherlands in a state of the art GMP+ (HACCP) accredited production facility.

Based on experience

Developed with avian veterinarians and leading nutritionists, extensively tested for more than 2 years.

WHY SWITCH TO OPTIBIRD?

Why should I switch to  a balanced diet such as OptiBird?

Because it is simple, safe and economical:

• no need for buying extra supplements or vitamins
• no cleaning or cutting food
• no mess in your kitchen
• less preparation time for the meals
• less food necessary
• no hulls or other waste and mess in the cage
• no problems and no worries: your bird will get all the nutrients it needs!

Most people feed seed mixtures, so that must be good for my bird…or not?

Seeds Blends naturally have a lack of key nutrients (nutrients) such as Lysine, Calcium, Phosphorus, Sodium, Magnesium, Zinc, Iron, Iodine, Selenium, Vitamins A, D, E and K, Riboflavin (vitamin B2), Pantothenic acid (Vit B5 ), Niacin, Vitamin B12 and Choline ¹. Besides the high fat content, making the bird susceptible to obesity can lead to low resistance to infections, other diet-related diseases and premature mortality. An unbalanced diet can also affect the breeding results.

¹ From: Formulated diets versus seed mixtures for psittacines. Authors: Ullrey, D.E., Allen M.E., Baer D.J. Quote: Journal of Nutrition in November 1991, 121 (11 Suppl): S193-205

But birds in the wild do eat seeds, don’t they?

As already mentioned, the birds in the wild eat a variety of foods such as seeds, flowers, buds, leaves, fruits, grasses, shrubs and insects depend on the seasonal availability and climate. Wild birds have a diet with more calories, simply because they use up much more energy spending on long flights.

Why just not add vitamins and mineral supplements to the seed diet?

There are manufacturers who have tried to coat the seeds with vitamins and minerals, however the bird dehulls the seed and will not get much of it inside. Did you know that 20-70% of the weight of the seeds exists from the inedible shells? Loose pellets with vitamins and minerals in the seed mix with these nutrients will generally be ignored by the bird. Adding powder will be the same, also ignored. The last option would be to add supplements to the water, but is never known exactly how much the bird gets ingested and adding to water increases the risk of bacterial infections. Even worse is overdosating,so the bird could be poisoned.

And fruits and vegetables then?

Although most fruits and vegetables are a healthy supplement to the diet of the bird, it is wise not to give more than 15% of the daily diet. Some fruits and vegetables are high in sugar and carbohydrates and lack important nutrients. And because they add mass and fiber, the bird will get satirized and the important and nutritious part of the diet will be skipped (preferably a complete feed such as OptiBird).

CRUMLET TECHNOLOGY

What is Crumlet™ Technology and why do we use it?

Crumlet Technology allows a milder processing of the feed preserving some nutrients that are destroyed by the higher temperatures and pressures of extrusion. These nutrients can be added in exc ess before extrusion or supplemented by application of nutrients after extrusion to overcome this issue, but we prefer to avoid the lack of control inherent in these processes where we can.

Reducing our carbon footprint

Crumlet Technology results in a denser pellet than is generally produced by extrusion. This allows the use of less packaging material and requires less storage space for the same weight of food. This results in less environmental impact from packaging manufacture and disposal and in easier handling all the way from us to you. The third reason for using Crumlet Technology is that it saves energy compared to extrusion. The Crumlet Technology process uses many times less energy than extrusion of the same amount of feed. This is, again, an environmental concern.

Unique production method for a healthier bird

So Crumlet™ Technology is a unique production method which is beneficial to the birds digestive system. This production method gives an end product which is rich from fibers and structure which areessential to a healthy digestion. The use of Crumlet™ Technology in OptiBird® also prevents the absorption of gastric juices in the stomach which leads to a more evenly release of all the nutrients in the food. OptiBird® distinguishes itself with Crumlet™ Technology by the fact that it has been produced at max. 75 Celsius and has not been extruded. The use of a low temperature during production prevents the ingredients from damage or nutrient loss due to excess heating. Besides this positive effect of low temperature production on the nutrients, we also use much less energy during our Crumlet™ Technology production process compared with other production methods. As said before, in this way we minimize our carbon footprint as well.

ADVANCED PROCESSED CEREALS

What are Advanced Processed Cereals and why do we use it?

These are specially treated cereals to enhance the digestibility of OptiBird. In the early days of extruding the motivation to do so was to increase the digestibility of the carbohydrates (grains). But nowadays it is possible to process the grains in advance. Because the digestibility of the other raw material (proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and trace elements) will not be increased by expanding or extruding, it does not make any sense to extrude all ingredients. This production method has become unnecessary and can even be judged negatively!The health of your bird is our first and foremost priority. Therefore we use only Advanced Processed Cereals (APC) in combination with our Crumlet™ Technology in OptiBird® to ensure maximum digestibility!