Commercial Foods & questions..

[flappybird]

Thanks for the recommendation. If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up on ABBA as opposed to something like, say, Higgins Safflower Gold or something similar? Is it the extensive ingredient list and attractive price? I wonder about the mixes that have so many supplements, what's better? A simple list of foods or everything you can fit in a mix?

[Pajarita]

I have kept canaries my whole life -got my first Hartz Roller, a son of the South American champion, for my thirteenth birthday (his wife was a friend's of my mother and she knew about my love for birds) and I started breeding them (hardly ever do anymore) many years ago. Back then, there was no internet and we learned from mentors and by getting together and comparing notes on problems among the breeders. ABBA was founded by a NJ canary breeder and show judge years ago (his last name was Abbate and his son Michael is the president of the company now) and their food was recommended to me by my own mentor, Big Jim, over 30 years ago so it just followed that I bought their seed mixes for the parrots, too. You are going to see a lot of crappola listed under their ingredients list but, if you look carefully, you will see that all of it is in the little pellets they add to the seeds which the birds don't touch. I get the seed mixes (and other supplies like vitamins, nesting material, cages, toys, bowls, etc) directly from them at discounted prices because ABBA opens on Saturdays 8am to 12pm as a special favor to breeders that have been introduced by other breeders (meaning, it's mostly by recommendation) and this ensures that the seeds are always fresh (no sitting on a shelf anywhere). Michael has always been very generous to me (most people hate him as he can be incredibly rude and foul-mouthed but I have the thickest skin and don't take offense so we get along just fine) and even has had a special vitamin/mineral blend made especially for my sun conure with hemachromatosis by Roche (the same company that makes his own vitamin/mineral supplements). Plus, he sells me any seed I want separately by the pound so, if I want to add, say, more hemp to a mix during breeding season, all I have to do is get it.