My schedule is such that I find I have a limited amount to time to spend preparing special meals for my birds. At this time the birds get the essentials and that is about it. For the most part, my birds appear to be very healthy.

A few years ago I had some very young birds die soon after leaving the nest box. I took one in particular, I thought to possibly have trichomoniasis, to our county department veterinarian laboratory for a pathology report.

To my surprise I was told that the bird died from a deficiency of vitamin "A" and not what I had expected to be the problem. This was good news in that it was an easy fix. I contacted a local veterinarian and author, Dr. Gray Gallerstein, publisher of "The Complete Bird Owner's Handbook," who recommended that I feed sweet potato as a source of vitamin A. Other fruits and veggies also have this important vitamin but the sweet potato has the greatest concentration.

Most of the markets are unable to supply the sweet potato throughout the entire year. I have found that the health food markets are able to do what the general markets are not. I have been able to purchase sweet potato whenever I have a need.

All of my birds are provided raw sweet potato a couple of times a month. I have a fairly heavy gage piece of wire hooked to the existing wire portion of the door into the flight, where I push the whole potato. I slice small pieces for each of the breeding cages also.

Another source of vitamins is a product by KAYTEE, Perchmate Parakeet mix. I am not sure how much of the vitamins I can smell within the bag are getting into the bird's digestive system, but the opportunity is there and that for now is the best I can do. If you know of other sources for vitamins, please share.

* FYI * I also provide whole raw carrots and corn. They love these too.

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to send a note to Greg as he is always happy to help.