Rob Marshall's guidelines

[rancho2]

Dr. Marshall's instructions re breeding birds is to use his products 2 days a week with other supplements on seeds/soft food daily. Would it be overkill to use anything else during the week like extra calcium in the water or featherfast?

[MiaCarter]

That's a great question.

I'd look at the ingredients of the products you're using and just look for redundancy.

I use lots of Dr Rob Marshall's products, but not the entire suite. And I'm not good at recalling specific ingredients off the top of my head.

So I'd just look to see if any of the ingredients have Calcium in any significant amounts. If not, I think it would be safe to give Calcium.

I'd do the same with Feather Fast. I'd look at the ingredients and compare with others you're giving to see if there's overlap. If not, it should be okay.

[rancho2]

I've not been able to find info on how much of each ingredient is used in each 'serving.' I will go ahead and supplement a few more times a week with the calcium at least since one of them is laying eggs now. thanks miacarter

[debbie276]

As a general rule of thumb, you should not mix brands because you could very easily over supplement your birds. So if your using Dr Marshall's products I would just stick with those and not mix and match, likewise if your using Morning Bird products etc.

[Corkysgirl]

debbie276 is right. Because I don't know which products of Dr. Rob's you're referring to it's hard to really answer your question without seeing ingredients, but I know that it's risky not to really do research because you could give your birds toxic levels of some vitamins. Feather Fast in addition to another vitamin supplement could be giving double doses. There was someone recently on this forum doing that exact thing. Calcium wouldn't be such an issue as other vitamins. Either stick with one protocol or make sure you check daily allowances of each vitamin.

[Corkysgirl]

Here is a very interesting link on Morning Birds products chart that shows which products you can and can't use together because they will cause an interaction. I realize this doesn't answer the whole question involving Dr. Marshall's protocol but it has good info and it may be useful. I'm happy I found it because I questioned of few of these at various times. I found the answers but had to research. Much better to have a chart for easy reference. http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=17705

[rancho2]

I've got the chart but thought it was meant for the things that can and cannot be used together at one time. the marshall protocol is for 2 days a week. i would like to add, at the very least, a couple of days of calcium in the water since they're laying eggs now. the problem i have with marshall's products are that i can't find any info on the percentages of vites/minerals, etc., used in those products. other than that i like them very much. most companies list the ingredients. thanks to all for the input!