Since starting the Budgerigar
World magazine in 1982, I have interviewed hundreds
of very good breeders in their aviaries in many parts
of the world all have contributed good ideas. Occasionally
I come across a few breeders who seem to think more
deeply than their contemporaries. One such breeder
appeared recently when I went to see Daniel Lütolf
in Würenlos, close to Zürich. Lütolf
has that special eye that sees far ahead of the current
ideal representations of the day. He sees what is
beyond what is currently being bred and winning on
the show bench. Harry Bryan in the UK had that ability,
as does Jo Mannes in Germany and Henry George in Australia,
to name a few.
Lütolf is 35 years of age and has been breeding
birds since he was 11. A great deal of time and money
was spent with little success until he purchased birds
from Heinrich Ott, a top Swiss breeder. Heinrich Ott
treated him very well, selling him stock, which bred
superbly and produced his early winners. The pedigree
background to Heinrichs stock was based on Omerod
and Sadler blood. Lütolfs career is as
a teacher, he teaches senior pupils in maths, geography
and history. He travels extensively, going overseas
to far off places so that he can pass on his experiences
to his pupils, but he never forgets his birds at home
and the friends at home whom he trusts to look after
his birds safely, and he gives a big thank you to
them.
The Lütolf aviary is split into three levels
because of the steep gradient of his home. It is modest
in presentation, but the birds are exceptional in
quality...but difficult to buy if you strive for the
best. Lütolf realised early, that he needed to
design a bird to be ahead of others. This came from
his ability to carve and paint. I like big birds
in proportion to their length. I knew that the 8 1/2
INS, small Budgerigar, in todays exhibition
world (216mm) was useless, he said. All
top birds of today require a longer 91/2 ins (241mm)
length to get the bird in balance, coupled with the
shoulder substance that is required. The shorter length
results in a bird with no substance and is completely
out of date if you wish to win on the show bench,
irrespective of your chosen variety. He continued,
It is your choice, as a Beginner into which
direction you go as you breed and as you create YOUR
designer bird. You have to focus on that and set higher
standards every season. I have always selected birds
with big feet, but careful in my choice of breeding
hens. I select birds with very big bone structure
that are thick in the neck area. Interestingly, such
birds create a problem that many of us are familiar
with. This is the problem of todays rings being
too small for the bigger birds of today, and such
rings have to be cut off before serious damage is
done! Every year I was forced to cut off rings. I
now get rings allocated officially that are larger
in diameter at 4.4mm. They are perfect and there are
no further problems for the birds and are accepted
on the show bench.THE COLOURS
The colour range that Lütolf has is broad. There
are Spangles, all the normals and some wonderful Violets,
Olives, Lutinos, Texas Clearbodies, Yellows, Dilutes
and Recessives. All mouth watering quality. He is
now starting to attack the Clearwing variety. To
improve any variety says Lütolf, you
have to pair them at the start to your very best birds.
This is what Reinhard Molkentin did, followed by Jo
Mannes with the very small Spangles that arrived in
Germany years ago. To improve the recessive varieties,
Clearbodies and Lutinos, I pair them to Spangles.
The Spangle variety will improve such varieties considerably.
Always remember that if you want to improve a rare
variety you have to pair them to the best you have
and if necessary go out and find super bird mo matter
what its colour happens to be.
PAIRING
Unlike the majority of breeders today, Lütolf
breaks away from the conventional way of pairing normals
together. He mixes many colour factors together continuously.
Buying a pure bred is therefore difficult, but if
the quality is in front of you, you take a different
view. He never breeds two super birds together, or
inbreeds, to avoid any feather problems or cysts.
Nature does not select pairings as we do as fanciers.
Lütolf also watches the mixed sexes and ages
of the birds in the flights. The practice of having
the sexes separate in different flights, he feels,
encourages homosexuality and the following effect
of cocks being afraid of certain hens that are perhaps
aggressive by nature. Hence infertile eggs. If he
sees a pair making up, then the chances are they will
go straight into a breeding cage and they breed.
Lütolf is also critical of the standard practice
we follow of pairing our Greens together and our Skyblues
together and so on. He believes in mixing the colours,
but in addition he uses the grey factor frequently,
across the colours, a view held by Harry Bryan but
not Dr. Alfred Robertson of South Africa, the well-known
breeders of their period. To support his views, Lütolf
will buy an outcross, breed with it and very often
sell it immediately. It has left its blood behind
and served its purpose.
LIGHTING PERIODS
The breeding room has a very powerful extraction system
and recently a superb timed spray system developed
by Sigbert Pestringer, to remove dust. The aviary
always feels fresh. The lighting routine is interesting.
Lights come on at 07.00 hours. The birds emerge to
excrete and mate. They go off again at 13.30 hours
and come on again at 15.45 hours. This follows a resting
period that the observant will see easily in their
own studs. At 15.45 hours they again mate with the
light coming on until 23.30 hours.
FEEDING
Avoiding discussion about the normal feeding procedures,
Lütolf prefers to feed natural products as well
as seed etc. Hormova is the only manufactured product
used together with various natural vitamin sources.
Water is often changed twice daily to which is added
a small dash of vinegar and lemon. This lowers
the possible rise in bacterial infections. When
breeding, the canary seed is increased. When not breeding,
the millets have the upper hand. He feels that small
sunflower gets the stock too fat.
We now come to vegetables. The range is very extensive
and remarkable. Everything comes from the local market.
Lütolf checks that none have been sprayed with
pesticides and he uses natural food only.
Fennel, peppers, carrots, blackberries, broccoli,
cauliflower, uncooked beetroot, grape leaves, tinned
maize, and parsley to name most of them. All are chopped
and desiccated, and when finished, some 10mls of olive
oil is added and mixed in. Apple slices are dropped
onto the flight floor. I wondered what else olive
oil could be used for ? When chicks turn white
for no reason I give one drop to the beak and they
return to normal colour. However I do not know why
he added. The credit for this belongs to Reinhard
Molkentin, not myself. Continuing, soaked wheat and
oats are fed on alternate days. Tree branches are
always in the flights and changed regularly.
CONCLUSION
Please accept these Lütolf birds are very big
and my concluding comment is that the Daniel Lütolf
quality of birds in depth, in the top
range, is one of the best I have seen anywhere in
recent years.
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