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About Us

We are a firm that recognizes and affirms the unique and intrinsic worth of each bird and companion pet.  To that cause, we act with absolute honesty, integrity, and fairness in the way we conduct our business and the way we live our lives.  It is the policy of National Bird Designs, Inc. to provide products and services to the market that meet or exceed the reasonable expectations of our customers.  Satisfying our customers with the appropriate level of quality products and service is a primary goal and a fundamental element of our business. 

Avian probiotics

About Founder & History

As an avid and world-respected aviculturist, having successfully kept and bred canaries for the competitive arena for well over 50 years, I must state that I owe much of my success on the show bench to the study of the history and evolution of domestic canaries, genetics, and nutritional research.  It is that research that made me realize that there were some items missing that could play an important role in improving the health of and increasing the longevity of domestic and captive birds.

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My goal at the time was not to simply own birds but to breed those birds in captivity. It was also important, I felt, to breed toward a standard or ideal, if you will. My goal was also to breed from the healthiest specimens to ensure improved, high-quality, healthy birds, generation upon generation upon generation. I firmly believe that this should be the same goal for all bird owners who want to go beyond just having a pet. This was the original basis behind the formation of a new entity that would be named National Bird Designs.

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National Bird Designs was founded over 48 years ago in 1976. This was when, along with a friend, designed and authored two publications. One is known as “The Master Portfolio of Type Canary Standards” and the other is “The Blueprint Standards of Canary Perfection” which were conceived and designed, then published and marketed.  Both received worldwide recognition and were used by many prominent judges and breeders of the time and are still used today.  Due to tremendous requests, both publications are undergoing serious revisions and will be available again very soon. Over the years, National Bird Designs, Inc. has been called upon many times by major bird organizations to design their club logos and newsletters. Shown below is the symbol and design for the National Cage Bird Show Club which is just one of our designs that is still being used by that organization to this day. 

Avian probiotics

In the “informative” years with canaries, I also developed various, ever-changing diet formulations utilizing the finest of ingredients.  I also participated in experiments and controlled studies with world-renowned avian veterinarian, Dr. Theodore J. LaFeber Sr., resulting in the development, manufacture, and introduction of the extruded pellet bird diet for the first time to the public.

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With continued research, it was found that birds that are in captivity. no matter how good the diet plan is, you will still experience tremendous periods of stress depending on the season.  Studies on the value of probiotics commenced to find a way to be ‘proactive’ with birds instead of reactive.  It seemed bird owners were spending more time and money reacting to bird illnesses that most certainly manifested due to a compromised immune system that developed from those stresses. 

 

Working with microbiologists and DVMs at various laboratories throughout America, the discovery of a laboratory that had developed a viable probiotic was found.  After continued research and numerous controlled studies with various breeds of birds, this probiotic had indeed proved successful enough to be brought to the marketplace under the name, AVI-CULTUR-1-Billion by my then-associate in the early 80s.

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Well over 20 years ago long after my associate discontinued marketing his AVI-CULTUR-1-Billion, I then acquired the name from the person his business was passed on to, I aligned myself with another team of microbiologists and requested samples and again did many studies before requesting from this lab an exclusivity for the cage-bird marketplace to begin marketing a gluten-free, dairy-free and GMO-free, avian-specific probiotic and after even more significant studies by other vets and a new logo, AVI-CULTURE was launched in January 2003 with a net presence commencing on the 23rd of January. Even though AVI-CULTURE was being offered via its website, distributors & veterinarians, it was brought before the public for the first time in October of 2003 with a booth at the Great American Bird Show.  It was in March of 2004, that National Bird Designs incorporated its business in the State of Illinois.

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In 2005, with the assistance of Marketing Manager, Rowena Abadilla, a new National Bird Designs logo and new bottle labels were conceived as a new marketing approach that would increase exposure, sales, and worldwide distributorship. After receiving a federal registration for the AVI-CULTURE logo trademark from the U. S. Office of Patents & Trademarks in April 2006 and a newer website and a vigorous marketing strategy, we were well on our way to the next level of growth.

 

In November of 2006, with a larger booth to include improved graphics, signage, and displays, National Bird Designs, Inc. appeared at its first National Cage Bird Show held in Schaumburg, Illinois.  It proved to be a phenomenal success.  Success to us is more than just brand recognition but more importantly, probiotic awareness.  From day one, we've firmly believed that an educated consumer would always be our best customer.

 

In October of 2009, after much research and thought process to offer a high-quality probiotic for cats and dogs, we are proud to announce the expansion of our product line. On December 6, 2009, we officially launched the PRO-LIF™ line of probiotics. The PRO-LIF™ product line is a 4-strain, highly palatable, gluten-free & dairy-free probiotic that offers a totally holistic approach to ensuring each pet will have the highest quality digestive system that in turn will help develop a strong immune system in dogs, puppies, cats, and kittens.

 

On September 4th, 2010, we officially launched the PRO-LIF™ line of probiotics for Reptiles & Amphibians with the very same desire of introducing yet another fine, species-specific probiotic that would assist in improving and maintaining the health of reptiles and amphibians along with all other such related companion pets.

 

On March 1st, 2012, after over 10 years of marketing the original 4-strain AVI-CULTURE which was an improvement over the first version of AVI-CULTUR-1-Billion which had only one strain of non-colonizing bacterium back in the early 1980's, we officially disassociated ourselves with the lab we were using.

 

We aligned ourselves with a more progressive laboratory with tremendous advancements in probiotic and symbiotic technology. A lab that was able to provide us with a significantly more potent and more effective probiotic made for the avian vertical market to now include chickens or rather poultry of all types, pigeons of all types, and gamebirds of all types! 

 

With the introduction of a prebiotic, our product now becomes a symbiotic with the concept from day one to eliminate all potential allergens to bring a totally allergen-free symbiotic to our new customers and all continual users of our original AVI-CULTURE our brand new, highly effective, AVI-CULTURE-2™ and we're keeping it at the same price!

 

In essence, we've doubled the number of strains by adding 4 additional strains of beneficial bacteria for a total of 8, then increased the C.F.U.'s per gram astronomically, and as a final touch, we blended in Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) being the most common prebiotic that will allow the stomach and bile-resistant 8 strains to arrive in the intestine and start populating or colonizing as rapidly as possible! The only additional ingredient is a plant-based Magnesium stearate as an anti-caking agent. There is no yeast, no whey, no fillers, no soil, dirt, sand, coloring agents, or additives in AVI-CULTURE-2™ thus keeping it as we originally intended it to be, as pure as possible!   AVI-CULTURE-2™ is also Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Wheat-free, Corn-free, Soy-free, Egg-free, Sugar-free, Yeast-free, Preservative-free and GMO-free! GMO-free! In fact, it's totally allergen-free!

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IN EARLY 2016 THE BEST BECAME BETTER!! Yes, we felt it was time for improvement! It's been proven that the more strains of beneficial bacteria in a formula the more potent it would be and the better it is at building a strong immune system!!  To that end, we introduced the IMPROVED LIVE, GMO-FREE, 100% ORGANIC AVI-CULTURE-2-PLUS™ by adding 2 more strains of beneficial bacteria for a total of 10, then increased the C.F.U.'s per gram to over 5 billion and eliminated the added sugar contained in Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and eliminated the anti-caking agent, Magnesium stearate. What it amounts to is a pure, more potent, highly effective avian-specific probiotic consisting primarily of 10 strains of beneficial bacterium in a Prebiotic carrier of 100% GMO-FREE, 100% ORGANIC brown rice Maltodextrin.

 

Nothing else is added because nothing else is needed! What we have here is a 10-strain, LIVE, 100% GMO-FREE, 100% ORGANIC, an avian-specific probiotic that is hypoallergenic, containing no yeast, no whey, no fillers, no soil, dirt, sand, coloring agents or additives in the NEW AVI-CULTURE-2-PLUS™ thus keeping it as we originally intended it to be: as pure as possible!

 

On November 1st, 2016, we went even better! We introduced the NEW AND IMPROVED AVI-CULTURE-2-PLUS™ which now contains 14 RAW, 100% GMO-FREE, 100% ORGANIC Essential Enzymes and Amino Acids and is Dairy-free, Gluten-free, Wheat-free, Corn-free, Soy-free, Egg-free, Sugar-free, Yeast-free, Preservative-free, Synthetic vitamin and mineral-free, Allergen-free, and FOS-free! 

JUNE 2023 – A NEW AND IMPROVED AVI-CULTURE-2-PLUS

The latest great news is that AVI-CULTURE-2-PLUS™ has been improved yet again in mid-2023! We have replaced the brown rice Maltodextrin with 100% GMO-free, 100% ORGANIC TAPIOCA MALTODEXTRIN. Why? To eliminate the possibility of arsenic in the rice which is normally absorbed from the soil it was grown in! Absolutely nothing else was changed to make the best even better! 

The Trusted Source

We recognize and affirm the unique and intrinsic worth of all birds in captivity.  To that cause, we act with absolute honesty, integrity, and fairness in the way we conduct our business and the way we live our lives.  It is the policy of National Bird Designs, Inc. to provide products and services to the market that meet or exceed the reasonable expectations of our customers.  Satisfying our customers with the appropriate level of quality products and service is a primary goal and a fundamental element of our business.

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In the future, we hope to add other products and features that will help this become your choice of sites for information relating to natural avian and companion pet health-related products and publications.  We are committed to providing the most comprehensive and informative website on the Internet dedicated to offering the finest products that will ensure quality health in birds and companion pets to ensure improvement upon the breeds.

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Donald Perez, President - NATIONAL BIRD DESIGNS, INC.

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