Lovitts Whistler brand treats

Clare · Post by **Clare** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 5:59 pm

Last night I bought a bag of 'whistler' veggie treats for parrots, which are made in Australia by Lovitts, and they had little webs, cocoons and crawling insects in the bag.

I also bought some whistler 'seed wheels' for wild parrots made by Lovitts a few weeks back that had mouldy dried fruit in them and lots of types of living insects.

I wondered if there are any food standards that manufacturers had to abide by in Australia. They list ingredients but no use by date. They also offer a money back guarantee if the parrot doesn't like them, but no contact phone number, only a website which is 'under construction' http://www.lovitts.com.au/

Has anyone else experienced this with this brand. I bought them at woolworths and coles.

Post by **Lauren** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 7:39 pm

Oh Yuk! Thanx for letting us know. I will watch out for 'Lovitts'. I would complain to them, or coles/woolies/safeway. Or if you wanted to go higher you could call comsumer affairs/office of fair trading?

Elizabeth · Post by **Elizabeth** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 9:19 pm

They are fodder moths. They get into any type of bird foods and so stores must be careful how they store stock. I had these in my rat seed. Some stores will spray something on the bags of food to keep the moths away but don't buy it, you don't know if the spray can harm your birds.

I have kept all my animal food in a cupboard together and not once have produced any fodder mioths. So this has to suggest that the stores aren't keeping the food safely.

I have bought the Whistlers treats and my IRN doesn't like them at all.

Clare · Post by **Clare** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:31 pm

Just for anyones info I emailed the company and they emailed back and will refund the cost. They said the contamination was the fault of the seed suppliers.

When I went back to the shop I got them from, I looked at the other packs and noticed some were not air tight and others were. and they looked very different, much bigger and darker. My pack wasn't sealed air tight. I bought another of the air tight packs and my two IRNs love them.

I have been looking for a treat to use for trick training for a while and I think I've found it.

Elizabeth · Post by **Elizabeth** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:16 pm

that's great.

Most packs are sealed but the actual zip lock is open inside the package. If its zipped closed someone has just done it themselves. The whole package should be sealed by machine.

Clare · Post by **Clare** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 11:49 pm

Lovitts sent me a refund today and with it they sent lots of free stuff - cage cleaner, bird vitamins, mite and lice spray and parrot treats.

About $30 worth of stuff, plus a $12 refund cheque. Plus, they sent it in a big yellow envelope which my birds went crazy over for half and hour, tearing in up and hiding inside.