Kaytee is a company based in Chilton, Wisconsin

Chilton, Wisconsin

Chilton is a city in and county seat of Calumet County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 3,708 at the 2000 census. The city is located partially within the Town of Chilton.-History:...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is a national supplier of bird seed.

History

Kaytee was formed in 1866 by William N. Knauf and Frank Tesch (K & T) as a feed mill supplying seed to farmers. In 1920, the company became a national supplier of pea

Pea

A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...

s to be used for pigeons. It expanded into making feed for birds and other small animals, becoming the first commercial supplier of wild bird seed in 1955.

Long-term employee William Engler, Sr. purchased the company in 1964 and renamed it Kaytee. His son Bill Engler, Jr. took over the company in 1982. Bill Engler, Jr. was named the Small Business of the Year in 1993 by United States President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

. As of 1993, it had 365 employees and had annual sales of about $70 million. At that time it held about 1300 exotic bird species in an aviary in Chilton.

Engler sold the company to Central Garden & Pet in 1997. They renamed the company Central Avian & Small Animal and continued to market products under the Kaytee brand.