Holy Crap My Bird’s Favorite Food Changed One Ingredient - Why Was This Not on the Twitterverse?

Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Popcorn update

Friday 3/11/2016 – Dr Byron drained another 8 mL and gave her a shot of Lurpron. Everyday she’s with us is a gift.

I now let her out for an hour twice a day so she doesn’t tire too much and started “millet therapy” which keeps her on the ground (we’re keeping her flighted) and packs a ton of calories to help offset those used in the production of this nasty abdominal fluid production. If you’re not familiar with the story – read this.

Millet floor foraging cockatiel for her health

The green wing macaw blue front amazon rescue caper part 1/2 “Betty Blue, Betty Blue (<-TV show reference) the birds are landing this week end” stay tuned and now back to our regularly scheduledprogramming.

Saturday is daylight savings time

something your bird is unaware of. Your bird’s circadian cycle does not change because of your time zone or some laws that were passed in Congress years ago.

If you’re using a timer controlling the length of full-spectrum lighting please adjust the timer to stay on the bird’s normal light cycle. Please pay attention to possible subtle differences in their behavior which could be potential stress triggers due to the confusing human time system.

They will see you waking up an hour later and coming home an hour later than you did last Monday. This can and will confuse a bird.

file under “who’s counting nuts”?

Good afternoon,

I am getting ready to place another food order with you and had a few questions regarding Goldenfeast Central American Preservation Blend II food.

A few of the ingredients listed on your site, as well as the manufacturer’s site, differ from what is actually on my bag. Not a huge difference but my good didn’t really look like the sample picture nor were there In-shell Georgia pecans. Was there an ingredient change? Thank you,

Shannon B

Catherine’s answer:

Dear Shannon

We put the ingredient panels on our website as a courtesy to customers. Most websites don’t include this information at all. Unfortunately, we cannot keep up with every ingredient change that manufacturers make.

At any time an ingredient list may change. Goldenfeast changes them often as they make their foods in small batches rather than massive amounts like the heavily produced varieties. It would be best for you to contact Goldenfeast directly if you feel the mix was as it should have been. They are very good to deal with and will be happy to listen to you. Toll Free: 800-344-6536.

Thank you for your input.

Catherine

This question made me recently flash on last summer’s nightmare. Actually, it was in the news but not everyone connected the dots

By July of last summer we were out of stock on 33 SKUs of our top-selling bird foods due to the inability of sourcing ingredients. Georgia pecans were a problem. California almonds were another.

Two maybe three of the food manufacturers were also changing packaging. This might not be an entirely accurate telling of the story but when you order a ½ million bags with ingredient panels in January and you end up running out of almonds in April you can

a) throw the bags away and start over

b) do what they do to menus in Chinese restaurants – put somebody in a corner to scratch out the changes on the bags or

c) just let it go knowing this was not meant to intentionally mislead anyone.

Now I want you all to sit in the Lotus position and chant the following mantra “the more change I introduce to my bird the more willing my bird will be to accept change.” In other words the more foods that you offer your bird the more food your bird will accept which could be mighty handy if we run out of your food or you run out of your food while traveling with your bird on vacation or rapidly evacuating with your bird due to a fire flood weather emergency – I can keep going I’m sure you get the point

New subject – For your “off the wall question” person – (she clearly knows me)

I have a unique problem with my current parrot food, Zupreem, large size for a B+G macaw and a AG Timnath. I recently bought a Dyson stick vacuum, which I really love, especially in the bird room.

But my problem is that the large orange balls in the food constantly jam up my vac. It gets very frustrating popping it open to clear the blockage every few minutes. I know a shop vac would be better, but they are too much of a hassle for my health issues, plus, they do not come with Heppa filters. No more asthma attacks when vacuuming.

It figures that neither Bird will eat the orange balls, and tosses them out onto the floor. My three options are:

1. Send back the Dyson – ??

2. Switch to medium sized Zupreem

3. Switch to the Natural Zupreem (lg or med)

I think the best option is to try to get them to eat the Natural Zupreem (lg or med) pellets, (no more wast) but switching them will be a battle, but would it jam up the Dyson as well? Or just switch to the medium sized Zupreem?

I will be placing an order in a day or so, if it is any way possible,if you can send me a sample size or just a handful the Zupreem Natural pellets lg size and a few of the med size Zupreem orange balls. Just enough to toss on the floor and see which works best. I will gladly pay for your efforts, just let me know how much to add to my order

Thank you so much – Barbara P

Hi Barbara,

Unfortunately we have no sample programs in place right now. Yes birds are like autistic children – usually it’s the yellow banana shape that gets tossed but apparently your birds are an exception.

couple of suggestions – fill the food dishes less to maybe one third capacity and the birds may stop being so selective with a smaller food source.

You could also lower the food dishes to the bottom of the cage instead of using the dishes in the feeder doors. More food will fall through the grate to the tray and less will fall on the floor.

and I’m not trying to be cute here but have you thought about a broom and dust pan?

mitchr

Ticket #3145: Sue P

Took my 24 year old Grey in to see a vet who sees exotics. The Grey plucks seems a little worse this year. Vet did physical, blood work, X-ray. She told me to start antibiotics for 2 weeks, also a heart medicine said that my baby’s heart is slightly enlarged and somewhat erratic. Now wondering if this is the right thing.

Dear Sue

we are sorry your grey is not well. Yes, please move forward with the care your vet recommends. We would never want to delay treatment and would accept treatment if suggested by Dr Brron for our own cockatiel Popcorn.

Mitch said he will get back to you further as soon as he is able to.

The best for your grey – Catherine

my turn

My first question – is she an “avian” vet? What are the antibiotics treating? What is the bird’s weight? Is it within an acceptable range for Timmy)?

How did she determine the erratic heartbeat? If you ever tried to listen to a birds heartbeat, it’s beating so fast (think drumroll) it’s impossible to count which is why it is usually listened to while the bird is under anesthesia and the heart has slowed down.

A bird can have a heart murmur – what your vet is speaking about I believe is called arrhythmia which is an abnormal rhythm. African grey parrots are more prone to Atherosclerosis, (plaque build up inside blood vessels).

Generally besides the blood tests and x-rays an echocardiogram or electrocardiogram or special dye can be done to truly study the heart and blood vessels. Was the bird tested for Chlamydophila aka Psittacosis?

As for the plucking have you looked at it holistically? In another words how is the cage set up, look at the ALL the perches especially the sleeping perch would should be soft. What’s it’s diet? What’s the daily light cycle and so forth?

Feel free to forward a picture of your cage set up for an eval and please respond to any questions below in the comments so we can all benefit from your experiences.

Written and Apprved by the Windy City Parrot Content Team

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