bird poo?

[JLcribber]

With all the listeria, E. Coli, and salmonella scares that pop up all the time in the United States on produce, vinegar is an easy way to help combat these bacteria.

I'm not at all a germophobe. I agree that some bacteria is beneficial, however the ones I mentioned are obviously not worth the risk. I don't sanitize all my bird surfaces every cleaning. But a vinegar wash helps keep my family safer. Organic produce is not any safer when it comes to foodborne pathogens.

I'll second. I'm not at all a germophobe either. A little dirt is good for you. I keep the birds environment clean. I don't sanitize any of it. Moisture is a breeding ground for many bad things. Having a "dry" environment hinders these kinds of things. Yes we must keep an eye on things like E coli and such.

None of my birds have ever had bacterial infection (knock on wood) so don't have much advice.

 

[AmyJas]

Yes, I use it no matter what. I've read that birds are gram negative bacteria & as humans we are positive. (I've personally never researched it tho)

Buddy, my Zon, got salmonella contamination/infection his first year w/ us. I think it may have been my fault because I was using sponges, that I was not aware @ the time are impossible to kill all the bacteria that are in them. My vet was pretty sure it was from the fresh foods he was eating. She said in the spring & summer it's the most common infection a bird gets. I will add, I also wasn't cleaning the fresh w/ vinegar & H20 as I didn't know what I know now.

This is what I do know now... Just sitting in a transport vehicle, sitting @ your local markets, or a holding area in the grocers a bad piece of produce can contaminate a good one (organic or not)


That 1st visit & the antibiotics & materials to treat the infection cost me almost $500. Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, that included the follow-up visit, so 2 in total.

This is a good point to be careful of cross contamination in sponges you are using for your birds! I don't think I will use vinegar, because I don't even do so for myself, but I agree that it is important to wash most produce very well in our day and age. Though if I know exactly where produce is from, such as freshly picked from the community garden down the street from me, or from my family members' gardens, I am less cautious because I know that fresh food grows in the dirt and is always full of living organisms and can never be sterile. That's how it should be. Our attempts to sterilize our foods and increasing detachment from fresh food is a large reason for why so many people have issues in gut flora today. I personally have digestion issues myself, which is partially why this issue is important to me.

I can also see where you and others are coming from and appreciate your thoughtful responses. It's important to keep the dialogue open when it comes to the health of our birds and ourselves!

ETA: I'm also sorry to hear you experienced these issues with your birds, Rain. Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

[RadLad]

All those poops are recent, they vary from green to white. Just checked again earlier, it seems like there is more green poop than white poop. All of which are noodle-shaped.

 

[Ripshod]

Remove any cuttlefish bone or mineral blocks from the cage. My tiel went mad on it and pooped nothing but white for a couple of days. Besides, with a good diet it ain't needed.

 

[Lady Jane]

Colors of bird droppings:



Healthy bird droppings can display an array of colors and still be considered "normal." Your bird likely consumes many various types of fresh fruits and vegetables, a multitude of different seeds, and a variety of multi-colored pellets if you supplement your bird's meals with a commercially available diet. The food dyes in these pellets, combined with the natural colors of the fresh foods your bird eats, will naturally produce a rainbow of colors in their droppings.

However, if you notice that your bird's poop is abnormally yellowish or tarry-black, it can be a sign of severe health problems that need prompt veterinary attention.


The white coloring in droopings is urates or urine.

 

[RadLad]

I feed my tiel lots of different seeds, chia, flax, millet and pellets. With the occaisional banana-apple treat and vegetables.

 

[Rain Bow]

I feed my tiel lots of different seeds, chia, flax, millet and pellets. With the occaisional banana-apple treat and vegetables.

Many new bird owners start as you have with more seed & less fresh. Problem is it's not really the best diet for our fids. Your vet will probably recommend the diet that they feel is best for you & your fid. It varies from bird type to bird type. The one thing that I've seen be the most recommended is fresh seed sprouts & veggies & a little fruit, unless its a eclectus or a lorikeet. There may be others but these 2 parrot types, I know are fruit & nectar based.

After that your vet will probably suggest more pellet based food & less seed. I know that w/ teils they... Like most birds their seeds. There's a point where a little is Ok but too much & it's the equivalent of feeding your fid a hamburger a day (to his system & liver). I don't know where this threshold is for your birb type, but a vet will.

If you want to look into growing your seeds into sprouts there's a ton of info in this forum. It's a little more work but so very worth it. I'm able to help but I'm still learning. There's info on bad produce items that can kill your fid here too!

Feathered Food Court | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum

 

[Ripshod]

Many new bird owners start as you have with more seed & less fresh. Problem is it's not really the best diet for our fids. Your vet will probably recommend the diet that they feel is best for you & your fid. It varies from bird type to bird type. The one thing that I've seen be the most recommended is fresh seed sprouts & veggies & a little fruit, unless its a eclectus or a lorikeet. There may be others but these 2 parrot types, I know are fruit & nectar based.

After that your vet will probably suggest more pellet based food & less seed. I know that w/ teils they... Like most birds their seeds. There's a point where a little is Ok but too much & it's the equivalent of feeding your fid a hamburger a day (to his system & liver). I don't know where this threshold is for your birb type, but a vet will.

If you want to look into growing your seeds into sprouts there's a ton of info in this forum. It's a little more work but so very worth it. I'm able to help but I'm still learning. There's info on bad produce items that can kill your fid here too!

Feathered Food Court | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum

Agreed. Wild Cockatiels are granivores and eat mainly seeds in the wild with the occasional fruits for the extra minerals and vitamins. But our tiels aren't in the wild and are nowhere near as active so if they eat a seed rich diet they get overweight along with all the associated health problems. So we 'pad' the diet out with vegetables and pellets to avoid that, and to provide the missing minerals and vitamins. Tau is eating roughly 50% pellets now and his weight is slowly coming back down to the norm - but he doesn't fly at all right now. He's getting a little more protein right now to help his body cope with the moult.

Good read:
Basic Information Sheet: Cockatiel | LafeberVet

 

[Rain Bow]

Agreed. Wild Cockatiels are granivores and eat mainly seeds in the wild with the occasional fruits for the extra minerals and vitamins. But our tiels aren't in the wild and are nowhere near as active so if they eat a seed rich diet they get overweight along with all the associated health problems. So we 'pad' the diet out with vegetables and pellets to avoid that, and to provide the missing minerals and vitamins. Tau is eating roughly 50% pellets now and his weight is slowly coming back down to the norm - but he doesn't fly at all right now. He's getting a little more protein right now to help his body cope with the moult.

Good read:
Basic Information Sheet: Cockatiel | LafeberVet

This spec sheet is really cool! Thanks for sharing!

Isn't it better to have better types of seed in this situation too? More expensive because there's healthier fats to them.

Some of which Rad's stated feeding.

(Ex: Chia, flax, millet) what about hemp hearts? I'm just asking because I'm really trying to make Buddy's diet better & I've learned these are 3-4 really good ones.

I like your new avie! It threw me for a minute.

 

[Hawk12237]

Yes, I use it no matter what. I've read that birds are gram negative bacteria & as humans we are positive. (I've personally never researched it tho)

Buddy, my Zon, got salmonella contamination/infection his first year w/ us. I think it may have been my fault because I was using sponges, that I was not aware @ the time are impossible to kill all the bacteria that are in them. My vet was pretty sure it was from the fresh foods he was eating. She said in the spring & summer it's the most common infection a bird gets. I will add, I also wasn't cleaning the fresh w/ vinegar & H20 as I didn't know what I know now.

This is what I do know now... Just sitting in a transport vehicle, sitting @ your local markets, or a holding area in the grocers a bad piece of produce can contaminate a good one (organic or not)


That 1st visit & the antibiotics & materials to treat the infection cost me almost $500. Unless I'm remembering incorrectly, that included the follow-up visit, so 2 in total.

For the few pennies vinegar costs, you can't be to careful, In my opinion.I

I'm gonna tag a few people I trust & see what they say...

@saroj12 , @Mizzely , @JLcribber and @Lady Jane

Hey rain....for future reference, if you use a sponge, wet it a bit, wring it out and place in micro wave a few seconds till steaming. Guaranteed to kill and nuke all bacteria in it.
Nothing survives a good nuke! heck you can hear the bacteria popping away like pop corn!!

 

[gail the snail]

I leave the veges out for 2-3 hours , sprouts for 3-4 hours, as long as the weather isn't too humid. I only rinse my sprouts with diluted apple cidar vinegar with mother, as apple cidar vinegar with mother has good bacteria in it I think. I also rinse it off , as to not stop the sprouts from growing.

I only rinse my veges in water , for 5-10 minutes in a bowl .. But i guess it can't hurt if you use diluted apple cidar vinegar then rinse it off either.

I use 1:4 ratio of white vinegar : water for spot cleaning the cage and the same ratio for cleaning sprouts once a day , since sprouts are grown at home.

Everyone keeos saying 'sprouts' but I am unsure which sprouts? alfalfa? salad types?

 

[Zara]

Everyone keeos saying 'sprouts' but I am unsure which sprouts? alfalfa? salad types?

Sprouts are sprouted seed, beans and grains
Have a read of this;
Some general info on sprouting .. thought it might be helpful | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum

 

[Rain Bow]

@gail the snail
Don't buy store bought sprouts, due to bacteria & pathogen's. Many of us have sprouting stations in our houses. Mine isn't what I ultimately want but is working till I get the extra $ to buy the speciality steel lids & holders for my mason jars.

 

[melissa68]

When I got my baby he didn't really want to eat anything but the store seed so one morning I made whole wheat toast and eggs, for myself, and sat on the floor next to him (he was out of his cage). I put a few crumbs of toast around him and to my surprise he started eating it! Then I scrambled him an egg and put that down. He LOVED scrambled eggs. So he ate seeds and scrambled eggs with a bit of toast for two days.

I then made some birdy bread- I don't remember the exact recipe but it had flour, corn meal, 1 whole egg (including shell ground up in my personal blender), a cup and a half of chopped up veggies (broccoli, carrots, green pepper), and a cup of ground-up pellets then I baked the bread up. I figured if he liked the toast he would probably like the birdy bread. My plans were to toast it like the whole wheat bread. As soon as it was cool I gave him some to try and he absolutely loved it.

Each day I would get his breakfast and dinner together; I would start with crumbled birdy bread and then add to it; brown rice (loved), barley (really loved), sweet potatoes (nope), pumpkin (nope), fresh spinach (loves), romaine lettuce (ok), corn (ok) etc etc.

Long story short maybe do a search for birdy bread and make some up. You can always top with the seeds to start the bird eating.

 

[gail the snail]

@gail the snail
Don't buy store bought sprouts, due to bacteria & pathogen's. Many of us have sprouting stations in our houses. Mine isn't what I ultimately want but is working till I get the extra $ to buy the speciality steel lids & holders for my mason jars.

Hi. I found the lids at my local health food shop for $6 each. I had some half AG jars as I do alot of preserves and sit it on an angle in a soup cup. Grew really well...now just have to get Charlie to eat them!!

 

[gail the snail]

When I got my baby he didn't really want to eat anything but the store seed so one morning I made whole wheat toast and eggs, for myself, and sat on the floor next to him (he was out of his cage). I put a few crumbs of toast around him and to my surprise he started eating it! Then I scrambled him an egg and put that down. He LOVED scrambled eggs. So he ate seeds and scrambled eggs with a bit of toast for two days.

I then made some birdy bread- I don't remember the exact recipe but it had flour, corn meal, 1 whole egg (including shell ground up in my personal blender), a cup and a half of chopped up veggies (broccoli, carrots, green pepper), and a cup of ground-up pellets then I baked the bread up. I figured if he liked the toast he would probably like the birdy bread. My plans were to toast it like the whole wheat bread. As soon as it was cool I gave him some to try and he absolutely loved it.

Each day I would get his breakfast and dinner together; I would start with crumbled birdy bread and then add to it; brown rice (loved), barley (really loved), sweet potatoes (nope), pumpkin (nope), fresh spinach (loves), romaine lettuce (ok), corn (ok) etc etc.

Long story short maybe do a search for birdy bread and make some up. You can always top with the seeds to start the bird eating.

I made some bird mini muffins(12) Left them on the bench to cool before trying them...came back to find a bite out of one and a very pissed off four year old who told me, my banana ones are much nicer!Ha ha ha. Charlie didnt want them either......

 

[Ripshod]

I made some bird mini muffins(12) Left them on the bench to cool before trying them...came back to find a bite out of one and a very pissed off four year old who told me, my banana ones are much nicer!Ha ha ha. Charlie didnt want them either......

 

[melissa68]

I made some bird mini muffins(12) Left them on the bench to cool before trying them...came back to find a bite out of one and a very pissed off four year old who told me, my banana ones are much nicer!Ha ha ha. Charlie didnt want them either......

bahhahahahhaha

 

[melissa68]

I made some bird mini muffins(12) Left them on the bench to cool before trying them...came back to find a bite out of one and a very pissed off four year old who told me, my banana ones are much nicer!Ha ha ha. Charlie didnt want them either......

In all seriousness though put some crumbled birdy bread out in a dish every day. Top with the food he will eat...even if it's just seed. Eventually he will get a bite of it and will probably like it and then you will be off to the races.

Edited to add; make sure that the crumbles are SMALL. I also find that putting them in a shallow dish or plate is better than in a bowl. Spread the crumbs out. Picture a chicken pecking at the ground (a little bit of food spread out over a big surface).

 

[Ripshod]

Also seriously does your Tiel have a favourite foraging toy? Fill it with bits of the birdy bread. A Tiel won't go through any work then leave what it finds.