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Urgent One of my Budgies has diarrhea and I don't know which one!

PunLover

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In my main cage of 4, one of my birds has a loose, very gooey light brown poop. I woke up to it and they were already active so I have no idea which one! Should I remove the cage above? The cage on top has Chatterbox, who does not have diarrhea. I gave them a new food last week, and it has some unknown small black seeds in it. They weren't touching them but I guess one of them had a go and got sick... It's the only thing that's changed. I know they can die of dehydration extremely quickly. What do I do? I have removed their food and the bridge which had a big pile on it. I had started cleaning their cages and the stuff just smeared into the shoe brush I use to knock off the poop with a thick gooey consitancy. I'm sorry I can't post pics...
I do not have their usual seed and they won't eat the pellets/veggies on their own, but I do have millet sprays. I have to wait a while for the shops to open and stuff. Do I give them their millet? I don't want to dehydrate the one that has it further, but I also don't want to starve them, given how small they are. They've almost finished their latest moult, nearly no pin feathers left. None of them have anything stuck to their vents or other signs of illness, either.
 

PunLover

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Chatters did a motion like she was trying to poop and nothing happened.
 

Tiel Feathers

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How many droppings seemed off? Was it just the first morning poop? What brand is the new food? Could it be from a female? I would still feed your birds. Are they eating and drinking? If it’s just a few droppings it doesn’t necessarily mean they are sick.
 

PunLover

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It was a lot of poop, and the bird dude that's the closest thing to an avian vet took a look at the pic I was able to bring him (stupid pics can't transfer onto the computer for some reason) and he said the crap seed I got has stuff like Granola seed in it and that did it- the colour wasn't the bad infection poop, and he gave me some extra vitamin supplements to add to their water to help them recover. The bad seed is gone. It was definately an entire overnight pile.
 

PunLover

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To clarify the bird dude is an old professional bird breeder/conservationist who's one of the owners of the good pet shop here, and the only one with things like bird antibiotics and bird supplements. They make their own seed mix that looks nothing like the store bought stuff, I just can't get there sometimes to get some as I can't drive yet.
 

PunLover

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This is the crap seed. I took a very good look this morning and some seeds are older, more rotten versions of the others and there was some mould in it. When I get a box or bag of food I usually immediately transfer it into a sealed pouring container meant for things like cereal, to protect it from roaches and keep it fresh, as I did with this bad seed. You had to look closely to see the problems given that the seed was pretty rough and broken as it was. Never buying it again... I've already lost one budgie before to mislabled cockatiel food (blocked crop, didn't know how to break open some seeds and swallowed whole) and I don't want to lose another. There's no pet food regulations here in Australia. ;=;
 

Shezbug

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What is granola seed? I only know of granola as a cereal made from rolled oats and other ingredients.
 

PunLover

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I meant Canola, which is on the ingredient list there, along with shell grit. I have not slept and I've gone from scared and panicked to really pissed off at this seed.
 

Shezbug

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This is the crap seed. I took a very good look this morning and some seeds are older, more rotten versions of the others and there was some mould in it. When I get a box or bag of food I usually immediately transfer it into a sealed pouring container meant for things like cereal, to protect it from roaches and keep it fresh, as I did with this bad seed. You had to look closely to see the problems given that the seed was pretty rough and broken as it was. Never buying it again... I've already lost one budgie before to mislabled cockatiel food (blocked crop, didn't know how to break open some seeds and swallowed whole) and I don't want to lose another. There's no pet food regulations here in Australia. ;=;
I have had to use that brand of seed before and it has never caused diarrhea for my birds so I would be thinking if you are certain it is the seed that maybe you have a batch that has been contaminated somewhere somehow- actually, I bought that brand both budgie and the one you posted about a month ago when I was running low on the food I get from the stock feed and I just mixed it in with the other seed when I picked that up so my little guy is still eating it at the moment.

Edit: We do actually have pet food regulations here, just like all other countries what is allowed and deemed safe for pets is not the same standards as what is deemed safe for humans.
 
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PunLover

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As I said, there was some older clearly bad seeds in there along with actual small amounts of mould. It also smeels weird. I usually get Trill if I'm in a bind.
Also as my stepdad has been a trucker he knows from experience how easy it is to accidentally contaminiate a load or even a silo.
 

Shezbug

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I meant Canola, which is on the ingredient list there, along with shell grit. I have not slept and I've gone from scared and panicked to really pissed off at this seed.
unfortunately a lot of bird seed mixes contain seeds that we may not prefer to feed- any wild bird mix or larger bird seed mix I have ever bought is always filled up with sorghum and I have yet so witness a bird actually eat that :(
I have been buying a trying some seed mixes from online stores and they are a little better than you find in the supermarket but not a heck of a lot better. I am trying to find another local grain store or healthfood store to buy from as the postage makes buying seed online very very costly.
 

Shezbug

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As I said, there was some older clearly bad seeds in there along with actual small amounts of mould. It also smeels weird. I usually get Trill if I'm in a bind.
Also as my stepdad has been a trucker he knows from experience how easy it is to accidentally contaminiate a load or even a silo.
I actually know many people who work at Graincorp and I can assure you that Contaminated silos get dumped- it is law and the seeds are tested in more than one lab... Big problem when it happens and tbh often some of the contaminated seeds are bought buy China, I do not want to know what they make with it.

Your contaminated seed would have happened at the supermarket most likely or even at your home. It sucks but it happens.

Hopefully your birds will be ok and you can start them on a fresh batch of seeds.
 

PunLover

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Sorry if I'm posting too much, again, no sleep and still very much Autistic- my mum rants all the time about the bad/non existant pet food regulations here as she keeps a close eye on recalls on dog food, our little sausage dog is allergic to wheat and can't have fat because of pancreatitis. I have no idea how to actually fact check information on the internet so I have to just rely on those around me, I may communicate well but I am still level 2 Autistic, so not actually high functioning. I'm certain it was the food given that it's literally the only change in their environment, and they're indoor birds next to a window that can only be opened in the Winter because of Midges. I have no idea which one it is, there's 2 boys and 2 girls that have never been in breeding condition. But, I woke up to an entire inch mound as usual where each bird sleeps, but one of them was that diarrhea. The mix made by that pet shop is put together by Wayne the bird guy, flies off the shelves so it's always fresh, and he's one of the people who sits at the front table in the bird club meetings. There's a lot of experience and knowledge there, thankfully, but it's still all the way in town. All 4 birds have their normal appetite, and their cage is never out of water. At sunrise they wake up and start moving around, Chitters was even eating when I took the blanket off, and with clean vents there's just no way to know which one it is... I have a 3 year old male English Budgie, 2 4 year old females, and a 7 year old male in there.
My stepdad was a truck driver decades ago, but one time he had his load tested and it went into the hopper where he was delivering it and at the very bottom of the load alarms started going off- bad stock in the bottom of the trailer, and they had to hit an emergency stop and start shoveling it all out by hand. He was telling me about it this morning when we were looking thoroughly at the seed. It is bad seed that had started to get mould. Might have been on the shelf too long, no idea, the bins went out yesterday with the box.
 

Shezbug

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Sorry if I'm posting too much, again, no sleep and still very much Autistic- my mum rants all the time about the bad/non existant pet food regulations here as she keeps a close eye on recalls on dog food, our little sausage dog is allergic to wheat and can't have fat because of pancreatitis. I have no idea how to actually fact check information on the internet so I have to just rely on those around me, I may communicate well but I am still level 2 Autistic, so not actually high functioning.
Just incase you were interested...



Pet food standards are not anywhere near as high as they are for human food but the manufacturers still have to follow certain guidelines under the Australian Standards laws so they do not make our pets sick or outright kill them (which is why they have mass recalls when there is an issue that has been identified) and also so we do not chance getting sick when handling the product or feeding our pets the pet food. Gross I know, but believe it or not, some pet food companies actually hire humans to taste test the wet foods- so it can not all be made with no standards at all.

I was once part of a huge survey company who sent out various products to get real reviews about preferences on varying products and I recall getting a whole heap of cat food (for my cat obviously lol) and the information given about the food was that although it was not yet on the market we could be well assured it was totally safe for our pets to actually consume and that certain products and flavors had already been removed for not passing scent, texture and taste requirements by the manufacturing company's testers... humans tested the cat food before it was sent to cats to be eaten o_O:eek:
 
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