IndianRingNeck.com

Has certainly been a while since I have posted and I do apolgise for that.

The past week my beautiful boy Wasa has just not been himself. He has been constantly sleeping, head dropped, and has lost alot of weight.

He is wormed regularly and he is our pride and joy, but he is just so sick and it is breaking my heart.

We have taken him to 2 vets - the first only wanted me out of the room, so he jabbed my baby with a needle and gave me some anitbiotics to feed him without really looking at him. After a few days of no results and coming home to him yesterday and noticing vommit in his cage, I took him to another vet.

The vet looked over him, and had a look at the vommit and said that he is sifting through his seed and only eating out the ones he likes (of course sunflower seedc and millet) and he is sick because of it. He still eats alot of fresh frut and veg, but the seeds got him.

We have changed him straight over to pellets and straight away he has taken to them. My husband and I pretended to eat them, because everything we have Wasa wants, and he has eaten quiet alot of them. We are also force feeding him electrolytes and glucose 4-6 times a day to give him some form of vitamins.

I just wanted to let everyone know that even though your baby hasnt gotten sick of a seed diet yet - more than likely they will.

CHANGE DIET NOW BEFORE YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH WHAT WE ARE GOING THROUGH. My heart breaks everytime I look at my little man, and cannot help but feel he is sick because of me..

Heya, glad to see that your bird is on the road to recovery.

You will always get birds who get that crazy craving for certain seed diets, just like you get people who are addicted to certain kinds of food.

Its not limited to seed, it can be reflected on almost any kind of food that bird particularly loves.

A 100% pure seed diet is very very bad in the first place.

I dont use pellets for a few reasons, but mostly the fact that I have never had a problem feeding my guys a well ballanced diet... purely pellets isnt a fix, its just easier, and you still have to maintain all the fruit and veg needs.

I get my boys and girls randomly blood checked each year to make sure they are at their peak health etc... and they always come back pretty much bang on perfect for avian housed flocks.

They wont 'more than likely' get sick from a seed diet unless its a seed only diet. It was bad luck on your account your bird became so strongly focused on a certain type of seed and its great now that its on the path to recovery.

Key with everything, find out what your birds like, try not to reinforce that desire as a main source of food and variety is key. Rotation of feed types can also be interesting for your birds.

I personally wouldnt go changing your happy birds diet if its doing them healthy results and happy results for fear of problems that 'may' stem... its like wrapping up kids in bubble wrap their entire lives. However... you CAN keep a diligent eye on each and every thing that goes on with their feed and behaviour and nutrition.

As with everything, birds are like people in tastes etc, they know what they like, and will 'given the ability' gorge on that one thing and ignor the rest. These are all things bird owners and breeders alike have been working around and with for years and will never cease.

EDIT: forgot to mention, its always a good idea to actually mix your own balance of seed into various mixes, leaving out key problem seeds as well... and very carefully add them to your mixes, paying attention to amounts etc.

Wasa will not have a full pellet diet, I only posted to let people know just to really take note of what their parrots are eating. Make sure they are getting a full range of seed and pellets along of course with their fruits and veges which Wasa never goes without.

I guess what I really wanted to say in my round a bout way was that I thought Wasa was eating all different seeds and mixed with fruit and veges and the occassional treat of pasta and egg etc he was getting a balanced diet. However he was infact only eating 2 varieties of seed out of the entire mix. So just take an extra couple of seconds a day and a tiny bit more attention and hopefuly I can save someone else from having a sick parrot.

Yeah, they can be crafty little devils, and to be honest, often quite stubborn heh.

Just an update - The boy is back to his normal self and I am loving every minute of it lol

Chewed remote controls, shredded paper, screaming - ahhhh the bliss of owning an irn