Sunny, sun conure

[Pajarita]

She is a 10 year old female (laid eggs in the past) but, although she is doing well in terms of getting used to her new home (she had only one owner since a baby, a young man who is now leaving for overseas), I am worried about her liver because, believe it or not, she was been free-fed Cheerios!!!

The guy said she used to eat pellets before but that he 'heard' that Cheerios were just as good (Ay ay ay!) so that's what she has been getting. I sent him an email today letting him know how she is doing and asking exact details about her previous diet because the answer will determine if she will be OK with a good diet or if she will die from iron storage disease (there is no treatment for it in birds and you only see symptoms prior death). For now, she is getting a seed/nut mixture because she is obviously deficient in protein (her plumage is very raggedy), a vitamin/mineral supplement in her water (but I am not happy with this as it also has iron), a treat cup of gloop (mostly, just to get her used to it) and produce (she did not touch the leafy greens or the veggies but she did eat her orange yesterday and her pear today). I'll have to wait for his answer to tailor her diet a bit more...

[Chantilly]

Awe I really hope she is fine, Cheerios, I wouldnt even think of feeding my bird that.

[Pajarita]

He hasn't answered me yet - and I do get so anxious about these things... Depending on his reply and what results I get from her blood work, I would either put her down or try to see if I can come up with a diet iron-free -but I don't know whether I will be able to!

[Chantilly]

Is there a human treatment for it?
Each winter m ducks get a vitB3deficiancy so i crush up human tablets and roll it into bread.. I know this is different but if there is some sort of tablet or treatment you can buy to reduce iron for humans you could work out the correct amount for your parrot.. I really hope that things will workoyt for you and your baby, it is a sad situation, but I am sure you will do your best.

[JessiMuse]

There is a treatment in humans, but it requires a phlebotomy, which basically means blood removal. Not sure if that can be done on birds.

[Pajarita]

No, it can't and she has been free-fed the Cheerios for two whole years (I got a reply) so I am not holding much hope for her, poor thing! We'll see what the blood work says...

[seagoatdeb]

Yikes, Cheerios have Zinc in them as well as high Iron content, at least in Canada and ours colud be different from US Cheerios. I really hope she is okay.

[Pajarita]

I doubt she is, Seagoatdeb, but from your mouth to God's ears! And, unfortunately, there aren't even any real tests that will tell us the extent of the damage because the only sure diagnostic tool is a liver biopsy and I don't know if I want to put her through that so I will have bile acids and blood work for iron done and see if we can tell something from it. The phlebotomy could, in theory, be done with birds but I am not sure avian vets are willing to do it because you are supposed to take 1% of blood volume each time and do it something like every other month or so - I'll see what mine says (she is on vacation until Jan/8). I've been doing a bit of research into it and there is so very little... chelation has been tried but with no apparent success (but I think that I will try it anyway), there is an experiment been done with tannins (the birds are given tea to drink) but no results are available yet and, then, of course, there is a super low iron diet but that is really quite hard to do -not that I would not try, of course! She would have to be supplemented with lab made vitamins because she would not be able to eat anything with any significant amount of iron in it and that eliminates a lot of healthy food - plus, all avian supplements have iron! I will take to Michael (ABBA's owner) and see if he can put together a special vitamin/mineral supplement without any iron in it for me - if not, I guess I will have to do it myself by mixing different human ones -there might be a baby supplement with it, I have to check into that. As you can see, I've been thinking and thinking about this...

[liz]

Awe I really hope she is fine, Cheerios, I wouldnt even think of feeding my bird that.

I did. That is until Pajarita got me.

[seagoatdeb]

You are doing the right thing in taking iron out of her diet as much as possible, let us know how she does. I have never heard of anyone free feeding cheerios everyday before, where did her owner hear that was the thing to do? Poor thing must be so nutrtionally deplete too.