EMERGENCY!!!

[Pajarita]

Pajarita has your greys ever pooped like this I really dont think its poop because poop is green not pink.

I also don't see any pink, I see well-formed, medium olive green feces and that's perfectly normal.

I would not use a seed mix that has dry corn in it, the risk of aspergillus is too high for dry corn (I worked for 10 years at a grain company).

[ParrotsForLife]

Pajarita has your greys ever pooped like this I really dont think its poop because poop is green not pink.

I also don't see any pink, I see well-formed, medium olive green feces and that's perfectly normal.

I would not use a seed mix that has dry corn in it, the risk of aspergillus is too high for dry corn (I worked for 10 years at a grain company).

The thing that worries me is that if its poop its soo small.What is aspergillus is it bad.

[Pajarita]

Aspergillus is a fungus that is everywhere in nature but it grows more on grains and, most especially, on corn. When a bird eats something with a lot of aspergillus for a period of time and is under a bit of stress (and all pet birds live under constant stress), the body cannot fight it and the bird gets a disease called aspergillosis which is very hard to cure. But that's not the only bad thing about aspergillus, the other problem is that the fungus produces a poison called aflatoxin which destroys their liver. You can kill aspergillus with heat but cooking doesn't destroy the toxin already produced by the fungus when it was still alive.

[ParrotsForLife]

Aspergillus is a fungus that is everywhere in nature but it grows more on grains and, most especially, on corn. When a bird eats something with a lot of aspergillus for a period of time and is under a bit of stress (and all pet birds live under constant stress), the body cannot fight it and the bird gets a disease called aspergillosis which is very hard to cure. But that's not the only bad thing about aspergillus, the other problem is that the fungus produces a poison called aflatoxin which destroys their liver. You can kill aspergillus with heat but cooking doesn't destroy the toxin already produced by the fungus when it was still alive.

Is there any way to stop it from growing.

[Pajarita]

High heat kills the fungus which stops the production of aflatoxin but, if the grain is old and the fungus has been there for some time (and feed corn has a higher level of it while human grade corn has lower) and has been producing it, there is nothing you can do about it except throw the whole thing in the garbage. It's because of the danger of aspergilus and aflatoxin that I only buy small quantities of seed mix directly from the manufacturer, never feed dry corn, use only human grade nuts and roast them before storing them in the fridge.

[ParrotsForLife]

High heat kills the fungus which stops the production of aflatoxin but, if the grain is old and the fungus has been there for some time (and feed corn has a higher level of it while human grade corn has lower) and has been producing it, there is nothing you can do about it except throw the whole thing in the garbage. It's because of the danger of aspergilus and aflatoxin that I only buy small quantities of seed mix directly from the manufacturer, never feed dry corn, use only human grade nuts and roast them before storing them in the fridge.

Would it make a difference if I took the corn out or would the fungus have started growing on the rest of the food.Can u see the fungus.

[Wolf]

If you suspect the food you are much safer getting rid of the whole bag.

[mikella]

Wondering the same thing as Parrotsforlife - my seed mix has dried corn in it (tiny amount) - should I get something else instead? It's basically a budgie mix, teenie bit dry corn (didn't even realize it was in there for a long time), and safflower seeds that I take out completely and use as treats. Now I'm worried about the corn. What are the symptoms of Aspergillosis? (I'm also going to look it up...)

As for the poop, it looks totally normal to me. My guy's poop looks like that when he eats sweet corn, for example.

[Pajarita]

Well, I think the best thing is to buy a mix without any corn in it. It's just a matter of looking at the ingredients and, if you see corn, choose another one. See, the thing is that the pet food industry is completely unregulated so although you will read everywhere that grains have a shelf life of 3 months, in reality, you don't know if the bag you are buying was actually packaged less than three months before or even if the grain/seeds they put in there were 100% fresh when they packaged it because there are no dates on them anywhere. So what I do is buy smallish quantities direct from the manufacturer and make sure there is no dry corn in there.

And, even with regulation, (as in the human food industry) you can still end up with a product that is too old because I remember years ago in a canary forum there was a member that posted that his hens and babies had developed sores on the sides of their beaks and he couldn't figure out why but, after some questions, it came out that he was using Jiffy mix for corn muffins for soft food so I recommended he stopped immediately and got himself some good ABBA egg food with seeds (they have two kinds but I like the ones with seeds better) instead and the sores disappeared! One needs to be VERY careful of packaged things that contain corn or corn flour.